Original 1956 RCA Film: Vintage Television Electronics & Vacuum Tube Production, TV technology
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- čas přidán 18. 09. 2020
- A digitally enhanced version of the RCA Television Division" history film. An excellent 1956 color film showing the technology of building a television, including vacuum tube production, quality control and testing of electronic components. Wonderful vintage technology from a great American company. I hope you enjoy this journey through the past. Run time: 26 minutes. (Educational, Historical)
Here are several suggested videos related to RCA Computers, and other early vacuum tube computers.
Vintage RCA Computers: A brief look back
• Computer History: RCA ...
Early Vacuum Tube Computers
• Computer History 1949 ...
Footnote: The 1950’s production techniques and testing of TV vacuum tubes had to be improved even further for the tubes used in computers. Computer tubes demanded a higher rating for reliability and longevity, since early computers used thousands of tubes and tube replacement was a laborious task. - Věda a technologie
When I was a teenager, in the mid sixties, my dad would find an old , non functional RCA television for me to play with. I would spend hours on trying to repair it. And usually succed in this endeavor.
This eventually led to 50 years in the electronic repair industry. Thanks so much dad. Miss you lots.
Hi Warren C., sounds like we have some similar experiences here. Thanks very much for your sharing your thoughts. Sounds like you had quite a lengthy career too! ~ Victor
I still use 50s and 60s RCA tubes in my hifi setup. Amazing quality. You just can't beat American made quality during this time period.
I'm a ham radio operator, these RCA tubes from the 40s-60s are still rocking the air waves today. I just restored a radio from the 40's with RCA tubes, not a single one was bad. I guarantee you wont be able to say that about Chinese made components in 80 years.
Dittos, OM, KR4HH
that is because companies still did tot now that a TV that lasts more than 5 years costs them money not make it. 5 years may be long enough to ensure you buy a new one from the same manufacturer. But not all tv's make it that long anymore yet they did sell you a tv so they made money off you in the long run.
Back when you had to take a morse code speed test and build a working component to learn soldering ect.
They're still rocking in my living room as well as I have an all original stereo receiver from 1961 with the same valves as when it came out of the factory. Most of them are mullard England and rca USA.
@@brianchisnell1548 You still have to do these tests in Canada to have a full license.
My dad fixed TVs for a living in the 50s up to about 1980. He passed away about 2 years ago at 93 and he would have loved to see this film. Anyway, I did enjoy this!
Thanks for uploading.
Hi Eddie, thanks very much for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed the video. Hope it brought back some good memories. ~ Victor
My father was a field engineer with RCA and was located at Cherry Hill in the 50s and 60s. He wasn’t in this film (but I recognize the white shirt and dark ties of an engineer) but thank you for posting this.
I miss this kind of work so much. I was trained by men and women just like these, who actually worked during the birth of the electron tube and who were also hand picked to work on The Manhattan Project and a host of other very critical jobs that ensured wartime victory and the rebuilding of the world after military destruction. The pride, caring and amazing intellectual and physical skills of these people is all but lost in today's people. Thanks for the reminder of my roots and why I am so disappointed with what things have become.
Hi OldTooly, glad you enjoyed this look back. ~ Victor, CHAP
I used to work for 12 years with one of the top electronics company in MA, America,that care and put effort on quality organization under philphaphy "quality begin with fundamental" but in the 90's after the Gulf War America under the industry leadership of one guys name "Welsh" that raised the profits on top of quality and destroyed people with long terms by using term "you will good somewhere else" and shipped work to cheap labor country and don't care of quality! I was one of QC/QA who was let go to die on the street!
Actually on old TV's and radios the main reason for failure was in the Capacitors. They would get old and leak. Many old radios and TV's can be brought back to life by changing out the capacitors.
Lots of the tubes lasted forever.
Very true!
The cabinet from our 1956 RCA television was sold with the contents of my mother's house in 2016 and is probably still in use. It still looked great at 60. It was a doored cabinet.
