A look at a VERY RARE 1938 Baird T18 television chassis....

[@richardwoodwards1202]

I was a TV engineer back in 60s till the early 70s bought back memories, then changed to fixing computers for the last 40 years just retired. Now have time to play in my own workshop.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Enjoy your retirement......keep that soldering iron hot!👍👍

[@jumpstar9000]

Oh that's cool Richard! My dad was as well and his dad had a TV factory here in Yorkshire. Beaumont Television. If I have it right, it was Ambassador Television and then Baird bought them out at some point. Anyway I was brought up in the dark arts myself in the 70s and early 80s and could navigate them pretty well. I certainly remember getting a kick or two from a flyback transformer haha. Like yourself my dad also went more into computers as the 70s came along and I was mostly all computers and software after him. My dad is very much retired now but he still has his workshop full of components. No old TVs though anymore. Probably a good thing!

[@sdcoinshooter]

Do you have a private business? I have a 1949 Model 710, seven inch screen, I would like to have overhauled and get working.

[@clovislyme6195]

I was a Uni lecturer in a very different field, but old enough to remember the TV repair man coming to fix our B&W TV at home in the 60s - here in the UK. I had / have a hobby interest in electronics - but not stupid enough to play with TVs. I did use the technical section of the Uni library out of interest though (1970s) and I recall a publication (monthly maybe) for the repair community. It was good, often amusing, read as front line engineers swapped anecdotes and pooled their experience. Computers (I began on the C64), gave me the opportunity to do some practical work over the years - assembling repairing my own.

[@asdf9890]

Very cool, I’m in IT and have been long enough to have seen the older computers from the early 90s. Some repairs with soldering were still done back then. Now it’s just replace modular parts, and everything is microscopic surface mount components. I would have loved to have worked a few decades ago when they were actually repaired with soldering!

[@lindadavies5298]

My dad was an olg school television engineer he made me laugh when i watch him work him and he told me never touch the lopt line output transformer.also watch him rejuvinate a tube colour by tapping the neck of the tube while using the equipment happy days miss him dearly.

[@pompeymonkey3271]

I did a genuine out-loud "WOW" when you showed the final picture. Loved it.

[@StratKruzer]

Me, too. Didn’t expect it to be that good.

[@CNCmachiningisfun]

Great work indeed. Having stopped my heart, and lungs, when I made a rookie mistake on a tube TV, I can truly attest to how agonising the experience is!

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

It's referred as a "flyback" because it makes you fly back some meters by the jolt of being touched wrongly. But this chassis not even seems to have one (electrostatic deflection?).

[@denisohbrien]

@@cyberyogicowindler2448 think your getting a few things crossed there buddy, on "conventional" tv sets the high voltage is produced by a flyback transformer, yes many many kv but, realistically very low current. for sure potentially deadly if touched, but most times just very decently unplesant. these old sets have an HV circuit more akin to a neon sign transformer (deadly) rectified to DC (more deadly) and then stored in a nice big capacitor (extra especially deadly) .. electrostatic or magnetic deflection has nothing to do with the HV source and is an independent part of the set.

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

​@@denisohbrien Yes, this TV is built like a defibrillator from hell. May be the HV current was made such high to need no closed loop voltage regulator for stable picture size. I thought of electrostatic deflection because he mentioned only 5kV acceleration voltage and the CRT seems to have no (visible) yoke coils.

[@ulicadluga]

In the 1970s, as a teenager, I had a friend who used to pull the high voltage plugs off "live" color tv CRTs, and dragged the "lightning bolt" out as far as possible. Used to scare the wits out of me. He also used to open "crown bottle caps" with his teeth!

[@trsgringo]

Has he been dead for the last 50 years?

[@Blake4625kHz]

Insane and dentures much?

[@MoreFormosa]

damn you’re a genius! I don’t think people who are not in this hobby/industry realize the knowledge needed to bring an old set back to life. Great video! just realized how much I love and miss old tech. I restored a couple of old 1930’s-1950’s tube radios as a kid, then switched to repairing modern electronics, very rudimentary stuff though, looking for what’s burned out, what’s fried, replacing the part. Never had the knowledge to do the level of troubleshooting you showed on this set. swapping parts with diff manufacturers or eras, that takes deep knowledge! About 15 years ago I bought a very rare 6-volt 1952 tube car radio set that is designed to fit the dashboard of very old VWs and Porsche’s. That will be my big project next year, restoring it while we still have analog radio stations available😅

[@bindig1]

Boy, that's a lost art. I was always amazed by the TV repairman. I used to bring my TVs to be repaired up until the late 90s

[@minkymootwo]

I have to say i was amazed at how good a picture it produced at the end. Great work. I've been fixing TVs for the past 30 years but i started long after the era of valves and I've never been near anything like that.

