Can I pick your brains for a novel?

[venivdvici]

Hi, I hope it's okay to ask to pick your brains. I've poked around here, and your expertise blows me away. I know nothing about old tv and radio repair or even electronics, but I love retro. If you saw my home, you'd know what I mean.

I like to write novels for fun (but I'm not hawking them here!). I've written six over the past ten years (my practice novels). They're all set in the mid-20th century. I've recently edited them and feel I'm now capable of writing a new novel good enough to query to a publisher. (You learn a lot in ten years.) I just have to write it.

Anyway, my main character will be a tv repairman circa 1960. I might make him a geezer, and there'll be humor and mystery/suspense. I haven't worked out the plot yet. I've come across some great YouTubes about tv repair (I'm sure I linked off this site) and bought three old tv repair manuals published @ 1960. I plan to do my homework for normal repairs and jargon. What I need (for now) is some out-of-the-ordinary information about old television sets for my plot.

How can I electrocute (or otherwise kill) someone with a 1955 to 1960 television set? B&W? Color? I see in the manuals info about High Voltage area, Medium High Voltage area, capacitors, and antennae that might work, but it's not spelled out for me on how it's done. What can interference or magnets do to harm someone? (Can you tell I don't know anything??? Ha!) Any stupid tv tricks you can do with old televisions to mess with someone's mind?

I grew up in the tube tv generation, so I remember things like horizontal and vertical contrast and contrast and brightness dials and rabbit ears. I remember old tv shows. That's the extent of my vintage tv knowledge to date.

I'd appreciate any help. I can't offer anything but a free version of my last book and a thank you. And a mention in my new book (for what that's worth, ha!).

Thanks, Vivian

[Electronic M]

HV is a unlikely killer I've been hit with it an can assure you that I'm still very much alive.
On some sets the cap of the Horizontal out tube is able to give bad burns.
If one had to kill someone with a TV the best way would be to grab ground with one hand, and the B+ supply lead with the other, of just grab both terminals of the power cord. Most shocks don't kill if one keeps a hand in ones pocket (which is a SOP for technicians) so a tech is unlikely to get killed by a set, but a layman pokeing around, or the repair man using a TV as a MacGuiver-esq wepon of last/only avaliable resort is possible.

gota run.

[venivdvici]

I'll have to check out where the cap of the horizontal tube is.

I'm not sure I understand your second example. The victim would touch the ground and B+ supply lead? Okay. Maybe I've got it.

And third is holding both terminals of the power cord. Gotta see what that looks like.

Yes, it would be MacGiveresque! The tv repairman would be tied up and instruct the bad lady how to fix the tv.

Thanks so much!

[Electronic M]

Most sets of that time had a metal chassis (even the early ones that used circuit boards then had a chassis) and the chassis would be grounded. On most sets that had metal cabinets(portables, and cheaper table model sets) the cabinet would also be grounded.

Another potentially lethal scenario that is more possible is the series string power supply type sets which tied chassis ground to one side of the non-polarized plugs of the day. Chassis ground and actual ground could be at lethally different potentials back then, and on series string sets(the series string design dates back to radios of the 1930's BTW) if one pluged the set in backwards (very for easy anyone to do back then) the chassis could be at full power line voltage, and despite (often inadaquite) precautions the user could still get in contact with that voltage (a few B/W portables were notorious for having the precautions fail and the metal cabinet being connected to the hot lead of the powerline. On carpet, lenolium, wood floors or when a person is standing rubber in shoes this is not a serious danger, but bare foot on tile, cement, or out side the juice from a messed up series string set can be lethal!

Few people had color sets between 1955 , and 1960, becaues color was new (the "modern" NTSC standard was only created in 53' or 54'), and sets were expensive ( we are talking between new luxury car and a really good used one expensive). So if someone has a color set they either have good money, are technically skilled and pieced one together from junkers, paid a lot for a used one, or stole it.

If your technician is old then he probably started out as a radio repair man, and then transitioned to TV 10-20 years before the story is set. Some techs got mega confused by color (there was a primitive half mechanical standard that was dumped shortly after inception and there were many competeing and evolving experimental standards that were all swirriling around to confuse and daunt techs prior to the standardization), and simply got fedup deciding to refuse to work on color sets untill the survival of their bussiness hinged on it.

