whats the deal with Hoffman?

[Steve D.]

Originally Posted by bgadow

The urban legend (which may be true?) is that when Hoffman started out he got ahold of a bunch of war surplus green glass at a very low price. Sounds good, at least!

No urban legend, and Charles' Hoffman engineer friend was correct. After the war, due to the building boom and the resumption of auto manufacture, clear glass was hard to come by. Old man Hoffman found a bunch of war surplus green tinted glass used in military aircraft. He bought up the lot at bargin prices and the rest was up to the Hoffman marketing dept.

-Steve D.

[charokeeroad]

When I get this set in hand I will be looking closely at the green glass. If it's just a film that can be easily removed I won't buy the cheap green glass theory. If it's a substantial piece of the set I will give the cheap green glass theory some serious thought..

[peverett]

On my Hoffman consoles, the green is not a film unless it is on the plastic sandwiched between the two glass plates. The glass is true safety-type glass, just like on an automobile.

[Eric H]

I just happened to have a Hoffman sitting on my table with the glass removed.

The first one is a shot of a White Sony TV seen through the glass, this gives you a good idea of the color, more Yellow than Green.

The second one is a side view, the part that looks Brown from the side is the Yellowish Green tinted glass, the thin glass is the clear piece.

It weighs about 2.5 lbs and measures just about 3/8" thick.
This is a glass for a 12" round set.

I have another 12" Hoffman sitting in the garage and it looks like it has a clear safety glass and a tinted face tube, possibly someone converted it back in the day?

[charokeeroad]

Thanks for the feedback. From the photo of the side view the glass appears to be curved. This somewhat dashes my hopes of using a repalcement totally clear glass and holding on to the yellow/green glass for a later sale. The set I'm looking at has a larger CRT I'm not sure the size and perhaps the glass isn't curved. There is some distortion in the glass in the photo, I'm wondering if there was a reason for that. I mean besides the obvious contour of the CRT. perhaps it flattens out the picture somewhat too. Index of refraction and all that stuff.. looking at the head on photo it looks as though there could be some curving effect.

[Phil Nelson]

Yah, if I found a Hoffman I'd be strongly tempted to substitute a clear safety glass and set aside the green one for the next owner. I imagine an auto glass shop could cut you something.

For those who can't live without a Hoffman, here's one with a scruffy blonde cabinet.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/atq/2341200215.html

Phil Nelson

[Eric H]

The glass is completely flat and clear (by clear I mean no distortions), plain old Safety glass could be cut to fit easily (but not cheaply) or plain old non safety glass if you're not worried about implosion protection.

[charokeeroad]

Originally Posted by Eric H

The glass is completely flat and clear (by clear I mean no distortions), plain old Safety glass could be cut to fit easily (but not cheaply) or plain old non safety glass if you're not worried about implosion protection.

Ah! That's the news I've been waiting to hear. If the set I'm acquiring has a flat glass then I will restore it and replace the green/yellow glass with a clear one. Keeping the original safe for the next owner.

[llcvt15]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

Yah, if I found a Hoffman I'd be strongly tempted to substitute a clear safety glass and set aside the green one for the next owner. I imagine an auto glass shop could cut you something.

For those who can't live without a Hoffman, here's one with a scruffy blonde cabinet.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/atq/2341200215.html

Phil Nelson

I think that Hoffman is actually uglier than mine. That cabinet needs some serious cleaning.

Real interesting thread, sorry I haven't gotten back to it since I posted it, my internet service is spotty. I wouldn't have guessed it was surplus military glass, but it does make sense.

Heres a picture of my Hoffman, currently serving as a coffee table. Found it sitting on a curb one day. I actually pulled my back lifting it into my truck and was out of work for three days so it was actually kind of an expensive find in retrospect...

[peverett]

I watch the ones that I have restored in living "Black and Green"(except for the portable Hoffman I have that is too new for the tinted glass). I have Non-Hoffman B&W TVs from the same time period that I can watch if I get tired of the green. My wife has nick-named one of the Hoffmans "Limey" as its glass seems to be greener than the others.

Looks like the coffee table Hoffman has a serious "tube to air" problem. My consoles use the kind of hard to find 21FP4. Lickily, mine have been usable so far. However, I have an even earlier Hoffman console that uses the impossible to find 19AP4(same as some of the "Giant Circle" Zeniths). It has vacuum, but is pretty weak.