[@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

Modern Tvs are much safer thanks to led & lcd flat screens as these are only 12V & use only a small amount of power compared to those in days gone by & it is safe to assume that old style TVs in days gone by were a major cause of house fires as there were many cases of them exploding & catching fire due to overheating.

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

@@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH ok you're spamming this mental diarrhea all over the place while clearly not having any clue about how modern TVs even work... let alone old ones. Some misinformation reporting is in order here i reckon

[@quantumleap359]

A few U.S. made TV sets in the late 1940s were still using mains powered EHT transformers. The danger, as you mentioned, was so great, they quickly were supplanted by either kickback (flyback) or RF EHT supplies. When projection CRTs became popular, the 25 to 30 kV EHT had to be supplied by RF or flyback circuits and voltage multiplier rectifier tubes. The 405 Hz whine reminded me of the sound of 115 volt, 400 Hz three phase military AC power I worked with back in the late 1960s. Thanks for such an interesting video.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Interesting. I didn't know the US had mains derived EHT. The few US made sets I have use RF style supplies. Thanks for watching 👍

[@kevingleason1051]

The 1946 DuMont chassis RA-101 with a 20 inch CRT, first run, used a mains transformer for HT. Second RA-101 used an RF oscillator power supply for HT. IMO, they were amazing chassis, built like battleships. Info and schmatics on ETF website.

[@G.G.4999]

It was more practical with the flyback than using a transformer. Cheaper and lighter.

[@danielescobar7618]

Tell me about the 400hz 115v so I can go learn about that equip. What did you work on? Aircraft? Radars?

[@-jank-willson]

whats so dangerous about them? Was it risk of electrocution if you touch it?

[@andrewstones2921]

I worked for a short while as a TV engineer in the 80s, I was never great and I was always terrified of the high voltages so I was happy to switch to servicing computers at the end of the 80s which I became rather good at. I never missed working on TVs. I have a great deal of respect for the engineers who worked on the early TVs.

[@gregquinn6827]

Bravo! I used to fix old 50's & 60's TVs I picked up off the street, as a teen in 1968. Dad was a radar guy, so we knew what not to touch!

[@hughoneill9929]

Back in the early '50s I built a 'Vision Master' (I think) from instructions in 'Camm's Comic' - actually F J Camm, Practical Wireless magazine. Had a local tin smith make and punch a very complicated tin-plate chassis from the diagram and most of the components came from a local retailer of ex-WWII military hardware. A great learning curve! It used a metal cone 12" crt. Took quite a while to construct and in the end it did actually work but I never got round to building a case for it all. 405 line picture, so really great detailed resolution!!

[@nychris2258]

Back in the early 50s? How old does that make you?

[@hughoneill9929]

@@nychris2258 I have an Edward VIII stamp on my birth certificate - work it out!

[@grahamrabstaff9766]

That project was called ViewMaster.

[@hughoneill9929]

@@nychris2258 88 but only 31 in Celsius!

[@hughoneill9929]

@@grahamrabstaff9766 Yes, of course it was, thanks for the correction.

[@davidboult4143]

I was hoping for a Baird mechanical tv, with a spinning "nipco" disc, I expect that was hoping too much! Never mind. At school in the 1960's we had a wonderful teacher, who held after school lessons, with special crt oscilloscopes, which he used to explain the principals of the electron beams, and how they were deflected. Degree level stuff for sixth formers! Wonderful inspirational teacher, who had no problem with discipline, because we all just sat there enthralled for all his lessons. He was a Cambridge graduate.

[@josephtome9600]

A high volt source driven straight off the line can put you on the ground. Happened to me at 14 YO. Fell down and threw a fit. Never told my folks till I was old too.

[@adammoss5284]

I got a couple of kV across a thumb once. Didn't knock me down but my goodness it sizzled and I was 'frying tonight'. The wound it made on the pos side took a long while to heal up too. As close to cauterised as I could get I reckon.

[@dennisk5818]

Seeing this power up, it brought back memories of waiting for the screen to come up. Great work. that image looks fantastic.

[@davidmorgan881]

In the late 1960s, I was permitted to have the old early 1950s Murphy family tv in my bedroom. I often had the back off investigating. From your video, I wonder how close to death I came 🤯

[@jimbotron70]

Ignorance is bliss 😅

[@davidmorgan881]

@@jimbotron70 So true 🤓

[@nickwallette6201]

I remember tapping the back of the tube of an old B&W table-top set with a screwdriver, because I liked the sound it made. Some days I do wonder how I'm not sitting on a cloud playing a harp.

