Tektronix: The Cathode Ray Tube - Window to Electronics

Basic description of the operation of a cathode ray tube and a detailed description of the manufacturing process at Tektronix. This movie is from the era of all-glass CRT's. Tektronix later pioneered the construction of CRT's with ceramic funnels. Our apologies to the creators of this film, as the opening credits were on the leader, which was damaged.

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Such a fascinating video. I love how vintage technical content isn't afraid to provide a lot of incident technical details. These days, everything is so dumbed-down as to not bore or confuse a non-technical audience.

[@saa82vik]

And this ladies and gentlemen, is why these guys managed to go to the moon. Excellence in design, continuous improvement in technology and thoroughness and pride in manufacturing. All this mostly with slide rules, electr mechanical calcs, Rolodexes, typewriters and a few chunky minicomputers.

[@stephanegilbert8800]

This is exactly what I thought when I opened a model 454, built in the 60's, a few years ago. The build quality of these machine was way better than anything you can buy today.

[@magicbox9371]

The back up camera was invented for use on the lunar rover.

[@joeswampdawghenry]

Yes with a movie... Lol

[@saa82vik]

@@joeswampdawghenry en.wiktionary.org/wiki/se_non_%C3%A8_vero,_%C3%A8_ben_trovato

[@deadfreightwest5956]

This is hands-down mind-boggling. The amount of engineering and chemistry going into these things is stunning. I don't think my kitchen is up to the task.

[@Daveyk021]

New digital scopes are nice and I could not do my job without them. When I get behind the wheel of an old CRT scope, such as the 465, there that "ahhhhhh" confort feeling like putting on an old lost shoe (or something I can not describe). I still work on a few CRT based instruments of ours for customers. I get that "ahhhh" feeling when finally seeing a CRT again. I had no idea how complex and precise it was to make those CRTs. wow

[@boblake2340]

The 465 probably is the most iconic of Tek scopes. I started my career lugging one around, doing Field service on mini-computers, in the 70's. 30 years later, there were still some used in our lab. Real workhorses.

[@saa82vik]

I completely understand your feelings. I am in the same predicament. Plus, there is this feeling of immediacy that you have with a crt oscilloscope. What you see is what you get.

[@Turboy65]

There was never a better general purpose scope than the legendary 2465B. But...the 7000 series mainframe scopes were the best of all time for specialized applications.

[@Daveyk021]

@@Turboy65 Where I worked, back in the 1980s, a 7000 Mainframe with a Amplifier and a Spectrum Analyzer module were used (Along with a polaroid camera) were used as part of an Ultrasonic Transducer certification system. A gated RF signal was fed in to the amplifier and that on one beam and the spectrum (bell curve) was on another beam. These days, it's typically done with FFT software and not a real spectrum analyzer.

[@CSPANwatcher]

@@Turboy65 I've used both of those models, along with the original 465 series. But much later in my career as a new product hardware designer, I used circa 2010+ Tek digital 'scopes. So much more capability, color display and four channels standard, cursors and measurement capability, the ability to save captures for incorporation into documents, etc.

[@homevideotransfer-vhstodvd9744]

I enjoyed working for Tektronix (Telequipment) in the UK, I was an engineer there from 1992 to 1998. Loved it.

[@1959Berre]

Besides being fine instruments, these tubes are works of art. They will have to pull my analog CRT scope from my cold dead hands.

[@theoldbigmoose]

Though all my scopes are now digital, I miss the smoothness of my Tek analogues... now just dots on a screen.

[@THEtechknight]

All of that complexity and QC checking, standards, etc. It really shows as these CRTs still perform as they were new, 60+ years later.

[@ernestb.2377]

I am very impressed how engineers and scientist figure all this out, and then build all the machines needed to produce large scale. And financial decisions to make all of this complex technology profitable too. Now I also better understand why these first oscilloscopes were so expensive. Very cool. We take a lot of stuff for granted, but it is quite fascinating all together.

[@MectronicsInc]

as diy electronic enthusiast first and electronic engineer after, I've always ammirated Tek products... with reason! A superior quality and technologies since their foundation!

[@paparoysworkshop]

Once you know how to do it, it's easy. Imagine the dedication, imagination and experimentation that was needed to figure it all out in the first place. It's mind boggling.

[@I967]

This should be scanned into glorious HD and restored frame by frame. Excellent film, flawless presentation. No obnoxious music, no quick cuts, no degenerate vocabulary used in narration. Thank you for sharing this.

