RCA CT100 1954 First Color Television Analysis For A Fellow Collector

Quick analysis Of Early commercially available color TV and 15GP22 CRT
Part 2 • RCA CT100 Pt2 CRT TEST...
/ shango066

[@shango066]

Part 2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4OyoIJ7m6x7jJI

[@randynelson2265]

I truly hope this TV finds it's way to a museum one day and can be preserved forever.

[@Suddenlyits1960]

I’m sure the collector he’s helping out is going to give it a good home and restore,preserve and enjoy it.

[@oliverharris7366]

Really I was hoping it will find its way to the dump.

[@ShadowsOnTheScreen]

Nothing lasts forever. That is why we are not reading Babylonian joke books.

[@neilmansfield8329]

@@Suddenlyits1960 this is a great tv

[@neilmansfield8329]

@@Suddenlyits1960 This is a great tv and must preserve these

[@markanderson350]

I just did a wiki, you are 100 percent correct, this cost over a grand in 1954 and only 30 survived today. It goes on to say most crts, lost vacuum. A rare find, highly sought after.

[@russellhltn1396]

That's about $11K in today's money. They're not going to put that in a cheap cabinet.

[@matthew794]

The ETF says there’s more than that. Like 176.

[@markanderson350]

@@matthew794 was impressed with shagos knowledge of such old and rare technology. My uncle had a ctc 25. Had a nice pic when it works

[@PackinStackin]

1000 dollars has to be like 5000 now

[@markanderson350]

@@PackinStackin try 11 grand

[@hestheMaster]

The Merrill , aka the holy grail of color TVs. Less than 42 working sets with a total of 178 still known to exist today. It is equivalent to over $11,000 in today's money. Can't wait for part 2!

[@johndonlon1611]

I had a rich uncle that had one and remember watching "The Cisco Kid" on it. We, as kids, were absolutely forbidden to go near it and God forbid if it got banged into by a vacuum cleaner. Any anomaly and it necessitated a call to the TV repairman. We didn't get a color set until about 1967. It wasn't cheap but nowhere as expensive as that set.

[@directcurrent5751]

Required about twice the antenna elements to load a decent signal strength in vintage color sets. Uncle had some investment!

[@robinsattahip2376]

Turning on the vacuum in front of them was the killer, the magnetic field would screw up the purity and convergence. A running vacuum was usually OK.

[@michaelszczys8316]

A friend that I hung out with in 1960s family had an old 55 RCA that was from his uncles car dealership showroom. By late 60s it was pretty tired and I remember the convergence was way off. It used to look like a black and white with color ghosts. I remember being over at his house when his dad was checking the tubes and had the back off. It had circuitry all around the case. I remember looking at the watt requirement on the tag and it said it took 400 watts to run. Also remember I was at his house when Neil and Buzz were on the moon and getting ready to step out. You want to talk about a messed up picture. After they walked down the ladder we went down to my house and watched on my dad's new crystal clear black and white portable TV. Then we could actually tell what it was. Also had an aunt that wasn't rich but dealt in real estate and had a 59 Cadillac and a very nice color TV from about early 60s. She kept it in perfect order and I remember it had most beautiful picture. Those old CRTs had fabulous pictures, they just didn't last very long.

[@Walkercolt1]

If you watched "The Cisco Kid" it was a DuMont system (Pal System) TV! DuMont championed the PAL system the BBC adopted and UHF channels. The picture was MUCH sharper,clearer, the screens were square edged and DuMont had 46" TV's in 1952 and they weren't "blue and grey" they were really "Black and White". Our best friends had a DuMont when I was about 4 years-old and I loved watching it and the SOUND was incredible too! Almost like stereo!

[@Jay-vr9ir]

@@directcurrent5751 Oh, yes the old colour antenna. My Dad refused to by a colour set , too expensive and too many green faces , he bought one in 74 a Hitachi with remote control and then monthly cable.