[@davidmorgan881]

@@nickwallette6201 Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'Baby Boomers Generation' 🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️

[@nounoufriend1442]

Same here my grandad gave me old 50s tv to use in bedroom in late 60s , always had back off , we watched Apollo 11 moon landing on it at about 3 am (I was 9 years old ) . My dad taught me loads about TV's as he build one in 1950 using ex war department parts " Veiwmaster project in Practical Wireless

[@steam212]

I didn't exactly understand how it worked at first but I sure do think it is a beautiful example of early technology. Great job on the repairs so far, I can't wait to see it again

[@andrewbeer4715]

I worked on this exact same set many years ago, trying out various different CRTs with it, and it ended up with a Mullard MW31-74 at the time. The original Baird tubes were capable of good pictures but had a very short emission life.

[@highpath4776]

Where were these assembled and own badged components made?

[@michaelszczys8316]

Something interesting about this set is where it has ' newer ' parts from 1947

[@kfl611]

Looks great, how wonderful you are able to preserve this set. I hope it continues to be used and enjoyed for many years. Thank you for posting this video.

[@robhoward3835]

Thanks

[@SockyNoob]

Good lord, CRTs are already widow makers. The fact there's a CRT nicknamed the widow maker means it's extra dangerous.

[@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

These are like small nuclear reactors & were a major cause of house fires that were eventually made obsolete by the advent of the LED & LCD flat screens we use today which are much safer as they only use low voltage.

[@ShadowAngel-lt8nw]

@@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH that's the dumbest nonsense ever written. no they weren't "small nuclear reactors", the radiation CRT's emit are miniscule and no, they weren't a major cause of house fires, lmao. Are you demented or do you really think CRT screens were like some fusion bomb that exploded whenever you turned it on? 😂

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

@@ANDREWLEONARDSMITH so much BS in just _one_ sentence

[@SurnaturalM]

​@@ANDREWLEONARDSMITHNonsense. They replaced by LED because the image quality is better, they allows bigger screen, and most important, they're cheaper to make. I remember paying 1k $ in the 80s for a 21' TV. You can have a 75' today for that price.

[@Brookshobbyshop]

Exceptionally rare and beautiful set ! Also, great craftsmanship on your part restoring it to such pristine operation while maintaining the original appearance of the chassis. Bravo sir ! 🏆

[@NeilVanceNeilVance]

I am truly amazed by how good the image looks for this age set. Great job man!

[@rossthompson1635]

Very nice - thank you for sharing this rare set on video (and very wise to prioritise safety over filming!). It seems quite organised underneath, I was expecting it to look a bit more chaotic for such an early set. It is quite amazing to think, 86 years later, we are watching TV in HD (or even 4k) on huge colour flat sceens - we have come a long way!

[@vintagetvandwireless]

As I think I mentioned in the video, these sets were made by Bush, a very high quality manufacturer. I'm sure it looked even needer 80 odd years ago before decades of "fiddling "!

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Neater...not needer

[@monteceitomoocher]

Lovely job, working very well, prewar tv is pretty esoteric stuff as there's so few survivors, must feel a real privilege to get to restore one.

[@highpath4776]

Baird was working with HD colour just postWW2

[@monteceitomoocher]

@@highpath4776 yes, he was, don't know if anything survives of those experiments though.

[@markhodgson2348]

I'm glad to discover you on KZbin its far better than your program on TV 📺

[@induraj8558]

❤❤❤ Very nice CRT that with a Soul .The image on the Screen is Very nice .Colour too is very much appealing. Congratulations

[@markpirateuk]

Lovely old set, as you rightly said, made by Bush. I have only one mains EHT set in my collection (1946 Pye). Certainly wise to be extremely careful, these sets are lethal. Thankfully obsolete as flyback EHT took over in the late 40's

[@adammoss5284]

It's still spellbinding to watch electrons travel a void and land on a phosphor screen. Thank you so very much for sharing this video with us all. Keep up the lovely and very good work.

[@stevesje71]

Well done Rob! Great work as always

[@waynep343]

Mom and Dad had one of the first 500 TV sets in Los Angeles in 1946. Sitting on their sofa watching the TV. They heard a noise outside they turned and looked out the window to find a few dozen neighbors standing outside in the flowers watching tv with them. Yes you may have seen that in a movie or TV show. Dad worked in the Paint industry from 1933 to 1986. In the early 60s dad and my sister were driving on meltose just passing gower street. My sister started stuttering. Dezi Arnez at that point Dezi saw my dad in the car and said. Hi howard. See you at lunch on friday the pink ceramic bird cage from the i love lucy show lived in the living room till 2012

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Wonderful memories. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@SwingBandHeaven]

What a rare and unique survivor. So lucky that you had a suitable replacement crt to go in there.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

I'm very lucky to have a few spare CRTs! Thankfully!