[@Turboy65]

The mindset of Tektronix engineers was that the CRT was not merely a display device, it was a precision instrument ITSELF, made for the detection and display of the signal of interest. The rationale for their advanced development of the CRT was to better display the signal and thus extract more information from it. It was a new mindset: Treat the CRT AS the measurement instrument. Not just a way to display what the rest of the circuit passed on to it.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

This is one of the best CRT technical videos on the Net. Thanks for sharing this. Learned a lot, once again, nice job!

[@jayjohn9680]

I learned something too… tvs are complicated things indeed… because after about 2 minutes I got confused and my mind went numb at the 3 minute mark. 😖

[@jamietti]

I think it is about the volume of manufacture. There is still something like this happening and I am glad being part of it. I am talking of dilution cryostats. Welding, brazing, sintering, electroplating. Done in-house in small batches. There must be other products too, but only small scale. The pressure gauges we use say "made in Lichtenstein" 😅

[@AIexanderHartdegen]

The ingineers skills of this time absolutely blows my mind.

[@Turboy65]

Tektronix developed the art and science of the CRT to a level nobody else ever got close to touching. While they never made color TV tubes, if they had, we'd have had direct view HD TVs many years ago. Only Tektronix looked at the CRT as a performance limitation and not just as a display, and devoted massive amounts of time, money, and engineering to making the CRT a strength rather than a limitation in the equipment they made.

[@johnleach7879]

I'm unsure of why all the hoo-haa over CRTs, but I'm happy to see Tektronics get publicity, as they always made superior scopes and you could count on their time and voltage calibrations. I'm used them from 1960.

[@miladmoshayedi682]

Very good explanation, The CRTs are very complicated systems, and this video shows the basic ideas very simple and rather complete . Thank You.

[@NicholasMaietta]

Super cool. I always was afraid of TV sets as a kid. I loved electronics, but this is the first video that actually explained in detail, how it's constructed

[@Cyruscosmo]

When I was about 4 or 5 years old (66/67) my Mom caught me behind the TV set removing parts. When asked what I was doing she said that I looked up at her with an innocent expression and said. Mommy, how do the people get inside the TV? Dad was less than impressed when they had to have a TV tech come to the house and undo what I had done but they discovered early that I had a burning curiosity for electronics. He bought me old radio's that I could tinker with so I would stay away from the TV.

[@NicholasMaietta]

Now that's funny! My mom used to tell me to stay at least 6ft away from the television, not to get close to it because it put off Gamma rays. I didn't know what those where, but i imagined they had a smell like how we can smell the Ozone from toner-based printers and copy machines when in-use. I also figured the static generated when turning off the 'ole boob-tube must have been those gamma rays. :)

[@michaelogden5958]

Based on the cars in the parking lot, I'm guessing this was made in the mid-1950s. Fascinating stuff!

[@medhawk4885]

Great video and I appreciate that you are both preserving and presenting this material for us. Thanks~N4TYX~

[@Paul-gz5dp]

These tubes are what I learned electronics with, and still use today. I like how these scopes are little problem, and even the older ones are not too hard to work on. Tektronix made the better scopes, and I have even in the past used them as a room heater... The 535, 531, curve tracer, and 545. The TDS series is not as easy to work on though, as the parts are so much smaller, and I have a few of those as well.

[@shyleshsrinivasan5092]

Thanks a lot for publishing these videos sir ! These scopes are so much worth the money !

[@materialsguy2002]

Amazing engineering and production methods. Wonderful to see.

[@miroslavjakovcic4585]

I'm always impressed with genius design of CRT, it was really a huge leap

[@peterblaikie3744]

I recently purchased an older Tectronix Oscilloscope model 453 to get back into my love of electronics and it is great to find forums and videos about equipment I enjoy using and learning on.

[@famossfla]

Awesome presentation. Tektronix was and is the Cadillac of oscilloscopes.....

[@Daveyk021]

Wow, a huge amount of engineering and work went in to producing a CRT. That technology has probably been lost today. I imagine most of the people in that video are long since retired and buried. Wonderfull video though. I really appreciate the technology of the past and I have worked with scopes with those round Tek tubes in them.

[@rotormaxx]

Very good info about crt manufacture and electronics teknology history. Thank You! Tektronix.

[@lbochtler]

Just what i was looking for! Thank you for uploading!

