The most wanted German E1 was sold
 

The most wanted prewar tv set here in Germany, the Fernseh- Einheitsempfanger E1, the only set which is complete and in working condition was sold today. The previous owner, Mr. August P. N ehrig in Celle, Germany, passed away in the last winter. His son has sold now the E1 to the German Museum of Technics in Berlin.
I was in personal communication with Mr. Nehri g senior and he allowed me to open the E1 and to take a lot of photos of it. Now the E1 will be stored behind glas and no private person would be able to study this famous piece of German television history in freedom by himself. Here is the last photo I made of it on saturday before ten days.

Wow, that's pretty neat. Glad you were able to get photos.

Anthony

Oh, I have to tell that I didn't saw this set alone. Steve Kissinger, also an AK member, was one of the people with me in Celle too. He has taken some photos too.

Nice looking set!
Is the tube really rectangular or is it a round tube masked off to looks that way?

It is the only prewar rectangular tube set. I personally think it's a shame none of the private collectors with deep pockets wanted it badly enough. The asking price was $50,000 a couple years ago. A fortune, but not out of line for a set of its historical significance--and rarity. Then there's the purported working condition of the set. From what I heard it produces a raster, but the "screen caps" you may have seen from this set were photoshopped. There was no Aurora converter to provide a 441 line/25 frame source at the time those pics appeared. Now it'll probably never show a picture again for reals. :(

Wow !! That's REALLY sumthin'-and it is a cryin' shame it likely won't ever "live" again.-Sandy G.

Oh you never know, they might rip the guts out of it and stick a color set inside it :D :cry:

Oh, Dear God....<grimace>-Sandy G.

We bid on it for the Early Television Museum, but the seller wanted to keep it in Germany.

I really want it badly.....my fish need a new home :naughty: :thmbsp: :lmao:

Anthony

The picture tube is really rectangular, it was the first one in the world. Pictures of the tube from the inside of the set are on my web page about the E1.
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...efunken/e1.htm
These photos I could taken last year, when the previous owner, Mr. Ne hrig was still alive. He told me the whole story of this set: In 1980 he got a telefone call from Berlin, somebody unknown pointed him to the flea market at Berlin Nollendorfplatz. Here he got this E1 for aprr. 15,000 deutsch marks. He had built up a museum and would open it to the public. But there was much trouble with the authorities (taxes, fees and so on). So the exhibition was closed to the public, but single persons with interest are able to see it. When I heard about an existing E1 in my region here I contacted him at once and I got the permission to publish the photos in the web.
In 1985 the E1 was switched on the last time. Here is a copy of the photo with the E1 in operating mode:
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...g/e1raster.JPG

That is one cool tv. I was looking at the map for it and didn't see a cap over 30 uf.
Not even in the power supply. Do any of you guys see any?? What awesome electronics

Here is more about this TV, including a schematic:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/e1.html

The E1 has a low power consumption. See the vertical and horizontal output tubes, the anode resistors are 2M and 200 K while the screen grid is connected to the transformer and the yoke directly.
Here are the schematics in a large picture format:
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...en/img/e-1.jpg
Total power consumption was 185 watts.

Someone skillful in cabinet building could, with the use of a small portable B&W TV set, build an operating reproduction. Of course the internal guts would look all wrong... Next level is to build a technological equivalent with similar tubes and circuits.

Meanwhile the E1 is fixed and restaurated. When it was sold, it was in so bad condition that it was not operable. The main elko had a short and would burn the main transformer if it wasn't replaced. The condenser coil for the electron beam of the crt was broken, and some other more failures. Now it is working again, with original 441 lines video. Here are some photos of the restaurated and clean set:
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold.../img/E-1-1.jpg
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold.../img/E-1-2.jpg
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold.../img/E-1-3.jpg
http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold.../img/E-1-4.jpg
More photos will follow.
Eckhard

Today I have got a photo with the E1 working. The input was a sine wave signal. This greenish white of the phosphor is original and not a tint of the camera.
In the next weeks I will get more photos of the E1 driven by an original video signal from a standard converter.

Eckhard

What a beautiful piece of history. I would love to have one, but I can understand the owner wanting to keep it in the country of origin.