[@BarnabyJones-xy2bw]

Great video loved the tv series

[@prillewitz]

Absolutely fantastic to see that this device still gives a picture! Pity it wasn’t in the cabinet so we could see it in its full glory.

[@pauljanssen7594]

I love them old fashioned TVs and radios, when you get that little shock from them that's when you take the plug out of the wall and turn it 180° and plug it back in and see if you get a shock again.

[@rogervd666gamer]

Wow, great video on this amazing setup. First time I can see almost everything. Looks like an ancient time machine 😂.

[@angrycatowner]

In America, we call that thick red high voltage wire the "flyback" wire. Because if you touch it, you will fly back 5 feet.

[@greg6276]

The flyback transformer is called like that, because it generates high voltage during the flyback period (pulse collapse)

[@MrDuncl]

@@greg6276 Although, as he explained several times, this set doesn't use a Flyback transformer. Thinking about it the power supply circuit is more like one in a Microwave oven.

[@greg6276]

@@MrDuncl Exactly, I just mentioned it for the knowledge

[@richardchambers256]

😆 Been there, Done that! 😆

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

@@MrDuncl ...or rather a defibrillator of doom.

[@nivensmith6043]

Great video and knowledgeable engineer. The widdow maker indeed and very dangerous in the wrong hands. Its amazing how tv sets have progressed from the big bulky sets to what we have now. You cant beat the vintage sets they were built to last and the market is pretty good. Ive repaired a few old Danset record players and smaller old tvs. Enjoyed watching this.

[@foureyedchick]

The thing about CRTs is that factories did an excellent job at pumping out all the air out of the tube and creating a vacuum. However, time is the great equalizer, and over many decades air creeps into the tube. That's why audio work is easier. Tubes are easier to replace, and paper capacitors are replaced.

[@bobmchenry7993]

Nice to see this repair I was a tv technician back in the day but unfortunately or fortunately I never worked on valve tvs I worked on the Philips K9 Philips CTO and tvs around that era so had no experience on valves but back in the day spoke to TV technicians that did work and they saw the transition from valve to solid state but glad to have worked on CRT TV's nice work ❤

[@rrotwang]

Great job Adam Brooklyn nyc

[@rosskelly8268]

Great glimpse of 1) ancient TV, and 2) a top electronics tech at work!

[@paulstubbs7678]

Amazed you had a suitable tube available, that seems to be 'it' for many old sets these days

[@kirishima638]

This is the kind of stuff my grandad worked on. He taught me electronics, soldering, components, valves etc at an early age. No such thing as PCBs back then; everything was soldered directly together in a rats nest of components and bodge wires. And of course everything was analog; multimeters, oscilloscopes, vacuum tubes, which meant you had to wait for component to ‘warm up’, dials to move etc.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Golden days! 👍

[@drmaasden]

It's amazing seeing those old-style resistors with the "body-end-dot" colour code in a TV set!

[@Wenlocktvdx]

Takes me back to watching TV on London on a Bush TV125/U dual standard set.

[@ibanezleftyclub]

My electronics teacher in the 90’s was a retired tv repair man who learned it in the navy and started working in that field after the war. I remember him telling me of stories of him witnessing guys literally thrown across the room working on sets like these.

[@myleft9397]

That was awesome. Some of the KZbinrs I watch repair old computers, so I guess that's why KZbin recommended your channel? I love it. Liked. Subscribed. It would be great to see you unpacking and repacking a capacitor.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Welcome aboard!

[@albear972]

WOW! I thought I was very keen on all early TV information, and honestly this is the very first time that I have ever seen or heard that Baird was also involved in electronic TV. Even as a young teen in the late 80's I knew that Baird was only involved in mechanical television. It's true, that you learn something new every day. And this is a very cool thing to know.

[@eddjordan2399]

The TV of theseus. Very cool.

[@michaelhawthorne8696]

I did my City & Guilds in B/W TV repair between 81-83. We had 20 TV's to practice on from a lot of eras. I remember we had a Ferguson TV (No17😊) which was exactly like the one we had at home...😏 We also had another from a much earlier era which was wired similar to your TV here (No1). All point to point components on tag strips, no PCB's. 🙄 We had the circuit diagrams and this last old TV had a pictorial print where you could actually see the physical layout of the components, not re-prints, actually service manual. To work on it, you had to tip it up on its side to get to the components. Some TV's were designed with live chassis, they were fun and you had to be very careful, just like yourself on your TV. What we have now are a whole world away from these old ladies......

[@8546Ken]

Our first TV was a 1949 Hallicrafters 7" with a plastic magnifier. It used an RF EHT. I eventually rebuilt t as an oscilloscope.