RCA was the king! In 1968 my folks got a console RCA TV and a very nice RCA Stereo Console at the same time (VLT-72W, the Ramsgate). The TV was great but died long ago; the guts to the old Stereo Console degraded in the 80's. Hook those console speakers up to any decent amp, and you have a system that can both ROCK the house, and is also great for Movies & Blu-Rays. Even with only the two speakers, the sound quality, punch, and low bass are all there. Those speakers kick major ass after 56 years! Way to go, Radio Corporation of America! Long Live the USA!
Hi @johnalexander7490, thank you for the great feedback. Yes, RCA was quite the king back then! People had lots of respect for RCA products. Wish they were still around...
I miss this America
me too, now america is worse
I used to love repairing those console televisions. So easy to work on, with all discrete components. Most of them were like beautiful furniture, as much a part of home's decor as a china cabinet or dining room table.
Very true! ~ VK, at CHAP
I repaired tv’s in the mid 70’s and the biggest issue we had was the grounds on the chassis. Resolder the grounds and that fixed a lot of issues.
Yeah because everything in the video is advertising lie, reality get these things out the door, 1000 per minute ! Ship ship ship , sell sell sell
Many of the circuits in those older receivers stressed the sweep tubes beyond their recommended ratings, and so those often failed. Rarely did tubes in video and audio circuits need replacement even after several years. After the last of those circuits went solid state, reliability was greatly improved. The CRT design was also improved, increasing its service lifetime considerably.
The tuner on board design, and ground issues.
I'm amazed at the complexity of this once massive system. Take for instance the automated tube checker. A lot of engineering went into building one of those and I doubt any sit in museums.
Hi Fred, good point! Thanks. Victor, CHAP
The testing equipment was more advanced than the TV's!
Your doubts are unfounded There are allot ot museums, some for instance in the national geographic museum in Victoria BC Canada , they have allot of historical TV tech on display. Based on that , I'm sure somewhere there is one of those on exhibit
Re "allot ot engineering went into ..."That's what they are trying to convey to would be competitors, luckily sony , samsung panasionic knew it was all bs, , in fact the 60" flip out RCA projection tv sets that cost $30k in the early late 70s early 80s had Toshiba manufacturing Japan written on the back panel 😂😁 I never bought another RCA after that. companies still do this, with amazingly simple products too. Philip's led lights in Canada say made by Signal Mfg right on them,!
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I love watching these kinds of films for the nostalgic and to see the products, even though i know the publicity dept made these
Back when employers and employees cared about the company, the job and what when out the door !!!
10:40 Enough to provide the employees with gloves and safety goggles?
@@seankayll9017 they all got lawyers and sued the company so that the company outsourced jobs to slave labor in China. In China they don't have OSHA
Spraying lacquer wood cutting open blades factories where a toxic and unsafe place companies didn't care
That was absolutly fascinating, I loved every seccond of it. Real craftsmanship and care went into electronics back then.
@@ArumesYT RCA didn't hold a candle to Zenith.
It was an ad.
Shame there's no attention to detail in people's correct spelling these days! You still havve timme to editt yourr commment
The first colour television was made for RCA with the standard NTSC system. It was a CTC-100 model full of tubes with delta canyon CRT and round screen. All the components inside are made in USA and today many collectors have this TVs working perfectly. Golden age electronics in USA at this time.
So much effort used to be put into making things last. We sure went to a disposable society in a flash
These needed service and new tubes every 6 months or so. I couldn't kill my flat screen if I wanted to, short of physical damage. Not all things are worse than they used to be.
Hard to believe everything in this film is obsolete except the cabinet making people.