[@jerryfacts9749]

CT-100 Color Receiver (CTC-2 Chassis, 1954) Starting March 25, 1954, 5,000 CT-100's were manufactured in RCA's Bloomington, Indiana plant. The set was named, "The Merrill". By mid-April of 1954, the sets were available at dealers. In my younger days I worked for RCA industrial division engineering for TV broadcast. I was also working in their consumer TV division for a while. These older TV sets were not easy to troubleshoot and service.

[@tony--james]

oh wow, this reminds me of watching my 1st Shango066 video back in 2009 or so, of a RCA CT100 !!

[@directcurrent5751]

I've gone back and tried to watch all of his old CRT reels. Classic Americana technology.

[@EdgarsLS]

That 2C39A Eimac is a transmitting triode. as far as I know, Eimac only made tubes for transmitters and other high power applications.

[@pneumatic00]

In 1954 the ink was barely dry on the ntsc standards for transmitting a color signal.

[@gailmrutland6508]

*I am 68. Remember in the mid 1960's working with my Dad taking off the back cover of my Grandmothers old B&W TV she gave us, looking for bad tubes and going to the TV repair shop and using this huge tester to check out the tubes and get replacements. One thing I vividly remember is my Dad scaring the bejezzes out of me about how touching the wrong thing could "Fry me to a crisp" Being the kid I was, he was right to do that as otherwise I might have gone exploring. LOL good old days!*

[@jerryfacts9749]

In about 1968, I bought a used CTC-15 RCA color set. It was made in 1963. I restored it. I changed many of the tubes, some capacitors, and the CRT. I used it as my TV set till about 1975. I gave it away to someone who wanted to keep it as an antique set. It was still working because I maintained it.

[@michvod]

What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new. "Well, I saw it on a rerun..." "What's a rerun?" "You'll find out..." So I did :D

[@Inflec]

Nice Back To The Future reference. 😄

[@michvod]

@@Inflec Both the reference and the TV are from 1955

[@F40PH-2CAT]

Yes, finally. One of the few devices I'd sit through an entire recapping video of.

[@Daniel_cheems]

WoW! It's great to see Shango inspecting one of these sets! Beautiful!

[@PatrickClutch]

It's a pity it's not your showpiece. I would love to see its restoration in your way.

[@KofolaDealer]

1954 is insane, that's just one year newer than the first black and white television in czechoslovakia

[@peterbondmusic]

so cool! can't wait for Part 2. one of the most important sets in TV history.

[@michaelszczys8316]

Was Howdy Doody even in color yet?

[@HarleyBadger]

@@michaelszczys8316 HD was color starting in 1956. RCA (who owned NBC,) used HD as a promotion for color television.

[@directcurrent5751]

Yes. The engineering complexity necessary to make color TV commercially feasible spurred many other electronics technological advancements.

[@johnmaki3046]

old tvs were GREAT!

[@connorm955]

Speaking of nixie tubes, im off to watch Techmoan's new video after this.

[@theshowmanuk]

Looking forward to part 2 !

[@lawrenceharris8919]

Thank you, shango. A great video. I can hardly wait until you post Part 2. Reportedly, the color rendition on the CT100 was better than RCA's later sets in the 1950's. The CT100 was the first commercially successful color TV. Admiral and Westinghouse beat RCA to market by several weeks, as RCA didn't start producing the CT100 until March 1954. Most of the Admiral and Westinghouse sets went unsold. Some of the initial batch of Admiral's were in dealer inventory as late as 1957. NBC broadcast just a few hours of essentially experimental color programming in the first half of 1954 featuring stars such as Dinah Shore from the Colonial Theater in New York, Brooklyn 1 didn't open until the fall. In the spring, CBS broadcast a color talk show with Mike Wallace. CBS opened its first real color studio, Studio 72, in August with a one time color episode of Ed Sullivan.