[@HiVisionary1125]

My copy of "Television Simplified" by Milton Kiver, 1948, discusses primarily RF and flyback EHT circuits. The remark is that, because of the small capacity of the tube (which itself serves as the smoothing cap in such circuits), accidentally grounding the supply through yourself won't actually injure you, but it will cause your arm to jerk, and you'll drop your screwdriver into the chassis and damage something!

[@michelb4014]

Interesting video for me, I am restoring one at the moment and my Cathovisor tube is also worn out, I can barely see something in a complete darkness. I should pick-up soon a MW31 tube, I started to work on the modification.

[@DavidSimons-ss5kn]

Did I imagine it or did I read once that Bairds first crude experiments involved some kind of part mechanical apparatus presumably involved in beam deflection? In the 60's I was never happier than when my dad took the back off our b&w (Ekko?) with it's fascinating components & glowing valves. That & our Sobell tranny radio followed by Philips & Eagle electronic kits are likely what started my lifelong interest in electrics & electronics.

[@simonbone]

1:46 Not sure how many TV repairmen actually died - but I do recall reading this was why many prewar sets didn't survive, because technicians preferred to break them up rather than repair them.

[@MrAsBBB]

Just found this channel and subscribed. Looking forward to this.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Welcome aboard!

[@KarrierBag]

I have on my boat a 1938 radio kit built into a wooden box (no parts supplier name), my dad is trying to find out , also an Ultra Transistor Six TR100 Radio from 1958 and a 1961 Roberts radio R200. My dad was a TV / Radio engineer in the UK from the mid 50's and through to the early 2000's, my parents bought the TV sales / repair / rental shop from his employer in the late 70's, I grew up with my 2 brothers seeing all the new tech way before my friends did, Betamax and VHS wars for example and when most could only get 3 TV stations to watch, we could get 4 by my dad sorting out an aerial on a high mast to get a City of London only commercial station which made friends very jealous.

[@BrumAdam]

What an interesting set. It must have been hugely expensive when new and that may explain why it survived? Totally agree that you don't want to be messing about filming with such a dangerous voltage present.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

www.radiomuseum.org/r/baird_t18_short_console.html Here's a picture!

[@niek024]

​@@vintagetvandwirelessTo me, the old-fashioned cabinet immediately turned this marvel of technology into a sad and boring bit of Victorian furniture. I would prefer to have a more modern steampunk housing designed for it. So it's maybe for the better that I don't own one :-)

[@Initial_Gain]

Was in the TV field also, now retired. Never seen such an old set and never knew that such a type of EHT existed. I wonder if there were circuit-breakers back then. If not, it was the electric-chair. I got surprised at the end to see such a good picture with a grand grandpa set! Does anyone know around how much were produced? Did they sell only in the UK or all around the globe? Thank you very much for such a super rare video. 👍 🇲🇹

[@MrDuncl]

"Televisions were an uncommon sight before the Second World War, with only around 20,000 sets in Britain." The only TV transmitter was in London. While other countries were experimenting with TV they would be using their own companies e.g. RCA. About a decade ago there was a fascinating TV programme which at the end speculated that the reason the U.K. put so much money was into in TV in the 1930s is that it shares many techniques and components with RADAR. One of the first successful prototype RADAR sets was made by converting a TV. During the war the TV transmitter in London was used to decept German navigation systems.

[@1mmickk]

Its the most amazing and terrifying machine. Now I know why we were told to never play with an old TV.

[@dzonikg]

They told me also but i still did it.I had grandmother old black white TV in my room and when i was 14 years old i soldered long wire around picture tube to get more bright picture .

[@janetcohen9190]

An early Tely, Baird and a very rare one, restoration. Interesting. Thank you.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@bernardquasaar1254]

Great video. Always wondered what everything was as a kid looking into electrical stuff like TV boxes and stereos. The solid state components many not perform as well as digital stuff but they were so mysterioius. I always wondered if someone knew what everythingwas and what each component did

[@Slartyfartblarst]

In my teens I had a play with a colour TV. I knew it was dangerous, I decided not to continue after seeing St Elmo's fire appear around the tip of my screwdriver.

[@BerlietGBC]

Outstanding work

[@Hooftimmer]

Excellent work! Appreciate your attention to detail and leaving some old decoys in place. What possible programming was available in 1938?

[@8546Ken]

That hum on the raster looks like it could be caused by the magnetic field from a power transformer. I saw that on my oscilloscope conversion. I re-oriented the transformer.

[@johanlaurasia]

Amazing...

[@mikethespike7579]

I remember my dad having a box of reserve valves for whenever one needed replacing in our TV set, wireless radio or music centre. It was quite normal to go into town to buy a valve if need be. Things those days also seemed to last longer. Our first TV lasted 20 years and was still going strong when it was replaced by a colour TV with a fancy remote control. Much of present technology doesn't seem to last past 5 or 6 years these days.