Techs of the day varied from the "replace the tubes and hope it works" hap-hazard loonies, to those who were good at finding and fixing any fault and had decent knowledge of the circuits, to retired or working engineers trying to earn some side money who not only could fix a set, but could design a TV or someting much more complex. Many techs in busy/profitable shops also hired an errand/house call boy to handle simple work at the shop and do the "so simple and manotenous I could train a monkey to do it" house calls (when what they were trained or knew how to do did not fix the problem they would take the set or the chassis back to the shop for the more experienced tech to deal with).

Current kills not voltage and for current to flow through one, one must touch two points at different voltages that can supply a large current. For example birds can stand on a power line and not get killed because they are not touching anything else but the line. But if a larger bird was to stand on the line and flap it's wings into the wood pole or an adjacent wire it would fry like a christmas goose. For current to be most lethal it must flow through the heart, and the most commonly occuring paths that facilitate that are current flowing between the two arms, or between the arm(s) and leg(s).

A non-electrocution way that one can be killed working on TVs is exploding metal can type electrolytic capacitors. They explode when connected backwards or to a voltage sutably beyond their rating. A friend of a friend had one explode in his face and was injured so bad that he had to give up this hobby. The older can type lytics were as big as tubes. When lytics explode the metal can usually stays intact and shoots off of the base terminals like a rocket due to steam pressure from mineral oil that boils when the cap over heats from the above mentioned circuit conditions (the insides of the cap can catch fire after the can goes flying).

I know from experience that electrolytic caps can be verry dangerous when allowed to explode. I used to (in my teen years) take caps I had scrounged from 70's stereo equip., and blow them up under safe controlled circumstances outside to entertain myself and my friends. Some of the larger ones that I fired (about 1/8 to 1/32 the size of what are found in tube TVs) could shoot across the street (a total distance of as much as three street widths), and the distance traveled seemed to be proportional to size so I can only immagine what the damage the type found in tube TVs could cause.....maybe enough to punch a hole cabinet and keep going.

Tom C.

[venivdvici]

Tom, that's some great information you've given me. Of course, I'll have to look up some of the terms you've provided in my old manuals to have clue as to what you're saying! Ha! You've given me fodder for not only the plot but how to build the main character. Thanks so much!

[Adam]

I would think it much more likely that someone would get killed while working on a tv by getting cut from a big shard of flying glass from an imploding CRT(cathode-ray tube = picture tube), than from any kind of electrocution. The picture tubes are under vacuum, so there are something like thousands of pounds of air pressure pushing in on a picture tube (and the bigger the tube the greater the pressure), so if one breaks, the tube will actually implode under all that force, and send the bits of broken glass flying.

Some of the really early (built before WWII) tvs used a different kind of HV(high voltage) supply that produced large amounts of current as well as high voltage, one of those could possibly electrocute a person. But on most tvs the HV will give you a good jolt, but wouldn't really kill somebody.

[Electronic M]

You are welcome. I used to write a bit in my high school creative writing class so I have an idea of what parts of my electronics knowledge are relavant to this kind of thing. My teacher in that class was disapointed once because my group did not pick my story to go against others in the class for the final one to compete with the other class' best believe it was my Sci Fi assignment.

Best of luck.

Tom C.

[Sandy G]

I dunno about gettin' electrocuted by TVs, but trust me on this one, NEVER, EVER, Pee on an Electric Fence...ESPECIALLY a "Bull Dozer"....Still hurts to think about it after nearly 50 years....

[Electronic M]

Ouch!...Glad I'm not brave or stupid enough to try that.

[Sandy G]

I was a 4, 5, 6 yr old kid...Something you gotta learn the Hard Way...Another Hard Way lesson was learning that no, you CAN'T outrun the things that live in that basketball sized grey thing that hangs from that low branch on the tree 10' from the door of the house...After you've whacked said Grey Thing w/a Tobacco Stick....Mbwahahahahahaha...

[Electronic M]

I out ran all but one (the son of a gun got my ear), but then I was tossing rocks from about 25' away and had a head start. Me and a friend went at it for nearly an hour before the bugger got me. Only time I ever got stung.

[venivdvici]

Adam,
I like the imploding tv and glass. Pretty gory but effective. And since my story will be set in 1960, it's not entirely impossible there could be a pre-WWII tv in there. I'll keep these in mind. Thanks!

[venivdvici]

Sandy,
Those are great stories! Shoot, did they have electric fences in 1960? That'd be great to put in my story.

[Sandy G]

Well, hon, they had 'em in '63 or '64...That's when my, Erm, "Encounter" happened...

[Electronic M]

I've seen electric fence ads in 30's magizines so I'd immagine they were still used and avalable in the 50's and 60's.