This really is a fantastic document on the electronics industry of the time. Interesting to see which techniques have survived to this day and which have been forgotten. I only got to know some things many years later as "new technology", this wiring technique known as wire wrapping, some scenes were also set, e.g. the technician with the Lissajous figure on the oscilloscope. And some things also surprised me. The manufacture of color picture tubes with a completely circular screen, while only shortly afterwards the manufacture of television sets with clearly more rectangular picture tubes was shown. In summary, thank you very much for making these interesting historical films available. I hope to see a lot more of it. (PS I live in Germany)
Hi Peter, thank you for your kind words and insight. Glad you liked it. Hope you will check out our other vintage videos too. ~ Victor, at CHAP
Fantastic film! I remember well going to the RCA Harrison plant on a high school field trip in 1970 or 1971. I was really into electronics at the time so I was in hog heaven. The Harrison plant was bought from Edison and those buildings were from about 1880-1885 as I recall. Very old 3-4 story brick factory bldgs, even then. I remember most of the floor was comprised of 3" x 12" raw wood planks. The most interesting part (to me) was the tube-making carousels. Utterly fantastic machines, maybe 10 feet in diameter, all chain driven. There were perhaps 45 stations around the circumference of the machine. They were making only glass-base tubes at the time. Starting with the base, at each station a tiny piece of metal was fed in, then spot welded to the supports, then KACHUNK, the carousel rotated a notch after maybe 12 seconds at each position. Then the lower mica. KACHUNK. The cathode. KACHUNK. Grid #1, KACHUNK. Grid #2 KACHUNK. Plate. KACHUNK. Top mica KACHUNK. Getter. KACHUNK. The top of tube, looking like a champagne flute dropped over the guts. KACHUNK. Gas flame welds the top the base. KACHUNK. Vacuum out the air. KACHUNK. RF coils flash the getter with barium wool. Although it was completely fascinating, it was also clear it would drive you frickin batty after a few hours.
Hi pneumatic00, that's a fascinating story! You were lucky to be able to visit the plant in action back then. I can imagine the sounds just as you described. Thank you for sharing this memory! ~ Vincent, at CHAP
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I have been looking on YT for some footage of one those machines in operation, with no success. I've been able to find a few videos on tube construction, mostly gals with tweezers, but so far none of those incredible machines.
Amazing.... This explains why my 1958 kitchen radio still works perfectly (granted it's a Blaupunkt, but I guess that would be the European equivalent to RCA). I have owned it for 15 years, I once had to replace the the scale bulbs and when I took it apart I was amazed - it was all original inside!
Back then quality mattered.
Yes, great quality from that time period. (I wonder if your 1958 radio has the "CD" on the dial for "Civil Defense" too : ) ~ Victor, at CHAP
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Only if the radio was made for the US market.
German electronics standards are what it’s all based upon. Think Project Paperclip. Blaupunkt is indeed still a very high quality company.
@@RJDA.Dakota is it? it suffered too in the last decades well at least in the cheaper consumer category...
The days of good products way before the days of chinese flat screen tv sets. Youre lucky if a tv today lasts 5 years. I still would love to get analog channels on an ntsc tv. I could watch a slightly snowy channel, the digital signsls dont go as far. Youre lucky to get one digital over the air channel versus 10 channels of analog channels on an antenna.
What a wonderful, interesting and educational film. It's no wonder why American made products lasted forever when they were made at that time.
Thank you for your time and effort for posting.
Thanks for your kind words. You are welcome to explore our other videos as well. ~ Victor, at CHAP
It's wild at 15:42 watching them paint and apply lacquer without respirators man different times... OSHA would have a field day 😂
No PPE worn by anyone, but it was a very different world
Love the cork-tipped tube whackers at 9:46.
No better way to check for microphonics than to bang on the tubes.
Gives a little kiss on their cheeks as they go out into the real world. They grow up so fast.
@@gavincurtis poor baby tubes getting spanked before leaving home for the real world.
A lot went into those TV sets!
I get the impression that the aspect of longevity seemed to play a much bigger role for consumers back then. Of course, electronics weren't as reliable as they are now, but still. In today's adverts, longevity is rarely mentioned. People do not care and producers tend to build for a short livespan to sell more.
They really are not reliable now.
I have a 62 year old radio in my kitchen, use it every day. Will I still be able to power up this computer I'm now typing on in 60 years? Doubt it.
I have a 1959 Zenith 8 transistor Royal 500 that still works with all-original parts. I never got around to re-cap it. Put in batteries and it just works.
I was employed at the Lancaster PA plant in 1970 as a test set maint tech. Our group maintained the custom built test equipment that was used in picture tube and power tube areas. Many fond memories. 😊
It's worth mentioning that Sylvania invented the color picture tube ,and owned the patents on production of the very best color phosphors
RCA invented the shadow mask colour tube.