[@waltschannel7465]

Excellent series. Thanks for the hard work!! Mr Carlson's Lab recommended this and I can see why.

[@nlo114]

06:06 - The wonderful 545B. I bought mine 50 years ago for £30, with the extra plug-in 4-channel amp. It still has it's little reel of silver repair solder on the bracket inside. I haven't used it for 40 years, but it has sentimental value!

[@MaxKoschuh]

oh, this was amazing. thank you for sharing. subscribed.

[@ernestoterrazas3480]

Fantastic and super interesting video congratulations. When I need to be rely sure of certain details in my developments, I don't trust that much the new digital oscilloscopes I always turn on the old analog one that can be trusted, No digital tricks. Thank you very much for the big detailed information you gave us.

[@malcolmwright7440]

The spiral resistance shown being deposited inside the large part of the glass envelope, was known as a GPA, or Gradient Potential Anode. It was connected to the final anode at the phosphor end, and the other end connected to next anode at the thinner end; which was connected via a well spaced pin on the tube base pins, so as to form a voltage gradient between them, giving a steady increasing voltage between the last two anodes, to give a gradual increase of accelerating voltage to the electrons towards the phosphor screen, to improve focus and acceleration of the electron beam while traveling in the wide part of the tube.

[@TimothyK4TEP]

I enjoy your Videos keep up the great work

[@niceguy60]

In college during the late 90 I was trained using CRT scopes but in the here and now I prefer my DSO

[@vasilis8208]

I love the vintage cars in the car park!

[@explorere620]

I love that. Thanks for sharing...

[@sibsbubbles]

Amazing what was at one time produced in such a hands on way. Wonder what the pass/fail rate was for these or where in the steps were the highest for having troubles.

[@adrinathegreat3095]

Imagine the complex engineering required to make the equipment required to make these CRT's. Then think back to how the inventor conceived the idea and had to provide a working model without any of the testing equipment, no auto welding machine or micrometer, everything done by hand, finding the right metals, fileing pieces of metal by hand on a work bench, 1 piece at a time. Even though this looks very complex, there's still a huge amount of machinery being used to speed up the process and keep costs down, eventually we'll make the machines to get rid of humans altogether, no need to have 1 person put a piece of metal into an auto welder, that can also be automated

[@DannerPlace]

Very enjoyable video.

[@allallall2321]

Hello from Ukraine. Thanks, naice video.

[@EdSullivan101]

Wow! I have a new respect for for my CRTs.

[@pfuisi]

Nice :) Soon I will upgrade my old oscilloscopes to a clock and do some osci music with CRT's. I just got some additional information.

[@normdoty]

why are they fired in a Hydrogen atmosphere ???? why not argon or co2 or something else ???? the complexity of these scopes is just mind boggling, it's no wonder these things cost more than a new car (back in the day) .. superb video's please keep finding these treasures and putting them up for us to get smarter !! thank you very much.

[@FADE2GRY2048]

Pretty much explains why the oscilloscopes where so expensive.

[@NicholasMaietta]

Yeah, but now they use LCD panels which are cheap. So why are they STILL so dang expensive?

[@FADE2GRY2048]

Because they do so much more. ;-)

[@strangersound]

Plus economy of scale. These type of instruments don't reach the production levels of mainstream electronics, and therefore don't benefit from the resulting savings in production costs. The level of R&D that goes into these instruments plays a major role in the cost. When you don't produce things by the billions, that initial investment still reflects in the price.

[@NicholasMaietta]

Excellent argument about their cost. I have resorted to software based system as they are cheaper and my requirements are fairly limited. As time progresses in my projects I am guessing that this argument will help me justify the expenditure for such a piece of equipment later on so Thank you!

[@ObiTrev]

First person to invent paper thin flat CRTs wins the internet.

[@RayRayGaming-cr3rw]

It would be next to impossible on a big scale. The old Sony watchman crts were somewhat “flat”

[@Dzonemp]

Mr. Carlson says subscribe, so I did.

[@Enzaie]

me 2..

[@repairitdontreplaceit]

me 3... :)

[@nathanhaltman7235]

Me 4

[@anotherdayisforever]

me 5

[@deadfreightwest5956]

Me too! Wonderful stuff.

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

Don't forget one of the first RAM devices was done on a cathode ray tube.