[@appliedengineering4001]

That's because the phosphor formulations for the red and green are different on the older CRT's then they are on the newer CRT's. When they made the the newer phosphor formulations for red and green. They made the red into crimson red(red with a slight hint of orange) and the green was made fairy green(green with a slight hint of yellow). The reason for doing this was to get better, more accurate flesh tones. But at the expense of color vibrancy. The color emissions of these newer phosphor are standardize by SMPTE and Pantone calibrations standards. Although I've never seen it in person, I've hear that watching Wizard of Oz on one of these old TV's is a real treat.

[@Sparky-ww5re]

It was also worth noting, that the Admiral & Westinghouse color sets that predated the RCA CT-100, were not backwards compatible with B&W, and since color broadcast was almost non-existent, a family would need two television sets, the Westinghouse cost $1,250 late 1953/early 1954, which was roughly a little over half the price of a new car at the time. On the other hand, the RCA CT-100, although sales were very poor due to the $1000 price tag, was a very important TV, being compatible with B&W, it would pave the way other color sets, and a little more than a decade later, the number of color sets sold would outnumber the B&W sets.

[@SerenityMae11]

My mother worked at the factory assembling these back in the day. I think I still have pictures from the assembly line with her working on them. Pretty cool to see one again.

[@nickb.8876]

That's Awesome, glad to see it's going to a good home.

[@waltschannel7465]

Oh, sure, tease us with the cliff hanger! We'll done in true Hollywood fashion. 🤣 Glad you were able to facilitate the transfer of one if the rarest color televisions. There is a Sylvania set that also used the 15GP22 CRT that is the rarest. There are two of the RCA CT100 in working condition in Washington State, one in Seattle and one in Bellingham at the Spark Museum. That wood cabinet with the parts in it is awesome. Heck with the caps, I want the Cabinet!! 😍

[@LakeNipissing]

'SpatsBear' on KZbin did a ten part series for restore / recap / repair on a CT100. I believe it is still working.

[@waltschannel7465]

@@LakeNipissing Phil's Old Radios also did a long article with pictures about a CT100 restoration.

[@waltschannel7465]

CORRECTION. It could have been Westinghouse that had the other set. Someone else also said Admiral had an early color set

[@Suddenlyits1960]

That’s really great of you to help out the purchaser like that Shango. It’s always rough when you find something that isn’t local that you want it really bad but there’s nobody willing to help get it to you. Hope the CRT produces a good picture for the new owner. I enjoy your estate find videos.

[@W1RMD]

I love your username! You would get a kick out of Charles Phoenix's channel.

[@plan7a]

Wow, what a beauty! So very rare! Glad it's going to a good home and will be kept! Sad the guy who owned it has gone. He did well to look after it so well and use it too!

[@leokimvideo]

Just proves how ahead of the game this TV is Vs KZbin

[@Jakepearl13]

It’s really interesting to see how TVs from this era borrowed some of their design from radios from around the same period as well,since the TV was the successor to radio,and both appliances served as gathering places for families

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

What a beautiful set! It must have been a marvel for its time!

[@kpc5]

When i was a kid i was the remote control for the TV back in the 60's and early 70's, lol.

[@romandjma.recordplayers7806]

Great to know that it's going to someone who knows what to do with it. It'd be a shame for something like this to be made into a fish tank

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

This is about the worst thing for a TV 📺 like this to be turned into. Beauty take a real political flush down the toilet 🚽. Happy Halloween 🎃👻. Your friend, Jeff.

[@W1RMD]

I always joke that I'm going to find an old liquor cabinet and make a radio out of it! The closest thing I've done is take an old electric blanket metal control box (dated 1957) out of a trash pile and make a 6L6 tube amp out of it.

[@billsmith281]

Yeah I'm going to find an old fish tank & turn it into a TV😁

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

@@billsmith281 That’s such a great 😊 idea 💡. I’d rather see these fish 🐟 tanks and dog 🐩 beds 🛌 converted back into TV’s. Even those by roadsides and in the alleys. Your friend, Jeff.

[@davepike6170]

Every once in a while, one of these CT 100s turns up with a usable 15GP22 still under vacuum! Anyone's guess as to how long it will stay sealed, but still amazing. I have had the personal experience in the past 10 years, to test two of these 15GP22's as found, and the two that I tested were both good tubes with very good emission on all three guns.

