RCA Laboratories 1940's Technology, Radio, Television, Vacuum Tube Technology Electronics History

Today we take a look back at the RCA LABS in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1940's. We observe many items of vintage RCA technology, including RADIO vacuum tube manufacturing, Television Systems, TV Cameras, Sound Recording, Radio Frequency Testing, Shipboard Radio, Teletype, medical research, CRTs, oscilloscope use and much more. Partially restored with improved audio and video, original title: “To a New World: RCA Laboratories.” For educational and historical review and discussion.
00:25 Radio Sets
01:38 Princeton New Jersey; RCA Labs
02:45 Inside the RCA Lab
03:30 Radio Lab research (penicillin); RF Current sewing
04:15 Machine Shop; Cabinet Shop: electronic clock
04:30 Oscilloscope and frequency timers
05:40 Vacuum Tubes, various types
07:40 Shipboard Radio
08:06 Radio Telephone, Radio Telegraph
08:27 Radio Photo Transmission (FAX)
09:30 Electron Microscope
11:05 Sound Research
12:00 Microphone testing
12:37 Record Recording & Playback
13:44 RADAR Research
14:00 Television Tube Research (Vladimir Zworykin, Albert Rose)
RCA Image Orthicon, Iconoscope, kinescope
14:50 Luminescent materials
15:14 Crystal Structure study lab; Optical Equipment; Lenses; Mirrors
15:35 Television circuits and systems; Cameras
16:50 Television Screens; NBC LOGO
17:00 Television, Your Magic Carpet; Mobil NBC Vans; sample broadcast program
This film is from the David Sarnoff Library Collection, information is available from the Hagley Museum & Library ([e-mail])

[@lowercherty]

My newspaper was brought to me by radio today, exactly how it would look if it were actually published on paper. They only publish two days a week now but the e editions come out daily. These guys were decades ahead of the curve.

[@williamoverly1617]

My hometown of Lancaster, PA was instrumental in the production of the RCA color tv vacuum tube. My father worked for RCA. It was rumored that much of the financing came from the sale of Elvis Presly recordings.

[@ntag411]

Imagine having a TV back then, you'd be the envy of the block. TV repair shops sprung up in virtually every neighborhood.

[@WA1LBK]

I worked in a small family TV shop in the 1970's, my first job in electronics. Back then, in my small city (population @ 90,000), there were repair shops every few blocks. Virtually every shop knew the others, & competition was generally friendly because at that time (the tail end of the vacuum-tube era), everyone had all the business they could handle. As the technology became more advanced, I started to see a reduction in the amount of repair shops. The change from tube to solid-state culled a lot of older technicians who couldn't stay abreast. I moved on myself, into the commercial 2-way radio field (back then largely public safety - police & fire communications, taxicabs, & oil delivery companies). From there, I transitioned into maintaining industrial control electonics (NC & CNC machine tools, some early robotics), then moved into electronic manufacturing. My last 20 years before retirement were spent working for a manufacturer of very high-end data storage equipment (EMC, mow part of Dell Technologies). Through it all, I transitioned form vacuum tubes to early transistorized equipment, then IC's & finally SMT (Surface Mount Technology). It was an exciting ride! :) However, it's looking like component - level debugging is becoming a thing of the past, outside of the manufacturing area I worked during my last few years (& even there it was declining!). Consumer electronics have gotten so cheap to manufacture that repair work is unecomical; most modern electronics, if designed & built properly, will become obsolete before breaking down. If something does break, parts have become so specialized that getting replacements are a crap shoot; back in tube days, a 12AX7 tube was interchangable regardless of who made it (RCA, GE, Raytheon, etc.). The general public does NOT want to pay repair costs, especially when replacement is often cheaper.

[@a64738]

Yeah those old TV`s even up to the 1980 and 1990s needer repair all the time... Now if a TV stops working you buy a new one, getting it repaired cost the same as buying new.