[@stefanocavallini9598]

beautiful

[@repairitdontreplaceit]

who else went on to ebay and bought a tube tek scope after watching this :)

[@quantumleap359]

I already own one, but yeah. My 545 is almost 50 years old, but still meets all specs. Great old units.

[@joepowell8394]

CRT display is still the best. I did not realize how labor intensive is the construction. No wonder TFT displays are easier to sell. The cost of building tubes would be exhorbitant. The old Red and Black Tek knobs are also of the highest quality and ergonomic function.

[@sibalogh]

I was always marveled by those CRTs, but now seeing their tedious manufacturing process makes me appreciate them even more, although their digital cousins are way ahead of them in anyways. Any idea what decade this manufacturing footage was taken considering the looks of those cars in the parking lot?

[@howardsimpson489]

No wonder they were expensive. I would love to WW2 assembly as there are lots of NOS crts still around, 70 plus years of holding their little vacuums.

[@enigmaticloremaster1700]

still got one of these oscilloscopes the 442 model and it works great.

[@mauriziovolpi7691]

Wonderful video! Could you please let me know the year of the video? I knew Tektronix for the fantastic "Phaser" printers (I had a 750 to do fine work) but this video was really a surprise. It's really true that you never stop learning 😉👍. Thank you.

[@mauriziovolpi7691]

@@bottomlands thank you! Very kind 😊

[@yoramstein]

Craftmenship of days gone. later Tek bought tubes from Philips for their factory in Heerenveen Netherland that produced the 2200 serie (1979 - )

[@cesargabrielachar344]

Hola amigo tengo un tektronix 7603 y hace un tiempo estoy intentando repararlo si me podes ayudar ..tiene un plug in 7L12

[@luisantoniomarrega1120]

Era um cistema interessante! Rio de Janeiro Brasil

[@nochjemand]

Great!

[@zulugula6030]

A miracle of technology. (100coment.😉)

[@johnny-z]

Just a few decades earlier, it was horse and buggy. Alien technology from Roswell et al.

[@deanagoes2791]

I l❤ve crt 😍

[@156dave]

Wow just think how much more complicated a storage tube must be to manufacture

[@UQRXD]

The CRT will replace my 4K flat screen in the future I can see it.

[@edwinrodolfocampossolis8832]

😊IS BEAUTIFUL😊❤❤❤❤

[@emanuelmifsud6754]

Husband to wife "Did you get your lead metal count today dear". Wife, "Yes dear, it was 1000 times higher than the normal" I wonder why?" Next day she is back at Textronixs spraying lead oxide on the cathodes. HMMMMM??

[@Kryoclasm]

What a pain to make. I would imagine there was a big dumpster out back with a lot of rejects and broken glass.

[@sibsbubbles]

right? I wonder what the turn-out rate of these was. I'd imagine they wanted at least 3/4 but who knows what was actually attainable.

[@LazBOG593]

Is Hal Smith narrating this?

[@manudehanoi]

I wonder who was the intended public for such video, it's divulging much technical info . It looks more like intenal training or investor info than advertising for product customers

[@qwaqwa1960]

So...much...engineering.

[@NicholasMaietta]

I love seeing Americans going to work in these companies. Those must have really been the days. I really hope we start seeing more american engineering coming back.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

Behind it all, the surface plate, as seen in some segments of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nX-1n6Wkaql4a5o

[@strangersound]

Like the production lines during the two world wars, this is another great example that dispels the myth that women have less mechanical aptitude. :)

[@YTANDY100]

@Brown Paw not sure about fine detail in planes , tanks and artillery shells but women were building them things during the war :-)

[@irgski]

based upon the minimum or total lack of ppe shown meant there was no government watchdog like osha.

[@jeffsmith50001]

Yes, that does it. We're in the Matrix

[@156dave]

Tektronix now make handbag scopes in China

[@Tadesan]

Pride? What's that?

[@d.c.hammond130]

Lots of INDUSTRIAL engineering. Machines and benches optimized to do ONE task with precision and efficiency. Lack of PPE is a bit disconcerting.

[@victoracunamendez7525]

Para entender el presente hay qué estudiar el pasado. Windows, 1,2,3,3,4,5,7,8,10,10×60= 600 ventanas,(Windows) , abiertas . Es como tener 600 televisores . En una computadora, usando diferentes perfiles en cada ventana, o canal, como por ejemplo, el canal de María y sus aventuras en You tube. Cosinando con Verónica, You tube.