[@kaasmeester5903]

I don't know if it lasted longer, but it certainly was easier to repair. As a kid I had a summer job working in the repair department of a local appliance store, testing equipment after it was repaired. Either by the manufacturer or by the sizable in-house repair shop. If your appliance broke down, you brought it to the store and paid the €50 (in today's money) up front "diagnosis fee", to be deducted from the total bill later if you went ahead with the repair. Most people were happy to pay since a repair would almost always be cheaper than a replacement. It's a lot less common these days and many repair shops closed up. Others took their place, especially for cell phones. And some manufacturers make repairs easy as well, my Litter Robot (a self cleaning litter box for cats) is over 15 years old and still going strong, thanks to the manufacturer providing spares at reasonable prices, and making the replacements straightforward. Roombas are similarly constructed, with the parts that break most often easily removed and replaced. But in a lot of other areas, it's not as good. Repairing a modern TV is all but impossible. Another thing is monolithic components, like head or tail light units on modern cars. In the old days if a bulb went you replaced it. Now, if the LED lighting or driver breaks, the entire unit needs to be replaced, often costing hundreds of €s.

[@mikethespike7579]

@@kaasmeester5903 My late dad, grew up on a farm and saw his first electric light when he was 18, was for sure not the most technically minded. But he soon figured out how to repair a faulty TV. He just looked at the valves, the one that didn't glow or glowed too dimly, was the one to replace. Sometimes it was just too much dust inside the TV which he cleaned out and it went again. Apart from the valves and the tube, there wasn't much else that could go wrong with the things. Modern TVs now have one single printed circuit. It's nearly always that that fails. They can be fixed, but finding out what element is bust can take a long time. So most people just buy a new TV. Not really any different to mobile phones. That cars are designed the way you describe is the reason I'm still hanging onto my trusty 14 year old Ford Fiesta. It cost me just 15 euros to change the bulbs in the head lights.

[@dzonikg]

@@kaasmeester5903 In my room i had grandmother old black white TV that was around 25 years old (my mother watched moon landing on that same TV) ,had it until late 80s (i even had computer connected to it ) when i finally got color TV in my room

[@dzonikg]

@@mikethespike7579 I payed 1200 euro (like 1300$) for 2 back lights on my BMW when one light strip in them died,at first i wanted to fix them but every repair shop refuse to fix it and told me to buy new.My first car was 1987 Yugo,you had spare bulbs that came with a car so i actually never payed anything for a bulbs .And is crazy how much parts cost for new cars.for same BMWs i payed 2000 euro for injectors ,its like they are not made from metal but from gold

[@mikethespike7579]

@@dzonikg I advise keeping well away from any BMW. They are nice to look at and very comfortable, but are otherwise a money pit. My neighbour has a BMW, he's a car mechanic, so you'd think he has it easy servicing his car. But that is not the case. He wanted to change the spark plugs and found out that he had to buy them at 5 times the normal price directly from BMW. Identical ones from anywhere else don't work because they are missing a chip that identifies it as proprietary BMW.

[@mick_hyde]

Impressive picture. 👏👏👏

[@chrisst8922]

We had a McMichael set. Lovely piece of furniture.

[@gantmj]

Nice, high-pitched squeal at the end.

[@shadowflash705]

High voltage was the *least* of the problems with early CRT TVs. Early CRTs had no implosion protection whatsoever. You drop the tube and it will be almost like a hand grenade going off. All the glass shards flying across the room.

[@Youtubecensoredmyusername]

How did that 90 year old cardboard not snap in half being unbent like that? Amazing

[@vintagetvandwireless]

It appears to be wax impregnated....I was amazed too!

[@mrbusdriversir]

Beautiful!

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

Keeping one hand in your pocket is usually a good strategy when doing this kind of thing.

[@philipmcdonagh1094]

I've ended up on the other side of the room with old C.R.T's on many an occasion and I'm still here. They where more likely to burn your house down than electrocute you. But they where fun. I wouldn't know how to start repairing the modern stuff, its all throw away today.

[@roberthart8933]

The picture on this set is surprisingly good. I suspect that viewers never saw such good picture back in 1938 because the tv cameras weren’t as good as the video generator you are using. I’ve heard of the mains eht but never seen one till now. Really dangerous!, A 0.1 uf cap at 5kv would hold around 2 joules ouch !

[@andyseaward8816]

Got my first major electric shock off of a b&w TV: 70s rental, carbon voltage-tap thingy right at the top, exposed. Guess I shouldn't have touched it. Always thought TVs were an unacknowledged source of radiation: when repairing colour sets as a repairman, the LOTs were pretty powerful, much amusement with a screwdriver held near it... Recently found out that American scientists had the same thought.... TV safety standards were introduced in the days of B&W small screens watched for just a few hours a day: not colour sets watched for hours on end for a whole lifetime. The research was done in 1966. Irrelevant now, I guess. Like Apple Retina screens... I left tech college in the late 70s, got bored when they started teaching us about Boolean algebra etc. Something about the coming digital age.... Damn!