Maybe we need to go through a rough patch as a society, so we can return to the quality standards and pride of workmanship such as this. Is it strange to think like this?
jkanclark : No it's NOT .
We are so vastly far beyond this in every conceivable way, I am wondering what you refer to. Do you pine for the awesomeness of the velocipede?
@MichaelKingsfordGray Wow grandpa! Do you have statuary of Reagan and Thatcher in your front yard? That is one of the most clueless comments I’ve ever read on CZcams, and that’s saying something.
Not strange, but impractical. Because we are being forced as an entire species, to accept a global restructuring by the worlds most powerful individuals, families and corporations, who form an alliance. This is in accordance with a long term plan to establish a communist style world government which will place control of everything on earth into the hands of these people. Terror is their main tool, and sabotage, disease,the environment, and racial conflict, among others, the contextual mediums. _They_ will continue to live and work in a separate sphere, in the style to which they are accustomed. It means the destruction of middle and even upper classes, leaving only the very wealthiest and most privileged alone. The poor will die. Those opposed to it will die, as will any deemed unfit. The pandemic is only one deliberate means of doing this and the vaccines are the real reason for it, because they enable surveillance and tracking, and even in some cases, remote alteration of individual biometrics and credit through the imminent cashless system. Theres a big chance they will fail, and the world will become unlivable in (in my humble opinion). So this would be a rough patch we cannot return to normal from. If they succeed, the same applies, because the technocratic dystopia they want will have only one purpose, to keep them in power indefinitely, and to make them immortal through Transhumanism and space travel (okay, 2 or 3). 2021 is the year for implementation, so not much time, if any. Merry Christmas.
Will never happen.
All this was possible due to the high cost of early TV's. People were glad to shell out the equivalent of $4,000 2020 dollars for a TV. When Japan got into it, they priced the US manufacturer's out of business.
Man, I wish they put this much work into TV sets now. Those old ones could keep going for easily forty years, but the new ones start falling apart almost immediately
100% true
I can still remember as a child in a small city in the sixties that our only convenience store, a 7-11, had one of those tube testing cabinets in there along with, underneath the tester, bins of spare tubes. Rather than calling a repairman people just took the tubes out of their radios and some TV's and took them down there. I'm afraid to touch anything on today's electronics!
I remember my grand parents buying a 1962 RCA color set back in the day. Cost nearly a 1/4 years pay, and wasn't soon after the TV repairman was considered a family member! LOL. I did "last" for over a decade though, as mentioned in the film.
We had boxes of extra vacuum tubes for our color set, and every drug store had a tube tester and sold vacuum tubes! If only I had bought a thousand black plate 12AX7s!!! haha
My grandmother bought the first color tv (RCA) in the family around '62. The thing lasted forever without major repairs. Never failed. Beautiful furniture as well. It was just thrown out after she died.
I have a "computing machine" just as the narrator mentioned in the film! 👍😂
The lack of safety in these plants is shocking by today's standards. People handling lead circuitry bare-handed for 40 hours a week, working with radioactive picture tubes with no protection, spraying chemicals with no respirators, cutting wire and trimming electrical leads with no eye or hand protection. It makes you wonder how many thousands of people died an early death from lead poisoning, cancer, lung disease, and other maladies from working in these plants. That woman trimming leads with her bare-hands on lead covered boards was especially shocking.
Interesting observations, thanks very much. ~ Victor, CHAP
Wow! What an incredible piece of historical film! These days everything is so mass produced the quality control does not compare to whats shown here. Thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it! - Victor, at CHAP
Used to be Lovely time... Nothing lasts for ever...
There's more actual wood in one of those cabinets than there is in an entire furniture store today!
