whats the deal with Hoffman?
 

I always figured my Hoffman set had a green picture tube beings it sat outside for at least three years (funny story...). I guess thats not the case as in the last week or so I've noticed several other threads about these sets and they all had green "easy vision" tubes in them. Were they the only company to produce sets like this? I almost have to wonder if watching an easy vision set would be somewhat similar to using a 1980's style computer console? Or then again it might just be like any other black and white set. Either way, just curious...

Every one I've seen was green. Different marketing technique from back when watching TV with the lights out was bad for your eyes. At least that's what I was told. Unless it was a Hoffman probably.

I think I read somewhere that the green screen can be removed and a reqular clear screen can be put in.

The regular clear screen is already on the face of the tube. :)

Actually the picture tube is a standard white P4 phosphor in these sets, only the safety glass is tinted yellow-green. I have only seen Hoffman sets with this feature, my thought is that it was more marketing than science.
jr

The urban legend (which may be true?) is that when Hoffman started out he got ahold of a bunch of war surplus green glass at a very low price. Sounds good, at least!

Here's a Hoffman in action, the Green is a piece of green glass bonded to a piece of clear, like a windshield, very thick and heavy.

http://www.vintagetvsets.com/images/bee2.jpg

Yuck. :yuck: I would have went with a sepia (brownish color seen in really old B&W photographs) tint.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NtgXlrcvXZ...B-%2Bc1910.jpg

LOL, no kidding. I've heard that the human eye is most sensitive to green. So maybe that was their motivation ?

They also have the CRT slightly inclined downward, so that you're less likely to get a reflection off the screen from a window. They of course refered to any such reflection as "glare," which is the word people use for all bad things associated with light.

It was a mighty strange marketing campaign. However, there seems to have been a bit of hype at the time that watching TV could somehow be bad for your eyes. The usual paranoid overprotective types would pay extra for a green-tinted Hoffman!

What they didn't seem to understand is that watching TV is bad for your brain! Eyes? ... not so much.

Does anyone know if the CRT comes out with the chassis or is it attached to the cabinet. I'm thinking about what I will need to do to transport it.



I've been fighting the urge to say this but.. maybe Hoffman was an early environmentalist..

The yellowish green glass may have been to increase the preceived contrast in a brightly lit room. Like the tinted sunglasses.

That's the story I heard too, and it came from an old retired Hoffman engineer I met in the 1980s. The first batch of green glass seemed to sell the sets, and they ordered more, until it got to be "old tech-looking". I think they used it through '52 or so, then went to clear glass.

Charles

I have several of the Easy Vision Hoffmans. On the 21 inch consoles and the 17 inch tabletops, the CRT comes out with the chassis. On the consoles(I have not checked the table tops), the green tinted glass is actually a safety glass with a plastic layer sandwiched between two glass layers. Just like auto safety glass. Hoffman used the green glass until at least 1954 as one of my TVs with the tinted glass is of this vintage. The CRTs are not tinted.

I also have a later 1950s Hoffman portable set, but it does not have the green tinted glass.

Another tidbit about Hoffman is that the person suspected of murdering Bob Crane(Hogan's Heros) worked as a technician at Hoffman at one point.

That's sacrey ~

No urban legend, and Charles' Hoffman engineer friend was correct. After the war, due to the building boom and the resumption of auto manufacture, clear glass was hard to come by. Old man Hoffman found a bunch of war surplus green tinted glass used in military aircraft. He bought up the lot at bargin prices and the rest was up to the Hoffman marketing dept.

-Steve D.

When I get this set in hand I will be looking closely at the green glass. If it's just a film that can be easily removed I won't buy the cheap green glass theory. If it's a substantial piece of the set I will give the cheap green glass theory some serious thought..

On my Hoffman consoles, the green is not a film unless it is on the plastic sandwiched between the two glass plates. The glass is true safety-type glass, just like on an automobile.

I just happened to have a Hoffman sitting on my table with the glass removed.

The first one is a shot of a White Sony TV seen through the glass, this gives you a good idea of the color, more Yellow than Green.

The second one is a side view, the part that looks Brown from the side is the Yellowish Green tinted glass, the thin glass is the clear piece.

It weighs about 2.5 lbs and measures just about 3/8" thick.
This is a glass for a 12" round set.

I have another 12" Hoffman sitting in the garage and it looks like it has a clear safety glass and a tinted face tube, possibly someone converted it back in the day?

Thanks for the feedback. From the photo of the side view the glass appears to be curved. This somewhat dashes my hopes of using a repalcement totally clear glass and holding on to the yellow/green glass for a later sale. The set I'm looking at has a larger CRT I'm not sure the size and perhaps the glass isn't curved. There is some distortion in the glass in the photo, I'm wondering if there was a reason for that. I mean besides the obvious contour of the CRT. perhaps it flattens out the picture somewhat too. Index of refraction and all that stuff.. looking at the head on photo it looks as though there could be some curving effect.

Yah, if I found a Hoffman I'd be strongly tempted to substitute a clear safety glass and set aside the green one for the next owner. I imagine an auto glass shop could cut you something.

For those who can't live without a Hoffman, here's one with a scruffy blonde cabinet.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/atq/2341200215.html

Phil Nelson

The glass is completely flat and clear (by clear I mean no distortions), plain old Safety glass could be cut to fit easily (but not cheaply) or plain old non safety glass if you're not worried about implosion protection.

Ah! That's the news I've been waiting to hear. If the set I'm acquiring has a flat glass then I will restore it and replace the green/yellow glass with a clear one. Keeping the original safe for the next owner.

I think that Hoffman is actually uglier than mine. That cabinet needs some serious cleaning.

Real interesting thread, sorry I haven't gotten back to it since I posted it, my internet service is spotty. I wouldn't have guessed it was surplus military glass, but it does make sense.

Heres a picture of my Hoffman, currently serving as a coffee table. Found it sitting on a curb one day. I actually pulled my back lifting it into my truck and was out of work for three days so it was actually kind of an expensive find in retrospect...

I watch the ones that I have restored in living "Black and Green"(except for the portable Hoffman I have that is too new for the tinted glass). I have Non-Hoffman B&W TVs from the same time period that I can watch if I get tired of the green. My wife has nick-named one of the Hoffmans "Limey" as its glass seems to be greener than the others.

Looks like the coffee table Hoffman has a serious "tube to air" problem. My consoles use the kind of hard to find 21FP4. Lickily, mine have been usable so far. However, I have an even earlier Hoffman console that uses the impossible to find 19AP4(same as some of the "Giant Circle" Zeniths). It has vacuum, but is pretty weak.