[@bob9483]

Must be an incredibly rare piece

[@bbmousedoowop]

My very well off bachelor engineer uncle bought one of these when they first came out. I was about 6 of 7 at the time and I clearly recall my parents timing their visits to his Boston apartment to coinside with the scheduled color broadcasts. I don't recall the specific programs but Judge Roy Bean kinda stands out in my mind. It was a fascinating time.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Shango; my favourite dude & channel for sure. Please never change your style! Love you man.

[@Jhihmoac]

Woww! So much cabinet and mechanism for such a small picture tube, but that was the technology of the fledgling days of television, especially with the first color sets...

[@glennmillerfan]

My uncles mother in law had this same RCA color TV back in the 50s. She and her husband waited until color was introduced to purchase their first TV and purchased their RCA CT-100 in September of 1954 and kept it as their main TV until it’s picture tube blew out in 1968. The first color programs she remembered seeing on it were the special color episode of What's My Line? that aired on September 19, 1954, as well as episodes of the early color series Producers Showcase. Their example might be the only case of someone going straight from radio to color TV.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Shango - legendary voice, wit & knowledge. Thank you so much man for sharing your experiences with us all. This is THE best channel for old school CRT/Radio repair education.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

*BEAUTIFUL* set! When I was a kid, my whole family obeyed the 4-foot rule back when we had sets like this, protecting us from injury. The CRT glass in this model did not contain any protective lead and there was likely insufficient shielding around the HV rectifier circuit, resulting in unhealthful doses of ionizing X-radiation if one got too close to the set. This came off the assembly line long before enactment of any protective DHEW federal regulations.

[@NickDalzell]

So that's why my great grandfather told me never to sit that close to the TV when I was like 4. But their TV was from the 60s and black and white. I always thought it was because being that close would hurt my eyes. I never listened and it was closest to the knobs and cable converter and made the picture look huge compared to how tiny it looked from the sofa.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

@@NickDalzell The plates of the tubes in the HV circuit of an old black-and-white TV emit minuscule amounts of X-radiation, but it's not enough to escape their glass envelopes. I don't think that being so close, looking at all the CRT image flickering would necessarily be helpful for one's good eyesight, though.

[@NickDalzell]

@@chetpomeroy1399 I'd argue that being so close to a tiny smartphone screen would likely be worse. I remember getting tons of headaches and eye strain when I used one. Not so much from a TV of any kind, CRT or LCD.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

@@NickDalzell I'd have to agree. Don't like dealing with smartphones, either. They *are* kind of tough on the eyes, especially at my advanced age.

[@Dog.soldier1950]

My father was also a n1950’s TV repairman. He also sold a few TV’s He had one of these to sell but it didn’t move so it ended up in our living room Sports, Bonanza, Disney was about it for color programming until NBC, owned by RCA dictated all color line up in 64 or so

[@LMacNeill]

Whoa! A rare beast, indeed! 1954!! Very much looking forward to Part 2.

[@vcv6560]

So very looking forward to part two the first RCA I ever worked on was a CTC 25 I then this is in my late teens went to the library and researched all the early issues of Consumer Reports from the 1950s to see how color TV was accepted and in particular of course this set. Of course at that time and we're talking the late seventies to read that this TV was marketed for $1,200 was unbelievable I can only think the ones remaining to this day must be in the low hundreds

[@robinsattahip2376]

The 25AP22A CRT in a CTC 25 had a life expectancy of about 2-3 years in a family with heavy use. I was installing CRTs as a kid working in a TV store in 1969 and the sets were 3 years old or less. The flybacks also loved to burn up, the 6GH8A tubes shorted and screwed up the color and the plastic cog for the fine-tuning always broke. At about $700 they cost a month's salary. No sympathy for RCA being pushed out by the Japanese then the Chinese, they were making sets in the mid to late 60s like the CTC25 that were designed to fail within 5 years. Planned obsolescence at its finest.