I started in my electronic career just as the all tube sets were replaced with the XL 100 transistor line. All reliable in a school system environment. Even had RCA intercom and PA systems from the 40's still working on the late 80's. Miss the days of learning, analyzing, troubleshooting, and repair. Now just set it out for trash and buy new, no repair feasible. But can't complain about video quality of today...😉
Hi Dan, great comment. That must have been a fascinating career, thanks for sharing! ~ Victor, CHAP
Dan, I do remember those days and loved the "new" XL 100 and "ColorTrak" sets. One thing I enjoyed was having to travel to an RCA training center to learn some new chassis stuff.
But as for tossing out the TVs today, some yes, but others can be repaired.
The biggest problem these days is trying to get GOOD schematics, parts list and PARTS for some makes.
Most are truly designed to be tossed, that's for sure.
My favorite TV of "these days" is our Panasonic 3D Plasma TV. I've had to repair it twice in the (around) 12 years that we've had it.
The first time I opened it up, I was surprised at how minimal the circuity was, especially for a 3D TV.
The first repair was a few of the larger capacitors in the power supply.
The 2nd was one of the several fans seized up and the TV went into protection mode. That was an easy fix too as all I had to do was take the fan apart and do a good cleaning on it and oil the shaft. LOL
It's too bad that companies make tvs as throw aways now.
I think that's part of the reason why some of the bigger companies have either stopped making TVs or have really cut down or only sell to certain countries now.
Like you say, we just get garbage now, mostly coming from China.
Even the wonderful RCAs of the past did not carry on the quality control.
The crap tvs with the RCA name on them are not nothing more than the same trash sets that are out with other brand names on them.
Oh, how things have changed since those times.
Heck, I remember servicing those old sets, way back when......
We had a console TV that was really well made piece of furniture.When TV finally gave out my Dad made a nice bar out of it.
Recall Allied Electronics and HeathKits (Build your own TV) did all that stuff in High school
Yep good times
DEVO's first Synth's were Heathkits they modified themselves.
Drinking game...one shot for everytime he says "Quality"
Or "men" ... ;)
Drunk already.
Just give me the bottle
RCA made excellent vacuum tubes.
We had one identical to the last blonde console they showed at the beginning of the video. We had a thrift store across town and the back of the store across a wooden ramp they had a as is department where they sold TVs your choice 5 dollars a piece. We bought a blonde console identical to the one in this video. We got it home and plugged it in and it played like a new one the CRT had very little hours clocked on it. I was only 12 years old at the time. Just like nowadays there are people with money who get sick of looking at something will run out and buy a new one when their old one is perfectly fine.
Hi Thomas, that is such a cool story. I think our town in Mass. had a thrift store with an "as is" TV/radio department too. I had forgotten all about it until reading your comment. Wow, that brings back memories! ~ VK
Thanks for sharing!
Did they mention that Philo T. Farnsworth invented television and was granted a patent on it and David Sarnoff and RCA stole it from him?
Very good. I might have repaired that 1 model I saw!
Craftsmanship and quality you don't see today. It's amazing how many offices and factories there were many years ago here in the U.S. Most of that is gone, sadly and lives in another part of the world, where there is little, if no quality control. We had it good America, what happened?
Corporate greed and political ambitions is what happens. While I am a believer in mankind coming together one day, we have mistakenly begun lowering the standards of living for the greatest of us, rather than elevating the standards of the lowest of us, all in the name of control over people. Don't just trust my word, look for yourself.
@@OldTooly Exactly.
when Western manufacturing was at its best....
Sad but awesome!
amazing, ive been looking for a channel like this
Hi Enigmo, Welcome, Welcome! We are so happy you found our unique and growing channel. Thank you for being a new viewer. Hope you will explore our many video offerings! ~ Victor, at CHAP
Fantastic !
Many thanks!
Definitely don't see "skilled cabinetmakers" working on today's sets, that's for sure.
This was back in the day when a television was a piece of furniture that you'd keep for a decade or more, not a disposable plastic frame. I was a kid in the 1970s -- I remember a 1965 Zenith that my parents still had in the basement, in our rec room. Big old wooden console with a 25" screen -- must've cost them a fortune in '65 when they bought it. Took at least 2 people, if not more, to move it. LOL.
