Quote:
Originally Posted by nasadowsk
This is interesting:
1) That anyone outside of RCA had the resources at the time to build the CY.
And:
2) That there was enough demand to actually bother, given color was barely selling in the US, and PAL was still over the horizon.
In the US, wasn't Zenith the second one to build color tubes?
(Ok, this starting to become serious drift, I guess...)
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When you say maker of color CRTs you fail to differentiate whether the CRT was prototype or production...RCA, Zenith, Dumont, CBS, and Philco (I'm probably forgetting others) all had prototypes that were revolutionary in some way or another but when color was standardized LATE in 1953 only 2 OEMs actually made CRTs for production TV as far as I know. They were RCA and CBS.
CBS developed and sold the 15HP22 (basically a 15GP22 with phosphor directly deposited onto the inside of the envelope instead of using a separate phosphor dot plate (RCA later bought the patent from CBS). They also made a 19" version of the 15HP22 for a few months before the 21AXP22 from RCA obsoleted it.
In 1958 when nearly every maker except Motorola had given up on making color sets and simply rebadged RCAs Westinghouse briefly made and recalled a 23" rectangular color with a CBS CRT. That CRT had both purity and convergence design flaws that led to the recall (2 examples are known to survive).
Zenith did not make a consumer market color TV until 1961 and though they had color CRT prototypes in 1954 they didn't gear up to make consumer CRTs until after they entered the consumer market....I have owned early Zenith branded 21FJP22s with an EIA code that indicated that they had been manufactured by RCA.
It would be interesting to know which OEMs produced color CRTs besides RCA in the years 1954-1964... If that data exists and is compiled it would tell you who started when and if any of the original OEMs took a break in the leanest years of color sales.
It is known that Japan had adopted NTSC color by 1960 and made roundy color TV for both their domestic market and export. I wonder if RCA exported enough to supply them or if they made their own plant.
Long before PAL Brittan and parts of europe were experimenting with color after NTSC came into existence. I could see a large tube and set OEM like philips making their own color CRTs on an experimental basis. Philips actually produced a roundy color for both Canada NTSC and european PAL markets, but I believe it used a 21FJP22....It would be interesting to know if they made their own CRT or bought American.