[@18000rpm]

This is awesome! Can't wait for your videos on this beauty!!

[@monteceitomoocher]

That's a great find, hope the new owner has many happy hours getting a squeak out of it, and that the irreplaceable tube is ok.

[@NJRoadfan]

GRRR "To Be Continued". Hopefully the new owner shares the restoration on KZbin. Its interesting how complex these sets are and how various engineering challenges were solved using 1950s parts. This was by far the most complicated electronic device a consumer could purchase during the time period. It certainly wasn't cheap either.

[@directcurrent5751]

Always shocks me thinking about the engineering and experimentation around color TV development in the 1950s.

[@tschak909]

I'm just shocked, his name isn't Shango. ;)

[@bobpachner7528]

This was a wonderful video for me. Very personal. My Great Uncle was the Director of Research for RCA Princeton Labs when this was produced. I remember watching a round color tv from the early 60’s in his home when I was 8 or 9 years old. Thanks so much for this!

[@SuperZed21]

Wow! What an amazing find! These tvs are very rare now from what I understand. Not many were made back in the day since they were very expensive. It is amazing how much work and engineering went into this thing.

[@ATLcentury334]

My dad told me he won a color television in a contest, in the mis 50’s. He said he gave the television to his parents. In the 60’s, and early 70’s, my grandparents were the people I knew who had a color t.v. In about 1976, my parents bought their first color set. It was a Quasar. I was the only one home when it was delivered. I didn’t know what to watch, so I turned on “The Price is Right”. I remember thinking how tacky the sets and games looked in their neon colors, LOL. One of the the reasons my folks wanted the color set was the following year was the Bi Centennial, and they wanted to see all the ceremonies, and specials in color. Does anyone remember the “Bi Centennial Minute”?

[@oldiesgeek1]

I remember the Bicentennial Minute bits broadcast on CBS at the time. I was 15.😊

[@blackvinylgrooves]

Shango, I have three volumes of the Rider Perpetual Trouble Shooting Manual, volumes VIII, IX, and XIII, all from the early 1940s. Would anybody want them? I literally rescued them from going to the landfill. Somebody would at least have to pay for shipping.

[@CAESARbonds]

I wish I could adopt and afford one. Such a great piece of history.

[@scottmonk]

Shango, the camera pickup tube is a vidicon tube, successor or little brother to the Image Orth tube. Three vidicons were used in the Phillips/Norelco PC-60 and PC-70 color cameras, which were in wide use through the mid 60's and 1970s. They shot some of the iconic network video taped shows during that era: Carol Burnett, All in the Family, etc. We had two of them at the NBC affiliate in Port Arthur, Texas, KJAC, where I worked in the mid-70s.

[@philpots48]

I was 6 in 1954, and friends of my parents bought one. The color's bled all over the place, but at that age I didn't notice or care. I asked my parents if they would buy one, they didn't.

[@Xplasma1]

The holy grail... The only TV more desirable would be a 21CT55... Basically a CT-100 with a 21 inch CRT.

[@directcurrent5751]

I'm guessing convergence was a nightmare on 1954 21" color set.

[@LyonsArcade]

I've been wanting to make a new parts cabinet out of wood and was thinking I'd have to make like 100 drawers, but I just saw how the old timer did it, he just made drawers that pull out with compartments in them, i'll have to copy that thank you!

[@mmadmic]

I love this old fashioned electronic circuitry.

[@infl]

I had the opportunity a while ago to meet some of the people who worked at the RCA factory in Lancaster PA while tubes like these were being produced. Really cool stuff

[@midnightrunner0478]

What a cliffhanger!!!!! BTW. I dismissed the couch until you zoomed in. Great video once again.

[@4uh8rz2nv]

My dad told me this ~ When the TV first came out my grandpa bought the very first one in WNY. He had it set up for delivery for when he got home from work. Before it got delivered, another family bought one and became the first family in WNY to have "purchased" a TV because they took it home. My grandpa heard this and was upset because he had technically purchased the first one. So my grandpa did what my grandpa does, he went out and bought a 2nd TV and my dads family became the first family to own 2 tvs in NY. When another family purchased a 2nd tv, my grandpa bought a 3rd one. He would also trade his car in every time the ashtray got full and he smoked cigars. When asked why he just doesn't empty the tray he replied he would be taking a job away from a detailer.