[@davidcole2899]

My god when I was a kid 14 and younger I remember going in old sheds ect and finding loads LOADS OF THIS STUFF VAVLESand conducts ect 😢 wish I'd saved them

[@ricardlupus]

Nice video. I haven't thought of it before, but obviously when you are using the front camera on your phone, the resulting image is mirror image. Wouldn't normally be a worry, but it becomes obvious if you're filming the print on a component for instance.

[@EzekielBrockmann]

So cool!

[@G_Paradize]

That high-pitched frequency we can hear starting at 18:09 is so annoying but so reminiscent of my childhood.... 😅

[@gold27b]

Your hearing must be good. I’m 70 and unfortunately can’t hear up that high.

[@stephenfreeth7593]

could you fit a modern low current EHT generator in the dangerous EHT transformer box , , there might be enough space keeping the disconnected transformer to keep it original , maybe a neon transformer from the Bay

[@billharris6886]

A fascinating piece of television history! Being in the US, I have seen some British TVs from 1936 onward but, never a Baird. The picture quality is amazingly good, I assume this TV is using the 405 line system? 2 uF at 5,000 volts is a huge amount of charge, no surprise as to the lethality. You may not need that much capacitance if an R/C Pi filter is used. I assume the CRT anode current is microamps? As far as electrocution safety goes, you might want to build up a quick discharge circuit I designed years ago for assembly line testing of high voltage pin diode switched filters. It would disconnect the mains by energizing a disconnect relay and used large power FETs to discharge any supply with lethal voltages. The discharge circuit was activated by voltage sensed on the static discharge strap. The supplies were discharged so quickly, you could never feel a shock. Although, the power supplies in question were only plus and minus 200 Vdc, 5 kV may be a different story.

[@dlarge6502]

This isn't a 405 line TV. It is a Baird TV using the worlds first TV system invented by John Logie Baird who was the first in the world to demonstrate and transmit a TV image. It is 240 lines. The BBC had a competition between this system and the 405 line Marconi system in the 30's with Marconi's system winning and Baird's system being dropped in 1937. Baird is considered the father of television.

[@billharris6886]

@@dlarge6502 Thank you for your response. I am quite familiar with John Logie Baird's work on the electro-mechanical, 30 line television, up to the format contest with EMI/Marconi at the Alexandra Palace in November 1936 but, not much afterward. I know Baird dabbled with electronic television afterward but, I am not up on his accomplishments. The resolution on the CRT looked so good in the video, I wondered if it had been modified for 405 lines. When that television was designed, I think they were trying to use the HF band to run video; a definite limitation. Another limitation at that time was the lead parasitics of the high frequency valves, which limited maximum frequency to about 30 MHz. In the US, the Loctal base was developed in the mid 1930's to address the problem and I believe the UK had a similar valve base. At any rate, a very interesting history.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

I can assure you it's 405 line...100% The format war was over by then, and 405 had been decided as the standard. The last 240 line TX was in Jan 1937.

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Thanks for commenting, it is 405 lines, though. The 240 line standard was stopped in Jan 1937. 👍👍

[@billharris6886]

@@vintagetvandwireless Thank you, I greatly appreciate your response, restoration efforts, and making the video.

[@pjbth]

Its funny that right from the get go electronics brands were always just repackaged lego parts from other suppliers and yiu would end up with the same parts in different cabinets from different brands

[@DrBovdin]

When you said that you restuffed the capacitors, did you reconsistute the originals, or did you fit a modern capacitor within the old package and then sealed it up for modern “quality” but in a period correct package?

[@vintagetvandwireless]

Sorry it wasn't clear. The old capacitor casing is refilled with modern polyester capacitors and resealed.

[@DrBovdin]

@@vintagetvandwireless thank you for the reply. That makes perfect sense. I guessed that that was what you meant. If you really _had_ managed to reconstitute the originals I would have been mightily impressed, and asking you which electric demon you sold a soul to, and how far one soul goes these days (I guess you get quite a few capacitors of that vintage for that soul, compared to not even one modern iPhone battery) 😉

[@mrdeathgaming1457]

when I was in my early 20's I used to buy tv's from otv in east london to take back to my squat and was never happy with the screen so in my infinite stupidity I used to get a electrical screwdriver and start adjusting the colours on the pcb at the back of the crt whilst playing around with the eht cable running into the back of the tube totally ignorant at what I was doing. if it had some sort of an adjustment screw I'd be in the back with all the humming trying to improve the picture. I knew there was a lot of voltage going on I could feel it as I Probed around in ignorance as I could feel the hairs on my arm standing on end! Someone was definitley look out for me because by rights I should of got a jolt off something and that would of been it for me. What a lucky fool I was 30 years later still alive to tell the tale. Not proud, just thankful I didn't get zapped!