Yes, some people kept broken sets around for years, because it was such a nice cabinet, they didn't want to throw it out. :)
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject These days it's more about PICTURE QUALITY than CABINET QUALITY! Today's TVs are also attractive in their own right! Slender, with no bulky CRTs! I would also point out that cheap plastic cabinets were also used back in "the good old days of CRT", usually on smaller portables.
Yeah, now skilled asian kids assemble electronics
Can you imagine how much better our stuff would be if companies had this type of quality control these days? Certainly less land fill. We now live a throw away society. It's really sad.
Qué recuerdos tan lindos yo empecé en el campo de la televisión en los años 70 y fue lo mejor de mi vida Aunque ahora tenemos avance Pero todo es chatarra y desechable en la década pasada se fabricaba con calidad y amor lo que pasamos por esa década y estamos vivos tenemos buenos recuerdos
Google Translate says: "What beautiful memories I started in the field of television in the 70s and it was the best of my life Although now we have progress But everything is junk and disposable in the last decade it was manufactured with quality and love what we went through that decade and we are alive we have good memories."
Hi @manuelrodriguez6102, thank you very much for your feedback! -- Victor, at CHAP
i realy admire how save they work when tuning the screen
I'm not sure of ANY company that tests as extensively as they did back in the day when they built things in that kind of quality, testing devices at twice what it was rated for to see if it would fail, WOW. Even the cabinet's where tested for durability. Not only quality went in to the electronics of the set, it was also meant to stay beautiful in its service life.
My grandfather would turn the wooden tv cabinets into beautiful pieces of furniture. They used very good wood.
That’s some serious QC.
Cotton gloves, safety equipment - who needs that? LOL.
When things were made in the U.S.A.
RCA = JAPAN VICTOR CORP
@@idolhanz9842 JVC was the original subsidiary of the Victor Talking Machine Company in the late 1920’s. RCA acquired Victor (and JVC) in 1929, however, JVC disconnected itself from RCA in World War II.
@@idolhanz9842 yes and my flip open RCA 60 inch projection TV said Toshiba of Japan on the back. These films are a deep fake publicity stunt. Like when in the early 90s walmarr was importing everything from China, but had massive signage saying buy American all over their stores
@@tomfinley6620 wrong! Wall street controls businesses not any one political party. Also even if parties did , think about this fact 1 party wants social programs, the other party like wall street wants bigger profits for businesses
To run social programs you need revenue , the biggest payers of revenue tonight pre 1980 were big business taxed at up to 70 percent . To reduce the taxes you have to spend that money , in country . Wall street only cares about profits, they wanted lower costs. "The business party " controlled the USA from 1980 to 1992 that's when this shift happened and you had all these movies like Wall Street , Gung Ho, come out to reflect that .
Of course many have already taken the red pill or the blue pill , so reality is tinted for those people , by the pill's marketing.
Reality is businesses owned by wall street , don't care who's in power , they only care about every last cent of profit, that means lowering costs, largest costs in mfg are: 1) labour 2) a distant second is logistics aka shipping
I'm so tired of everything needing to be attributed to politicians. Before that it was celebrities, exhausted from that too.
Good old days when things were made in america.
It's a shame we don't make anything anymore..
The good ole' days...
@16:16 I wouldn’t have wanted a TV that was on the bottom of that stock. glad I was born decades later when I have the opportunity to buy a 65” flatscreen for just $399
I... I think I've been to the Lancaster PA plant. It's obviously not owned by RCA anymore, and a lot of the old employee parking is used by a car dealership next door. I can't remember what they make there now, but the building is fuggin creepy. Maybe it's too much Fallout, but the building isn't in great shape and I had to deliver there in the wee hours and only the forklift operator was there and I had to hunt him down through this unlit ancient building... Several of the accessory buildings were still standing in varying degrees of disrepair as well.
Thank you for the updated info on that location, quite fascinating info. ~ Victor, CHAP
Ja damals hat die Qualität noch die wichtigste Rolle gespielt ! Und die Langlebigkeit !!