[@robinsattahip2376]

I had a CTC4 as a kid that I got from a TV store and fixed. What a joy, with around 30 tubes the lights in the whole house would momentarily dim when I turned it on and after 30 minutes my bedroom was too hot to inhabit. Had to put a fan in the window to blow away all that wasted energy. Yes, these dinosaurs belong in museums where they can be occasionally run for visitors, but I don't know why anyone would want one in their home. I'm old enough to remember how bad the sets of the 50s and 60s really were. Throw away or not, TV watchers never had it better than they do now.

[@paulgracey4697]

I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid in Connecticut who went downtown in 1954 to see the one store that had advertised that they had one on display in their store window. I went there during a football game that was supposed to be broadcast in color, and watched in vain for any sign that it would show the green grass or any other color in the image. I did not get to see any color TV until the family moved to California. I have a 1959 RCA set we purchased used in the 1960s in my garage today. That CTC 100 flat tube set cost twice as much as the one I have, and I think RCA still lost money on the making of both of them until a fews years later than mine.

[@羽衣甘藍奧頓]

Learned so much from this guy. Wish I could share a beer and talk about my unsolved collection of trashed CRT's & old radios to bring ever MORE back to life!

[@TechGorilla1987]

Perhaps I have already seen this. I guess there was something that needed editing out. I'll watch again.

[@svbarr]

In the mid 90's I had a meeting that took place in a Community Room in a building owned by the City. They had a late 60's early 70's TUBE color tv - big one. The meeting was Monday nights so the people who showed up early would watch Monday Night Football. We would turn that sucka on and it was amazing how rich and saturated the colors were. Of course it was about 25 degrees warmer behind the set than in front of it due to the heat from what seemed like 40-50 tubes.BUT THAT PICTURE was just so analog!! Like pretty artsy and nothing cold or sterile at all...

[@mjg263]

How awesome, can’t wait for part 2. Had no idea color tv was available in 1954!

[@Iconoclasher]

Actually it was invented 5 years before that. CBS had a competing system that used a rotating color "masking" screen in front of the TV by 1951. That rotating wheel was more than double the diameter of the TV screen. (think about that when watching your 50") That system never caught on even though it was backward compatible (to convert a B/W TV to color) The FCC had one simple rule. Any color TV had to be compatible with the B/W system already in place.

[@11sfr]

It was available, just colossally expensive and something of a chicken/egg thing - people were reluctant to buy color TVs, because of limited color programming options, and networks were reluctant to add more color shows, because so few people had color TVs

[@Suddenlyits1960]

@11sfr,Thats true. I remember shows like “The Brady Bunch” and “Star Trek” still had logos thwt would appear during the openings that said “in color”. A lot of people were still watching black and white sets in the late 60’s/early 70’s.

[@thomaswilliams2273]

@@Suddenlyits1960 I remember hearing that Gene Roddenberry wanted to make Spock have red skin to make him look more like a devil, but the network was afraid that people with b&w sets would think he was black.

[@Suddenlyits1960]

@Thomas Williams,That’s true. There’s a great book on the original Star Trek series called “Inside Star Trek” by Herb Solow and Robert Justman. There’s tons of interesting behind the scenes stories in that book.

[@Rocks_Dad]

Very interesting, thanks. I have watched this antique thing go from a niche market to what it is. I was offered a chance to forego college and start a business in it and I didn't see it. That's one reason why I am a broke working stiff, I missed that one

[@ninaevans4501]

Great "grass roots" electronic problem solving, and raises many laughs too with your down to earth, humour too. YOU THE GUY!!!!! Wayne & Nina (UK) 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😄😄😄😄😄😄❤️

[@BG101UK]

I'm certainly looking forward to Part 2 as evidently are many others here. Hope it's a good long one for this beauty! Thanks.

