By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
We have often wondered if people dreamed in black and white before the advent of photography. While color pictures eventually became the norm, black and white TV was common for many years. After all, a TV set was a big investment, so people didn’t run out and buy the latest TV every year. Even if you did buy a new or used TV, a black and white model was much less expensive and, for many years, some shows were in black and white anyway. RCA, of course, wanted you to buy a color set. [PeriscopeFilm] has a 1963 promotional film from RCA extolling the virtues of a color set. The video also shows something about how the sets were made, as you can see below.
We aren’t sure we’d have led with the idea that color could save your life in this context, but we have to salute the melodrama. There is a good bit of footage of picture tube manufacturing, although the technical detail is — understandably — aimed at the general public.
You do get a look at the shadow mask and piles of colored phosphor. The manufacturing process seems oddly manual, although there is some automation involved. If you ever wondered how each little dot of phosphor gets placed precisely, the film answers that question.
The spectrometers the operators use in the electron gun build lack computer interfaces, so they have many discrete controls. We wondered if a modern assembly line could have that open flame, too.
It is amazing to think how many of these tubes were built worldwide in, say, the 1970s. Our guess is there are very few CRTs made today, although surely someone somewhere is turning out a few for some reason. We wonder how today’s factory compares to the one in the film.
RCA was a pioneer in bringing color TV to the United States and the world. Who remembers degaussing a color TV?
Featured image: “Tricolour television close up” by [Martin Howard].
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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