In a film lasting 26:40 I reckon I heard the word "quality" about 250 times! 😂😂😂
If a two hour long film was made for a 2020 TV factory you'd hear it once if you were lucky.
and not one time did you hear the word "woman"
@@srtamplification Women were home raising the next generation of Americans and managing and maintaining the homes. Some women did work on the assembly lines as in this film, doing precision testing, assembly and checking, but the vast majority of engineering was done by men. And the word 'men' was the generic term for the staff, workforce, etc. That only changed in the 70's when the fireman became the 'fireperson' bullshit.
He says "quality" a lot, but this was actually when RCA started getting cheap by using printed circuit boards. Tubes and circuit boards don't mix well....
Heat cycling and materials of different coefficient of expansion. Worse today with lead free solder.
@@hawksights Heat causes boards to flex, causing bad solder joints. Also can crack the boards.
Heat from the tubes.
PCB's don't provide the heat dissipation of the old metal chassis... of course the power requires of the time where quite large! Made a few 1000 watt linear amps with horizontal fly back parts of the TV (other parts too).
With all technology these days I was told when buying a new 4K tv "it will last for years" I said I don't want it to last for years, I think the reason is obvious, no one wants old tech.
... but I love old tech. : )
Dude, you sold me! Where can I buy one of these modern marvels?
Came for the awesome video, stayed for the "cane shaking" in the comment section.
Whatever happened to these vast facilities that made now obsolete products? Are the buildings even there?
Were they ever there ? Contact RCA oh wait you can't they are owned by Thompson Electronics of France and Zenith with its iconic Space Phone starship curved stereo TV set is owned by Samsung of South Korea
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Imagine how freaked out these guys would be. If you showed them an iPad playing hd video !
yes, unquestionably! : )
This all may have been true "back then" but the later (color) sets using very high power horizontal output and other tubes with sockets mounted on a PC board absolutely sucked. The big tubes simply cooked the 'ell out of the board, and generated intermittent and other problems.
Yes, tubes had their difficult issues as well. Good point! I know a lady who's tube console set (1960) caught fire just from bad tubes and/or transformers. ~ Vincent, at CHAP
The "fly back" transformer on a color TV created 27kv on its output. That voltage was still present when the set was off as well.
B&W tvs were 13kv
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject What causes a fire..
The oils inside the (directly connected) Capacitors, "sour from age" & the part "shorts out" and the transformer overheats..
All electronics components, from back then...and today..are mainly Chemicals.
Time is unkind to chemicals.
That's why you see expiry dates.
I worked for RCA service division in the mid 70's to mid 80's before RCA was bought by GE. I remember one of my work mates bringing in a brand new Sony TV to do a comparison between it and RCA's top model color TV. The RCA was brand new out of the box as was the Sony. I have to say that the picture quality of the RCA was dreadful in comparison. We all agreed. So much for the "quality", "quality", "quality" hype.
Hi Dieter, good points.
2:36 "An average capacitor must be able to withstand at least twice it's rated voltage" ... compare that with today's capacitors that EXPLODE even if you go even a tiny teenie weenie bit over.
You are a bad man for wanting a better capacitor. Those are only for our global overlords.
6:04 They're using an oscilloscope made by Tektronix, not RCA.
A very interesting observation! Thanks. ~ Victor, CHAP
And to be honest ... I don't think ANYthing made these days comes even halfway close to the quality of these RCA items and testing of such.
I think I could assist in remastering and creating a true stereo audio "image" of this.
As for the video, I lack video editing skill, so I doubt I could help restore that to original "new" appearance.
RCA was a great company . It is very sad that poor management and a weak Board of Directors sold it off to GE only to have it sliced up and become just a memory. I still have my fathers 1968 RCA Victor Mark I 25" color tv. The cabinet is walnut with doors, and looks like a fine piece of furniture. So sad that RCA is no more.
Magnavox aways had nice speakers in a tv. Todays chinese disposable sets have cheap tiny speakers.
I sometimes wonder if testing like shown here goes on these days! I kind of doubt it!
Lot of it is automated. And it is different. PCB are inspected by cameras and OCR systems. You can automatically check multiple boards by check pins. But anyway. In cheap electronics rarely tests are that elaborate. Especialy mechanical things. You not have lot of mechanical things on modern systems.