[@richroggio]

I love this Television Shango, the picture tube is so small and it looks really nice with the cabinet design. it looks like a quality built unit.

[@James_Knott]

A getter was used only once, to consume any remaining oxygen, after a vacuum tube was made. They were inductively heated. After that, they were never used again, and would have no effect on any air that leaked in later. I grew up in the days when most electronic devices used vacuum tubes and transistors were just becoming popular in consumer devices. My family's first TV was a B&W 21" RCA Townsman (IIRC), which I believe was bought in 1957 and one of my uncles was a TV repair man. He gave me a stack of repair manuals for a variety of sets. I also obtained dead TVs from friends or elsewhere, to see what I could do with them.

[@julieannemichelle]

I remember when my family’s television, which was black and white, had a pretty small screen when I was very little. That television that I’m talking about had doors on the front too. I was born with very low vision and I remember having to sit very, very close to see the picture.

[@2509498788]

I can feel your anticipation as these drawers opened, right down your alley I'm sure,, what an interesting show this one is.. ..

[@erikaenterprises5153]

Nice video featuring this 1954 RCA CT-100 - first color television set. However though, if you're interested in seeing what it takes to restore one, then may I suggest watching a series of 10 videos on the Spats Bear channel of his 'Merrill' project starting with: " Project Updates - February 2017 " through " The Very First NTSC Color TV: 1954 RCA Model CT-100 The Merrill - Restoration Part X (Concluded!) " Published on Apr 2, 2020

[@jonathanpullen7439]

Wow.. I've loved following CT-100 restorations on The Set and similar pages.. always figured sooner or later you'd be working on one.. :) and here I am watching this in Torrance.. :)

[@jeffsutherland1602]

The little camera tube is not an image orthicon tube, it's a Vidicon tube- totally different operating principle. Given its small size it was probably used in a B&W security camera or some such device. 3 3 inch image orthicon tubes were used in the RCA TK-40/TK-41 colour television broadcast cameras from the early 1950's through late 1960's. The RCA TK-42 camera from the late 1960's was the first transistorized broadcast television camera. It used a single 4" image orthicon tube for the luminance channel and 3 1" Vidicon tubes for the chroma channels. A real beast, it was not commercially successful. It wasn't until the TK-44 and later that used 3 Plumbicon tubes that a solid state camera became a commercial success. The portable TK-76, using 3 small Saticon tubes, was a brilliant piece of engineering that emerged in the mid-1970's that made gorgeous video and helped usher in the era of electronic news gathering.

[@AMStationEngineer]

Pretty much a "Grail Moment"; so happy it'll be well loved once again!

[@777jones]

My dad picked up a Sony Trinitron in about 1972, and we had it at least 25 years later. I don’t think it ever broke.

[@michaelreich4827]

Considering the average house back then was roughly $15k, spending $1000 on a TV was a huge expense.

[@polishhotdog933]

Watching it in 4K is a real pleasure,looks fantastic on my ipad screen.👍🏼

[@JWD1992]

Incredible. I really hope it gets preserved.

[@bessied.5694]

Unlike the Golden Age of Radio, all we have are memories of those who were there to indicate how early television looked and sounded as it was being broadcast and received, especially early color. Kinescopes and grainy videotape just doesn't cut it.

[@jeromebreeding3302]

We had one of the first color TV,s on the block in 1959. It was an Admiral. Bonanza and Disney were two of the few programs in color at the time.

[@TheDevice9]

Bummer. Shango rerun.

[@jacobb7608]

Wow. The arrangement of that circuit at 5:08 with the point-to-point soldering is horrifying

[@Sparky-ww5re]

Wow I had no idea color TV even existed in 1954, this must have been a technological marvel that seemed like science fiction at the time, because my great grandparents paid around 500 dollars for their first B&W TV, in 1949 or '50, and were among the first family on the block to have a TV, her brother thought they were out of their mind spending that kind of money lol. They invited the neighborhood kids to come over after school and introduce them to the future lol. They got the first color set around 1971, just in time for watching the Watergate investigation lol.

