Speaking of 30" Dumonts

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by nasadowsk

Must have been a prototype.

How heavy is the 30 inch tube? Being a metal/glass, I can't imagine it's that bad...

Amazingly, the tube isn't heavy at all! The face is fairly thin glass, and the metal cone is also very thin. The reason they were able to do that is that te convex shape allows for plenty of strength, unlike the bigger flat Trinitron WEGA tubes which weigh 100s of pounds due to thick glass. The chassis on the Gen I DuMont Royal Sovereign is ridiculously heavy, but the Gen II is a smaller single chassis with click tuner, and isn't too heavy. I've moved the Gen II by myself, including lifting it into the pickup. The Gen I is a ball-buster though.

Only a couple of years ago, I finally got around to pulling the tube out of (formerly) my Royal Sovereign, which is recapped and working well. It had been in my fire in '88, and the soot had gotten between the tube and the safety glass. The glass for some dumb reason is installed from the inside of the cabinet, thus the tube must come out to clean it. It was a big job due to fear of death, or worse yet harming the possibly only excellent 30BP4 around, but I did it. The present owner was just as nervous; couldn't even stand to watch.


Here's a pic of the Gen I set, showing how shallow the 30BP4 is. (photo circa 1995). I got that set from a garage sale, and found out that it belonged to actress Jeanette McDonald. That set, after I cleaned it up (bad tube), is in the same collection today as the Gen II set.
Charles