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My new TV!

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NutmegCT said:
It's actually a pretty amazing, but simple, device. The spinning disk has a spiral pattern of holes, which pass across the neon bulb. The bulb fluctuates light and dark depending on the signal sent from the camera.

The "ship's wheel" allows the viewer to manually adjust the speed of the wheel, and placement of the picture, to match the sending unit (camera). Pretty clever, those old Scots:

View attachment 68195

(the spinning disk idea was created by a German, Paul Nipkow, prior to 1900; he called the disk an "image disector".) The first government sponsored German television station, mid 1930s, was named "Paul Nipkow" in his honor. Sadly, that government was the 3rd Reich.)
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fascinating! essentially a zoetrope with electronically generated images. Thanks for the lesson.
 
That is incredible!! And thank you for the diagram - makes a lot more sense now. (How much does it weigh?)

Can you watch anything on DVD - or do you need specially created content? (Obviously you want lower resolution movies... can't read the "ticker tape" on the bottom of the news channel!)
 
Hi Mike - thanks for asking. Unit weighs about 50 pounds - not much "plastic" back in those days.

You can watch any modern DVD, plus I can create my own content by putting old movies (Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, etc.) on a DVD. You can also use some software to create audio files (WAV files) to provide direct signal to the light source (the neon bulb or LED array). Back in those days, the only way to have picture *and* sound, was to have two radio receivers using two different frequencies.

Good video of the complete Western TV setup, with two receivers:


Here's a good overview of the invention, development, and commercialization of TV back in the 1920s:

Mechanical Television - TV & Illusion Generators

www.hawestv.com

My next step: put some old b/w movies on DVD, to show the audience what they would have seen back in 1929.
Tom M.
 
George_H said:
This brings me back. I was a TV repairman in the 70s. I remember trying to explain to a customer that she could not keep here big speaker on top of the TV set!
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Your son says you have an awesome set of tools, you can fix it! :D
 
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