[@kevinmichaelcallihansr5053]

A good story about memories of my father in communications during WWII. Later, a technician at an atomic plant while helping our community in television and radio repairs. He and my mother were appreciated for their abilities to work with people and provided those things they needed.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Kevin, thank you. Glad you found our channel, too.~ Victor, at CHAP

[@lilblackduc7312]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Great restoration on this one! Thank you. I enjoyed it so much, I reviewed your library of videos & 'subscribed'...🇺🇸 😎👍☕

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thanks very much for your support and feedback. Always very much appreciated! ~ Victor

[@ronaldwilliamson7963]

Beautiful RCA radio at the beginning. Until the 1980s, there wasn't that much interference on AM. Clear channel network owned stations let people in the country listen to the big network shows, while FM was only line of sight. Also AM was much better in cars, before improvements to FM in the late 1970s

[@nagarasan]

a great history of electronic!!

[@johneygd]

They were very ahead of it’s time, i hardly can belief this dates back from 1942.

[@pattyeverett2826]

I think the date is off. With the TV technology shown, it appears to be late 40s, after WWII. Also, WWII is not mentioned. I suspect products for the military would be mentioned all of the time if this was filmed in 1942.

[@tomhoehler3284]

@@pattyeverett2826 Yes, I would put the date of this movie at 1949 - 1950. Widespread RCA electronic broadcast television was only realized after WWII. Radar is mentioned in the film, but not to any detail. These movies remind me of the ones we watched in grade school; for me it was 1954 to 1961.

[@pcno2832]

@@pattyeverett2826 0:42 No FM band on the radio , 1:53 a "brand new" building with a cornerstone dated 1941, 12:34 no mention of vinyl records, particularly 45s, which RCA pushed very hard in the late 1940s. I'll venture a guess that this was made in 1941 and released in 1942. Television was "the next big thing" just before WWII, but it was put on hold after Pearl Harbor. In fact, the famous 3 Stooges "plumbing" episode with the water blasting out of the TV screen was from 1940.

[@jefffoster3557]

Had to be before the war. Tubes would be obsolete to the point of not bragging about their research by late 40s by the transistor.

[@LaptopLarry330]

I get the impression that the film was made in late-1941, prior to Pearl Harbor, but was not shown until 1942. Everything shown in the film was contemporary for that time period.

[@raulgongora2077]

America the most powerful professional on the field the radios and tv Blessings

[@cmdrwhitesnake7386]

Ah, the good old days, when everyone had a middle initial.

[@RatPfink66]

very de rigueur to use your first and middle, in business and science.

[@ChatGPT1111]

...and you wore a suit to go downstairs for breakfast....alone.

[@ChatGPT1111]

When everything and everyone smelled like cigarettes.

[@charlessmith833]

WW2 vintage military radios are still in use by amateur radio enthusiasts. They actually work very well.

[@lilblackduc7312]

Great restoration! Thank you...🇺🇸 😎👍☕

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thanks for the great feedback! Much appreciated! ~ CHAP

[@RatPfink66]

Dang it, I want an RCA sewing machine. When my clothes get too small I just tune the RF current and they fit again.

[@SlyPearTree]

I'd really like to know more about those electronic clocks.

[@manidig]

The dial on the radio is very similar to my 1946 model 59-AV. All production of consumer goods stopped for the duration of the war so 4 years passed but the new model looks very much like the last one made.

[@vancouverman4313]

In many ways, they looked more advanced than we are today. Looking at the world now, you ask yourself, what happened?

[@ronaldwilliamson7963]

People had a more positivr outlook, regardless of the war.

[@johnpenner5182]

it is easy to forget - a century of technical development and research had to precede all the things that digital I.C. manufacturing assumes to exist as services, processes, and materials to create our digital era. how much is required before the digital age can even start! truly, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi John, good point! So much has come before us to help create today's digital world.

[@iam_willhoyler]

My grandfather (Cyril Hoyler) is the man using the sewing machine.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Will, very interesting. .. and very cool.

[@iam_willhoyler]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I have a very interesting audio recording of my grandfather, doing his "road show" lecture for RCA's David Sarnoff Labs. Would have loved to see his lecture on film (video).

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Will, Did your grandfather work for RCA labs?

[@iam_willhoyler]

​@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject yes, from 1941 until his tragic death in 1959 (train accident). He was RCA's/Sarnoff's Technical Relations Manager.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Will, very sorry to hear about the accident. ~ I bet his work at RCA with Sarnoff was quite an experience and generated some interesting stories! Thank you for sharing this. ~ Victor.

