Is this really the OLDEST TV in the UK?
 

Saw this article a few days ago, thought it was worth re-posting:

"Britain's oldest working television has been tracked down in a house in London.
The 1936 Marconiphone is thought to have been made in the months that Britain's first "high-definition" television service began.
The set belongs to Jeffrey Borinsky, an electrical engineer and collector of antique television and radio sets.
He bought the set, which has a 12-inch (30cm) screen from another collector 10 years ago and is still working on restoring it to its original state.
The screen is mounted inside a wooden cabinet. The image from the cathode ray tube, mounted vertically inside the cabinet, is reflected onto a mirror.
The few controls include volume and vertical hold, but there is no channel changer, as there was only one channel when it was made: the BBC."

Oldest TV in UK BBC link

Whether it is the oldest or not, this part of the news item is good reading for
us old TV set collectors:

"The set was discovered as the result of a competition run by Digital UK, the body overseeing the switch to digital television. The aim was to publicise the message that just about any television, however old, can be used to show digital channels."

Wish something similar would be done in other countries that are in the process
of switching. Could keep a few CRTs out of landfills...

If it isn't the oldest, it certainly must be ONE OF the oldest ones. They weren't making them for very long before that, and not so many of the ones that were made would have survived, especially if you require them to be working today! :no: That said, I always think it's possible there are some tucked away somewhere, forgotten. Think of the extraordinary things they find every few years in Great Manor Houses. People who lived in them could afford these kinds of toys, and had room to set them aside in some closet or unused room where they could still be sitting, unappreciated and ignored by their current owner ... who might never have heard of the contest, or bothered to contact anyone. There probably is an older set somewhere (probably NOT working)... but finding out WHERE it is, would be a challenge, for certain.

The video had a few caveats - they called it the "oldest working television in a private home." That implies both older non-working sets in private hands, as well as older working sets in museums or other public institutions.

Hello!

Is there an ion burn in the middle of the screen visible:scratch2:

Greetings Josef

I know this guy, bought some Hi Fi through him. He is a very nice person, very clever engineer and has some interesting old equipment.

yup the CRT definately looks like it has seen better days.

Still pretty neat, though. Not many pre-war sets around ANYWHERE...

The tube probably isn't as bright as new, but it wasn't very bright then either.

Didn't I see some miniature tubes on the chassis?
If so, that wouldn't be pre-war. It's be post-war.
Bill Cahill

I don't see why you would NEED to switch it off after two hours as mentioned in the video other than to preserve difficult to find parts. The announcer gave the impression that these sets could only be run for short periods of time which might be a bit misleading to those unfamilliar with vintage technology.

I didnt see any miniature tubes. i seen some globe style tubes in the first shot, and numerous "coke-bottle" style tubes. no minatures

Maybe that was just his opinion that more than two hours of TV viewing in one sitting is unhealthy :)

I think the 2 hour comment got misconstrued. Jeff told me he does use the television occasionally to watch stuff from the 1930's and 40's like cartoons and movies. He commented that he usually never runs the set longer than watching a movie, about 2 hours. Somehow that got reported as you don't want to run the set longer than 2 hours.

BTW this set is definitely from 1936 and contains no miniature tubes, or should I say valves :)

Another interesting twist in the reporting was that since Jeff only showed the volume, brightness and vertical hold knob, many papers reported that those were the only controls required on the set!

Darryl

Other things that Jeffrey is interested in.

http://www.borinsky.co.uk/

Click on MARs

I saw this story on the telly on the BBC--very cool!

I think that jaymanaa might just like that MARs photo! Pinging Jay!

And another interesting twist is that he offered a nice on-camera testimonial for the "Aurora Video Converter." (Yay, Darryl !)

This is listed as the oldest TV set in a residence. The first time I went to England (on business), I had to visit Thorn EMI Central Research Labs and I was not too happy about being stuck there for a week. When I got to the place (about a mile north of the main EMI building and about five miles north of Heathrow Airport in the Hayes Middlesex area), there was a 10-foot section of an antenna in the parking lot. I checked in with the receptionist for the person I was about to meet and she called his extension then said, "He will be a few minutes, perhaps you may want to look at the museum over there."

I went over expecting to see some minor items from the company's past. When I got there, I couldn't believe it. Several prewar TV's all restored to exact original concours condition, starting with a 1936. All of this was behind glass in clean room conditions and my noseprints are still on the glass. One looked like the one in the video but there was also an "entertainment centre" version with radio and record player. And you would know without anyone having to say it that each of these sets had an interesting pedigree since they were only affordable by the royals or the peerage.

I mentioned it to my contact when I finally got to see him about fifteen minutes later and he said, "Did you see the antenna outside?"

"Yes."

"That is the top ten feet off the original TV transmitting antenna."

"You mean the first your company made?"

"No, the first one, period. By anybody. Anywhere."

So the trip I thought was going to be a bummer turned out to be quite entertaining.

Not to change the subject too much, here's a slice of the first commercial radio tower in the US, erected by KDKA in Pittsburgh.

More at http://antiqueradio.org/kdka01.htm .

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html