Westinghouse H664K17 Color set or no?

[Rod Beauvex]

What is a "color adapter socket?"

[Eric H]

It was to allow the existing B&W set to receive the incompatible CBS Color broadcasts. The system was never used so the sockets weren't needed.

You will find them on quite a few sets from 1951 or so.

Some of the Admirals have been found with the socket installed but the wiring not connected.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Rod Beauvex

What is a "color adapter socket?"

To elaborate on eric's response there were two types of devices that plugged into those sockets. There were scan rate converters(CBS field sequential used significantly different horizontal and vertical deflection frequencies) which were a box with a switch that would switch caps, resistors, etc. into the circuit to change the time constants of the deflection circuits so that they would lock to CBS field sequential and display it in black and white. There were also color converters that would let the set work in full color by adding the color transparency wheel that when spun in front of a monochrome CRT in synch with field sequential fields would appear as color to the viewer.


CBS Field sequential was transmitted in this country and was actually standardized for commercial broadcast by the NTSC for some time though some some of Sarnoff's cronies in the guberment blocked the production of color sets through some flimsy excuse about the Korean war until their technology and rabble rousing caused the NTSC to decertify incompatible field sequential in favor of what we now know as the NTSC compatible color broadcast standard.
The details of the history I just summed up are fascinating to read about....For instance field sequential was impractical for big screens and Du Mont demonstrated this before the government beautifully by equipping one of their 30" monochrome 'Royal Sovereign' models with a 60" color wheel. The motor required to drive it was so big it blew the fuse in the court room where the demonstration was held plunging it into darkness....