[@kevinmichaelcallihansr5053]

Am viewing now on RCA component!

[@selah62]

All RCA is now is a name plate. When GE bought them out in 1986 RCA ceased to exist. GE sold the name to Thompson Electronics. Threre is no actual RCA corporation anymore. Sad.

[@juliehoschler7151]

Thank you

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Julie, you are very welcome! ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@MoparStephen]

9:10 - wow, I had no idea radio fax went back so far!

[@unbiased1]

The radio fax predates the telefax. I've read that the technology was already around in the 1930's.

[@user-nn4xg8xw7j]

Очень жаль что так мало просмотров, сегодня людей мало интересует история создания телевидения.

[@bismarck7961]

Vídeo interessante e agradável de assistir.

[@NipkowDisk]

My avatar at 16:35... nice! It was only four years old then-

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi NipkowDisk, Cool. Love that symbol. Brings back memories.~ Victor

[@NipkowDisk]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject The test pattern had an amazing number of individual image tests included in it. Somewhere out there, is a description of most or all of them. RCA really did an excellent job of planning it out.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Yes, it is quite unique! Nice choice.

[@xtraceex]

Today, in these "enlightened" times, someone would be offended by the Indian-head test pattern.

[@Kidderman2210]

? More than four years old, even in 1942. They were invented in the 1880s. John Logie-Baird began using Nipkow discs in his television cameras in the UK in the 1920s. He only abandoned them in 1936 when the all-electronic Marconi-EMI system proved to be superior.

[@mrnmrn1]

The sound is very good for 1942.

[@unbiased1]

Unfortunately, no one seemed to realize back then that the best audio recordings were made on film. The best preserved audio from that era comes from film reels. That's the era before the magnetic tape.

[@RobertKohut]

Cool... :-)

[@dondrewecki1909]

The narrator is Ben Grauer, of NBC.

[@bluegtturbo]

One thing we know in hindsight... No 1940s adverts were released without an accompanying orchestra 🤣. 'these men of radio research' he says, like the woman was invisible...

[@TheOnePhillip]

Excuse me but Filo T Farnsworth invented television. Mr sarnoff has a tarnished legacy. First he tried to destroy Mr Farnsworth. Then he literally drove Edwin Armstrong (the inventive of FM radio) to his death by suicide.

[@johnmoyer2849]

Sarniff was a damn thief.He got away with it too.

[@ZilogBob]

Didn't Vladimir Zworykin invent the first truly electronic television system?

[@selah62]

@@ZilogBob no, not entirely. He had help, ..Farnsworth.

[@Lewis-vr2vo]

Thanks, Tops In Education. Worked At Westinghouse, Finished At Zenith. I Was A Teenager, But We Are Still Trying To Figure Out, How Did They Know How To Design The Inside Of Vacuum Tubes.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Lewis, well... that's a good question!

[@calasansfreitas8447]

Bons tempos.

[@billruss6704]

But can they construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.

[@lowercherty]

This was once the high tech of the day. NBC still exists as part of Comcast. I think the rest of RCA went to General Electric. This was once the equivalent of Bell Labs. Does this research facility still even exist today or has time swept it to the wayside?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Very good question. There is a fascinating history of the Labs as well as RCA itself. Here is a short version that may help answer your question. The Labs have been renamed and absorbed into a large research corporation. It is a fascinating read. ethw.org/RCA_Laboratories_at_Princeton,_New_Jersey

[@AWSmith1955]

Still there. The original T shaped building has had many additions www.google.com/maps/search/Sarnoff+Corporation+in+Princeton/@40.3318755,-74.6301051,603m/data=!3m1!1e3

[@AWSmith1955]

how it looked in 1947 www.historicaerials.com/location/40.33146422555203/-74.63060438632967/1947/17

[@johnmoyer2849]

GE is now splitting into 3 separate companies

[@mohinderkaur6671]

Sarnoff labs in Princeton?