[@Scott.Newmaster]

Even though it's working as is, why can't you put a high impedance 5k power supply from an older copier? It's been done on some of the old Philco tv's from the late 40's that have bad rf type hv supplies. Easy to hide under the chassis.

[@jeanlawson9133]

Awesome 👍

[@mangjitnijjhar1390]

You can use HackTV with a transmit SDR to generate the 405-line signal. I prefer captainjack64's fork because it handles aspect ratios better.

[@martinda7446]

Baird was amazing. He had a lot of bad luck... After the Crystal Palace fire and losing out to electronic TV, he didn't waste much time. Do you have any knowledge on his experimental colour 1000 line experiments? I believe he was experimenting with working systems in the post war late 40s period. That was only 50 years ahead of its time...

[@MadMal2024]

I opened this Video expecting to see an actual Baird MECHANICAL tv. the set I saw was a Baird BRAND tv... A little misleading; but you are right it is a rare TV. Very few examples survive. Fewer still that are still working. Repairing and restoring equipment as old as this is always fraught with potential disaster(s).. I did my apprenticeship in TV Repair with Rediffusion N.E. Ltd. So know a good deal of what you will probably go through. I remember working on some early stuff for the Rediffusion Cable TV system... The Mk 8 model sets. And one of Ferguson's early 950 chassis from the Dual system sets (VHF/UHF) and getting a belt or two when working on a set with the chassis in the cabinet. So I don't begrudge you what you have to do. Whoever said we had it easy back then... Where have you had your head buried. Keep up the good work.

[@cyberyogicowindler2448]

Rediffusion later made big projection systems for flight simulators, using a very unique combination of scanline and vector graphics (drawn during CRT blanking interval) for highlighted HDR effects (such as runway lamps and plane jet engine flames).

[@bobbisanchez2299]

I would love to see the mechanical TV.

[@MrMaxeemum]

I've worked on CRT TVs in the past, but I am far from an expert. I'm curious, if a CRT is low on emissions, would it be possible to carry out a neck transplant? Obviously a glassblowers input would be required, but for tubes this old and rare, could it be a viable fix?

[@eDoc2020]

I don't know if you can transplant a _used_ neck but it's possible to graft a new assembly. This is what "rebuilt" picture tubes usually are. It used to be a common business starting in the 1950s but the last rebuilder closed shop a bit over a decade ago.

[@niek024]

Thanks for showing this awesome machine. Can you film the tube displaying this specific KZbin video, as a 'tubeception'?

[@PeterLeonard-z9b]

I have a old one on 4 legs. Looks very retro. It was going up to when they went digital.about 1990 in Australia. It was quite amazing to watch. Its called a Pesedent. We bought it in 1962.

[@DavidSimons-ss5kn]

Assuming the 4 volt supply is for the heaters do you know why & when it was decided to change to 6.3 volts (itself quite an arbitrary figure)? I once wound my own transformer which included 6.3 windings btw.

[@Mr.1.i]

You can tell its ancient because its held together with flat head screws that don't reses inside its casing

[@Drewcardello]

And the screen wasnt glued to The mother board

[@Mr.1.i]

@Drewcardello the power supply transformer is the main component before the crt,its about as efficient as a 1800s steam locomotive.......I bet it burned more watts than it could output

[@Pisti846]

I can't imagine too many people could afford that!

[@nlpnt]

On the content side there's the well-known trivium that BBC stopped TV broadcasts "for the duration" of WW2 (often it's added that it was in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and they resumed at that exact point in it. There's a joke about sell-by dates and the Disney Hyperion studio being a supermarket now in there somewhere...) I wonder how the lack of available content for seven years while it was fairly new affected its' survival.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Always remember, these TV's/radios are called widow makers, because, often, they're a series-string (transformerless) set. That means that all the capacitors are wired in series (much like a Christmas 🎄 light set). All the electricity goes to the chassis. If a knob is removed from the front of the radio 📻, and ya touch the metal shaft, ya can receive a very nasty (if not fatal) shock. These sets are very dangerous to work on, even when they're unplugged 🔌. ALWAYS use an isolation transformer. This will dump the voltage ⚡️. Your friend, Jeff.

[@adammoss5284]

@jeffreyhickman3871 Isolating transformers can often be found to 'save your bacon'. If you find one you can't pick up easily it's probably a good one. A variac is another lifetime investment for this game. All the best 👍