50s' Repair Shop Photo

[CaryLee]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

On the left, a homemade failure-demonstration set, almost surely indicates this is a school.

Other clues to this not being a school and not a working shop:

1) Electrical outlets on the floor for test running the sets, indicate a school, as this surface wiring on a concrete floor would quickly be damaged by moving the heavy cabinets.

2) Most repair shops of that era hung electrical drops from the ceiling for the required cold start test run after repairing.

3) Service benches were not used for most repairs, we simply threw a blanket on top of the set and repaired the chassis on top of the set. If the CRT remained in the cabinet, we used extension cables.

4) This "shop" also has test equipment rack-mounted. This was a carry over from pre-WWII radio repair. Most TV period shops that I've seen carried the test equipment to the TV set on wheeled carts.

5) There are too many repairmen for the number of sets in the shop.

6) The work benches have rabbit ears on top, while the sets in the testing line do not, which not only indicates not a working shop, but a posed-for-photograph picture.

The weirdest thing I see in this photograph is the three lamp florescent fixtures! All florescent ceiling lamps that I've ever seen operated the bulbs in pairs. These fixtures have three lamps and three, easy to get to, replaceable starters on the side.

Jas.

I kind of dig those three tube fluorescents. I worked as a residential and light commercial electrician in the mid to late 80's and early 90's, in some pretty old commercial buildings, but I don't recall ever seeing one of those.