Just how bad can an Ion burn be?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I seem to remember reading about an "X" shaped ion burn in a very good book by Robert G. Middleton, saying that it would happen on rectangular screen sets. I've never seen one nor ever heard anyone mention one before. Has anyone seen one?

Pretty, sure whoever you heard that from must have been mistaken. First off as Ben already said ions can't be deflected (too much mass), so the burn is limited by the scatter pattern of the electron gun. By the time rectangular CRTs were in consumer sets ion traps were standard, and aluminization was catching on...