Photos of extreme rare TV set from 1934
 

Hi everybody,

Recently, Gerolf Poetschke has posted some photos of an extreme rare early Telefunken FE III tv set from 1934:

http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_01.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_02.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_03.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_04.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_05.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_06.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_07.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_08.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_09.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_10.html
http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/id065_11.html

This tv set originally operates with 180 lines progressive scanning, 25 frames per second. Three surviving sets are known today. Happy viewing!

Kind regards,
Eckhard

Kewl ! Very nice looking !

Wow, that set was way ahead of it's time. It's almost hard to believe that it's really a 1934 model, but then you look at the simple layout of the chassis and it becomes a little easier to accept. The square picture frame around the front of that round CRT really makes it look more modern than it actually is. It's a simple trick, but stylistically it's very bold. And WOAH, that's bunch of knobs! I guess there was a lot more manual adjustment required on a set that old.

That's the original back? That set really was ahead of its time!

Very interesting. I'd be curious to see the schematic if one is available.

Phil Nelson

Fantastic set Eckhard. It appears to be very original and very complete. Is it operational?

Darryl

Hi Darryl, this set is not complete. As far as I can see, some tubes are missing. Nevertheless, it is in good condition for this age. None of the early German 180 line tv sets is in working condition, and I haven't heard that somebody attempted to bring one of them back to life.
Phil: I don't have the schematics, but I know somebody who has it. But he keeps it as secret as the federal reserve.

- Eckhard

I never realized there were CRTs that big that early. Sure would like to see the layout of the HV supply.:DBill(oc)

Are all of the knobs on the front of the set actually knobs? It looks like some of them might just be for looks.

Thanks for sharing!

-J

CRT's were already to 9" by 1929. This one was 12" (30cm). The high voltage supply in all pre-war sets except the German E1 (first set to use a flyback HV supply and have a rectangular crt) was a simple high voltage line transformer, rectifier and cap. Nothing fancy, but deadly.

The knobs are all functional and can be seen here:
http://www.earlytelevision.org/telefunken.html

Darryl

WOW! A Third Reich TV set! That's weird! I know that some of Germany's top scientists were working with television right along with nukes, V2 rockets and other VERY strange "time warp" stuff like some believe that our government also experimented with as portrayed in the Philadelphia Experiment movie. Supposedly the destroyer escort U.S.S. Eldridge was made to turn invisible twice by the U.S. Navy in 1943, once it re-appeared in Norfolk supposedly. This is a good read; even if it is sublime to you! Either way, I think that it is wild to think that scientists like Wernher von Braun, Walter Dornberger and Hermann Oberth had a hand in early television development. Those guys must have known more than just rocket science to be rushed out of Germany before the Russians could get their slimy hands on them AND given immunity from war crimes trials, along with U.S citizenship and a GREAT job! THIS is a screwy world! LOL!

I forgot to say that their CRT mask is sort of profetic to the tune of 40 years!

Eckhard,

Thanks for posting the photos. Wonderful attention to detail and craftsmanship. While this receiver was produced early in Hitler's coming to power in Germany, I doubt that the Nazis had their top scientists having anything to do with its design. The Telefunken labs did it all by themselves.

-Steve D.

Um, sorry, I never implied that Von Braun and his cohorts spent their days designing a futuristic television set at the Peenemunde laboratories as part of Hitler's final solution. However, it is a matter of fact that television was in fact ONE of the things that scientist were working with at those labs. One must consider how new the idea of television was at the time. I am sure that plenty of military heads were scratched in wonder of what possible application that television could play from a military standpoint.

I forget the history here -- perhaps Eckard can fill us in. I believe that German development of all-electronic TV occurred with some international connections (to U.S. or British TV development), and was not 100% home grown. That's not to diminish the quality of the work in any way, and I'm sure there were major home grown contributions.

My faint memory of this is from the book "Tube" which I read several years ago. May or may not be correct.

That's a great piece of history to have in your posession! Price is not so bad, at least compared to antique automobiles of comparable historical significance.

Here's the little-known story of one Allied wartime project in which television played a central role. Begins at about the 1:30 mark in the vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMHGk...eature=related
The vid then links to Part 5 for continuation...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8cLf...eature=related

Bill(oc)

Tubejunke,

Not to get into a political discussion here.
I'm sure you're correct that scientists in Germany were aware of television's future military potential. However the Nazi government was far more interested in promoting the propaganda aspects of this new medium and made that clear during televised broadcasts of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

-Steve D.

Hello,

this tv set is not in my posession, I did it on behalf of the Kuba museum in Wolfenbuettel, less than ten miles far away from where I live at home:

http://www.kuba-museum.de/hauptseite.html

German television in the Third Reich depends on U.S. patents and television devices. For example, the Zworykin iconoscope and the Farnthworth camera of the Fernseh AG were imported from the U.S., some schematics from England. Therefore, the U.S. Americans got the German white phosphors for their picture tubes, to change from green screens to white screens.

Telefunken had it's own development centers. The Fernseh AG worked for military projects. One project was the viewing bomb, a bomb with a high-resolution camera which could be directed by remote control. The camera and monitoring television systems worked with a 1,000 line television system.

Of course, Nazi television was used for propaganda reasons, but it was not genuine German home grown. The scheduled German television service in 1935 was overhasty with it's low definition 180 line tv standard. But this was only for propagandy reasons too.

Kind regards,
Eckhard

Wow! This is really a fine piece of german engineering! Telefunken has always been one of my two favorite tv brands. I guess during 70's Kuba had someting to do with Telefunken as I often saw Kuba and Imperial sets of that era having the same chassis as Telefunken sets.