You get what you pay for. Now TV is cheaper than my mortgage payment because manufacturing costs and ability of mass produce very elaborate parts is very cheap. Few decades ago color TV was expensive almost like used car. And lot of it was assembled by people and tuned manually. Now same circuits are able tell you - i am shitty component and tune itself into various frequencies. You can also do a bit of crappy work on VF part as majority of things moved toward software radio.
@@rybaluc This type of checking was the base of what the great manufacturers do today, namely build it with so much precision and confidence that there is no need for much human checking. What is needed is mostly done automated, except that final human eye.
64 years later they are all in the landfill.
Sad. Hopefully there is one or two in a museum or two
@@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda, There are collectors who have sets built around this time.
Looking back at history you see that at the rise of consumer electronics --the 1950-ies-- quality was very important and used as selling point. After that, the 60s into the 70s production costs became more and more important until it seemed to be the only design criteria. Just open a Philco or Zenith radio radio television from the late 60s or early 70s. The construction was horrible. I just don't know if the component defect rate could be kept low due to the vast experience gained during the previous years. As I live in a humid tropical area where *everything* breaks down rather sooner than later I would not be able to tell.
Hi jlinkels, I think you make some very good points! Thanks! Perhaps the growing competition from non-US manufacturers were a factor in pushing quality control construction farther back in overall importance, than making a product that could get to market relatively fast, at a competitive price. Just wondering. ~ VK
Does anyone know where I can find the music from this?
Tomorrow's desired products in 1956. What are tomorrow's desired products today? Probably electric SUV's and trucks .
Even today, new old stock RCA valves are highly sought after. Look for a rca 6l6 gc and look the prices.
I'm so sad that the RCA manufacturing plant in Bloomington Indiana was torn down!
It would have been a great historical site to tour!
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Now I go see my doctor there, but it's mostly an empty lot.
Did televisions come in a set and had to be assembled?
Yes they made things that lasted a long time. What do they make now?... nothing.
Does anyone have any idea where exactly in "Medford NJ" the testing center was?
Hi Michael, great question, here is some info we found to help answer:
Haven't found specific reference to Medford, yet, but this may help. RCA was huge back in the day. They had buildings in Camden, NJ, and Harrison, NJ, and other locations. In 1930 R.C.A. bought the old Thomas Edison property, and began to manufacture radio tubes. R.C.A. was very successful, and expanded the plant to cover 9.5 acres, with 26 buildings. They made over 3 billion radio tubes at this location. The R.C.A. employee base consisted of more than 80% women. New technology was forcing the radio tube out of existence, and in 1976 the plant closed its doors and the site is presently occupied by the Harrison Plaza Shopping Center.
While interesting, these types of films were made by many many USA companies , industries . I saw a 1977 auto one on HBO in 79, these are largely fluff publicity films designed to scare the competition and advertise confidence to the would be buyer. Just like the picture of a pasture on your milk or eggs label with happy animals. Anyone with common sense knows the reality: high volume profit to the penny driven is how US companies work. Especialy publicly listed ones . That's why the device you're watching this video on, was
a) made with slave labour.
b) made overseas
c) as long as there is a wall st. This will never change
So, apparently consumer electronics used to be manufactured in the United States ... who knew? Good thing that we shipped all that to other countries, eh?
@MichaelKingsfordGray Wrong.. Greedy executives and the stock market was the guilty party there. What point is there making something the people making it can't afford?
Rca doesnt exist but the leco company does,she was using a leco analyzer
I think for the most part, people felt excited when they purchased consumer products in the 1950s. Not so much these days.
1:37 - The man who get paid to input two sinusoidal waveform generators into an oscilloscope's X and Y inputs in a standard demonstration usually done for school children. A month after this he was promoted to the dept of men you demonstrate Newton's Cradles before a hair raising experience with a Van Der Graaf generator.
Its called a Lissajous pattern. Very common
I miss when televisions where crt. they where more durable because if you put a new lcd or plasma tv set in a table it would fall and the screen would shatter and also old tvs look more appeling than new ones
Got it.