[@gonebamboo4116]

2:29 Dr. H. H. Beverage

[@unbiased1]

Has anyone tried to recreate the sound from the soundtrack on the left between 12:52 and 12:58?

[@robertcasey2490]

I used to work there, got 11 patents, then GE bought RCA and that was the end of that...

[@CharlesCoderre-yv1cu]

A sad end for RCA

[@unbiased1]

I would've loved to work there.

[@robertcasey2490]

@@unbiased1 It was the best job I ever had.

[@jeffkablock3229]

My dad worked on the electron microscope and radar thats when we built stuf that made America

[@stevensmith5232]

Does anyone know why the Indian Chief image was chosen as part for the TV test image?

[@goodun2974]

I don't know, but it was used in a Cheech and Chong skit: " Hey, man, whatcha' watchin'?" "Man, it's a movie about Indian, but it's really boring" "Oh man, that's not a movie, man, thats a test pattern, man!'

[@ldchappell1]

Not much internet in 1942. They had it but it was non existent.

[@richardgray8593]

I would rather watch these videos than watch _The View._ What is wrong with me?

[@tomhoehler3284]

You have a usable brain. Folks who watch "the spew" are sadly missing a brain. Nothing wrong with you.

[@ldchappell1]

I'd rather watch the middle of the night security video from my building lobby than The View.

[@bryanlentz7160]

NOTHING! You’re actually an intelligent decent human being!

[@andrewmypocalypse]

Seems like a completely natural response when given a choice or an opportunity to learn about the world around you and to whom we owe credit. These people put in the work just like you put in the work to make your life happen. Gossip ain’t got no room in our future! Love your possibilities! Live your possibilities!

[@patrickcannell2258]

This was 6 years before the invention of the transistor.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

indeed!

[@marcse7en]

5 years! ... The Transistor was invented in 1947.

[@fatihduman9063]

Today, televisions that fail when the warranty period expires are produced.

[@DNulrammah]

..Wait, Radio Shack started in 1919? heheh

[@hylmmanseinscrevaamplifica007]

Wanna see RCA from 1958 tô 1969

[@xminusone1]

Meanwhile, in a small New York City Hotel room.. : Sad Nikola Tesla noises..

[@christopherrippel2463]

How many tubes in my iPhone?

[@selah62]

0

[@user-cn5kv5ey4c]

Жаль, что в ходе технического прогресса исчезают эстетические качества той эпохи....

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Interesting point. (Google translate says: "It is a pity that in the course of technological progress, the aesthetic qualities of that era disappear ....")

[@tonyfrazee8276]

Impossible why .

[@wa2ise]

I worked there, got 11 patents, until GE raped and pillaged RCA.

[@johnmoyer2849]

GE bought RCA and you are right

[@dazaro3]

Great documentary, housewife tools, lol

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Glad you enjoyed it. ~

[@drstrangelove09]

science -> engineering

[@Rainbow__cookie]

i rather have a tube crt than a 4k tv its qutie easy to connect composit to them

[@dondrewecki1909]

I don't think this is 1942 -- probably 1947.

[@Hopeless_and_Forlorn]

The year of production, 1941, was shown on the film itself. I was born in 1942 and I see nothing out of place in the film.

[@CasinoWoyale]

@@Hopeless_and_Forlorn Well, at around 1'55", a foundation stone marked "1941" is shown. That only tells us that the film couldn't have been produced before 1941.

[@techietypex]

They mentioned the image orthicon as being the eye of television. That was developed late in the war, or probably just after. It also seems unlikely that radar work was mentioned until after the war. It was still secret. They certainly would not have shown a radar PPI. I agree this was not 1942

[@richardgray8593]

All the PhDs had to wear suit and tie?

[@ablebaker99]

I can see them all wearing a tie but did they put on their jacket for the purpose of the film? This leads to another question - when was the white lab coat invented?

[@kotanuki1205]

バイデン氏が生まれた年やね、

[@rodway2sky]

YES, TV INVENTOR - RUSSIAN SCIENTIST ZVORYKIN. Many, not so famous as Sikorsky moved US industrial revolution. Major tecnologies "exported" from Russia - MOBILE PHONES and INTERNET in 50's (thousands of R&D facilities across USSR).