Admiral Color Adapter.
 

I had always though those Color Adapter sockets seen on some models of early 50's sets was to allow for use of a color wheel on an existing B&W set, according to this it was to allow your existing B&W set to receive Color Broadcasts (in B&W) if the CBS Color standard had been adopted.
That explanation makes a lot more sense.

In any case this has to be a very rare item!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-TV-Admir...item4cf8b3dc94

Nice, I hope Steve McVoy bids on this and wins!

Apparently this gadget was designed to be used with or without a color wheel (you just wouldn't get color without the wheel).

Gosh, I hope Admiral didn't make up too many of those. I suppose that most went in the dumpster. It's pretty amazing how this one escaped.

Arrgh, sorry David, I think I edited your post instead of Quoting it, I don't seem to be able to reverse it, hopefully I didn't lose anything.

Anyhow what I meant to say was:
From what I get after reading the description existing B&W sets would not have been able to receive the incompatible CBS color broadcasts so some manufacturers made sets with the option for a plug in adapter so they wouldn't be obsolete.
They would still have been B&W but able to pick up the color shows in B&W, which the RCA compatible system allowed without any adapters or modifications needed.

If someone here gets this they'll need to find a compatible Admiral model, lot's of them around I think, feed it a show using a CBS Color signal and see how well it converts it to NTSC B&W!

This really is something that need to wind up at the ETF!

I think that's what I wrote. That's all I can remember writing anyway. :scratch2:

The difference between the B&W standard and the CBS color standard was mainly this: receivers made for the former were incompatible with the latter due to a difference in scan rates. ISTR a distinction being drawn between *adapters*--which allowed color broadcasts to be received in black & white and *converters*--which provided for connection to a color wheel.

The gadget in the auction is referred to as an adapter-converter. Notice it has a three-position switch--standard, b&w-from-color, and color. From what I understand the image size had to be reduced for use with a wheel on larger screen sets. So the second switch position would allow you to watch a CBS show full screen--in black & white--and the third position would shrink the raster to fit a wheel.

In either case the device only changed scan rates of the receiver, it didn't actually convert CBS to NTSC.

I see, a little less exciting then I suppose, still rare though.

I have a Wilcox-Gay branded Majestic that has a color jack on the back but I think it's only three pins and not an Octal plug, it is wired into the chassis however.

From the consumer instructions in the 7th auction photo:

"In addition to the standard black and white pictures which it originally received, your set is now equipped to receive black and white pictures from TV * color signals, or color pictures if a color wheel is used."


* Meaning the 441 line CBS 24x3i color signal (or 72i B&W), but not the still not invented in 1951, NTSC color signal.

One of several Admiral 1951 ads touting "Color TV Optional", I assume this ment the Admiral color converter in the e-bay auction.

http://imageserver.lib.duke.edu/dc/i...ed/TV0008.jpeg

Probably saw color on this bar equipped model with out the color converter. Lol: http://imageserver.lib.duke.edu/dc/i...ed/TV0014.jpeg

-Steve D.