|
Gosh, THAT goes back a way. I THINK I remember reading that in "The Cathode Ray Tube" book that was published a good 15, 20 yrs ago. It was only a little blurb about those humongous sets seems like they didn't have adequate getters and/or weren't Aluminumised which apparently affected their performance longevity as well. I'll hve to try to locate my copy of that book, dig it out & report back. I THINK the 27" replacements were much better than their big brothers were, didn't suffer from the same problems at all, or not nearly as bad. I DO remember seeing a pic of the 30s being made, there were 2 guys standing atop/next to one, all dressed to kill in those double-breasted suits w/those big "Peaked" lapels that were The Shit back then... they were obviously bigger sized guys, but another one could have fit next to them & the front of the CRT still wouldn't have been "Full".... I think that Allen B. Dumont & Co just simply didn't have the technical/engineering resources to pulloff an engineering feat like that huge tube. Reminded me of the DeHavilland Comet-The world's 1st jet airliner, from 1949... They went into service, the pride & hope of Great Britain's postwar aircraft industry, but started falling out of the sky. Turned out they used square cut windows, which "Worked" in pressurization & de-pressurization, developed miniscule cracks at the corners, & eventually caused an explosive decompression. Jets were BRAND-EW then, & so was, in a large part, pressurization, the Brits could be forgiven for trying to go w/a totally new & untried bunch of technologies... Pressurisation had been around for awhile, but it still wasn't understood very well. Same w/huge CRTs. At least, none of them ever exploded-But they hastened the eventual end of the Dumont co.
__________________
Benevolent Despot
|