It is the last remaining set of this model in operational condition. The screenshot demonstrates that the CRT has full beam current and is able to focus it correctly.
But as far as I know the owner and set will move to Switzerland. Such is life!
But before he will move, I will visit him. I will never be able to own such a rare and valuable set, but I only want to see the E1 working with an original video content of that time in my life. (And all the photos I will take, I will report here on AK!)
Eckhard

Eckhard.
Sorry I sound stupid but what is a elko? Transformer?? What is that set worth now that it is working? Did you get to help them restore it?
Ed

Sorry, an Elko is the German abbreviation for electrolytic capacitor. What is the set worth now? I can't really estimate. I know that offers in the range between $60,000 and $80,000 exist. But the actual value might be higher.
I did not assist in restoring it. But I maintain the most detailed web page about the E1, and this was reason why the owner contacted me, to keep this page actual.

Eckhard

Hi Eckhard.
Nothing to be sorry about, I learned a new word and what it means. It must be so cool to be able to be close to a set that is so rare. I like the name of the tubes too. {valvo} Is that correct?
Ed

Hi Ed. Valvo is the brand. I think it is much cooler to own a color roundie than to have an E1. The E1 is unique due to the few which survived. But from a technical view, the introducing of color tv by RCA was much more innovatively and exciting. TV watching on a color roundie is an adventure every time again. I believe that we have in Germany fewer American color roundies than surviving E1s. For myself, I would not exchange my CTC-5 for an E1.
Eckhard

Hi Eckhard.
You have the color roundie bug and I think you need more of them. I like the phillips roundie your buddy has. K1 I think? The way the chassis slides out the front was a smart thing to do and it has a vary good picture. You may find this interesting, Kamakiri was the man who saved your ctc 5. He traded your ctc5 with captianmoody for a rca g2000 {ctc 47a}. Then captianmoody did some work to it and sold the ctc5 to you. I just bought the g2000 from Kamakiri about a month ago. The g2000 was way a head of it's time. Was the first set with an electronic tuner. I will post a thread on this set when I get it done. Man, It has vary good color. This is way off topic so I will stop. Have a good day
Ed

You are absolutely right. Roundies are the craziest tv sets I ever saw in my life, and even our childs like watching televison on the roundie.
But I don't have the space for another one. In the next days we will get our third child, and we need space for it. :yes:
Eckhard

If you look on net for all E1 pages, looks like 4 different TVs.

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold.../img/E-1-1.jpg
2 large, 2 small knobs, large handle on speaker grills, emblem #1.

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...n/img/MfK2.JPG
4 large knobs, small handle on speaker grills, emblem #2

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...n/img/MfK3.JPG
4 large knobs, large handle on speaker grills, emblem #1

http://www.earlytelevision.org/e1.html
2 large, 3 small knobs, large handle on speaker grills, emblem #2 with knob

Hi,

here are some new web pages with photos from the E1.

The restauration process of the E1:

http://www.fernseh-gmbh.de/e1.html

A newspaper report about the first operating of an E1:

http://www.fernseh-gmbh.de/artikel_a...er_zeitung.jpg

And a second working E1 on the International Berlin radio show this year:

http://neuerdings.com/2007/09/24/spi...vergangenheit/

- Eckhard

...

Thanks for linking these pictures Eckhard. The restored set in the first link is fantastic! The chassis looks unbelievably clean. It does appear that the one at the Berlin radio show has a different crt as Andy noted.

Darryl

Does the second E1 have a modern set shoved in it? That CRT looks really different.

Hi,

the E1 for the Berlin radio show was modified. Due to operating time throughout the entire exhibition the original CRT and chassis was removed and kept as it is, and the cabinet was fitted with a newer chassis and CRT of the Philetta TV. The original chassis would fail after some hours as mentioned in the article.

Meanwhile I know that more E1s survived than estimated before. Here is a list of all E1s I currently know:

#1 (Museum of Communication, Berlin)

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...n/img/MfK3.JPG

#2 (Museum of Communication, Berlin)

http://bs.cyty.com/menschen/e-etzold...n/img/MfK2.JPG

#3 (Museum of Communication, Frankfurt)

without photo.

#4 (E1 in Celle)

http://www.fernseh-gmbh.de/E-1_in%20Betrieb.JPG

#5 (E1 of Mr. Bruch)

http://www.htwm.de/~bruch/index2.php...p=jan_isdn.wmv

#6 (E1 of the German Radio Museum)

http://www.oldradioworld.de/rdfmu36.jpg

#7 (E1 of a private collection in Thuringia)

(without photo)

As far as I know, the first two ones are not operable.

Four operating E1s on one photo:
http://www.cegesoma.be/pallas/servlet/gisc?vn=128109

Ardenne (1931):
http://www.hessenpark.de/deutsch/aus...fernsehen.html

New discovered Telefunken FE III (1934):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/8/699...fb7fcc.jpg?v=0

- Eckhard