[@teacfan1080]

Good to see that set landed a good home with someone who appreciates it.

[@KameraShy]

That CRT - given its condition - is SO rare that I would hesitate shipping it. As in by one of the conventional companies. They can destroy even the best packing. Depending on the distance, value and money involved, it might be worth it to hire a driver to take it door-to-door. Or are there boutique delivery companies out there who could perform a similar service?

[@richbacon4119]

Remember early on; Transmission of color images using mechanical scanners had been conceived as early as the 1880s. A demonstration of mechanically scanned color television was given by John Logie Baird in 1928. Mechanically scanned color television was also demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full-color image. This even pre-date commercials. How did they achieve this?

[@aussiecoastie72]

Very interesting 🤔 such an amazing item and part of history

[@aresee8208]

Can't imagine there were very many shows broadcast in color in 1954. I don't think we had a color TV until around 1967. And I was watching my little black and white portable TV until at least the early '80s.

[@roachtoasties]

I would like to be briefly zapped back to 1954, so I can enjoy watching the Rose Parade with the family that owned that TV. I'll bring my Android phone with me, so they can enjoy that. ;)

[@johngross6735]

I had an uncle who worked for Hughes and lived in Torrance in the 50s - 80s.

[@thomasoliver5095]

"plastic Capacitors" seen many of those in broadcast transmitters.Used for RF bypass HV supply lines for RF driver,PA stages.5Kv on up!Yes,these guys can bite you!-USE YOUR GROUND STICK!

[@BlueSkyScholar]

2C39... that's the number. Got several 7698's in a box yesterday I remembered the alternate 3CX100 but not the 2C number.

[@johnmaki3046]

Our first color tv was a 1968 Coronado (Gamble's Store brand, it was REALLY a G.E.) 17'" inch screen tube set ($269-ON PAYMENTS!) I thought then (at 14 y.o.!) that this was THE BEST TV EVER...AND I STILL DO!

[@jmad627]

Looking forward to seeing part two.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

We need to go back to a date and time that these TV’s 📺 existed. TV’s and houses were styled about as elegantly as each other in the late ⏰ 1800’s and mid 1900’s. I can just imagine sitting 🪑 down and watching a program on a wooden roundie TV 📺. They really beat the garbage 🗑 sets we buy at Walmart. 2 years, tops. A roundie would probably last 72. The picture could be somewhat small, but I can take this any day. Color or black and white is fine. CRT rebuilding is impossible to come by, unless just the right person comes up with a very intelligent idea 💡. Happy Halloween 🎃👻. Your friend, Jeff.

[@joeG9100]

it was an amazing feat of technology at the time. It was not practical at all. Like someone said get a vacuum cleaner near it it would scramble colors. You had to call a technician to restore the purity of color, If you moved it same thing need technician to return color purity, By the mid 60's they had solved that issue with addition of demagnetization circuits upon startup.All early Branded color TV's all had RCA electronics they had the patents. The exception was Zenith which had their own design about 1962. By mid 60's color tv was OK but broadcasting was still an issue as color and tint (face color) was different from the commercial to programing color and faces could be green or red. (tint).you constantly had to adjust controls for true color. The broadcasters solved the issue in the 70's an d TV's from then had little issues of changing colors.And you know the rest

[@directcurrent5751]

It took a huge passion for Early Adoption in 1954 to spend a retirement fortune on a color TV and the big aerial needed to load it so that family could watch one or two all-color shows per week.

[@michaelszczys8316]

A lot of people bought early home computers that were quite expensive when they started coming out. About the same, only color television in 1954 was way more magical.

[@neilmansfield8329]

We must preserve these

[@televisionforever]

Wow Nice! I almost had it for myself and had it shipped back to Atlanta but Jeffrey got to it first.

[@radiorexandy]

Jack, everyone loves Shango!

[@televisionforever]

@@radiorexandy Oh I know, me included haha