Integrated circuits! Wow! That comes close to home! My Dad invented TV sets for General Electric (Generous Electric, he'd say). One day in 1952 he came home with a wooden wine-sized barrel, full of vacuum tubes. "They've switched to integrated circuits", he explained. I'll use these to repair the TV we have.
So there we were, with an "old-time TV" while the stations converted to transmission that would fit with transistors. The really big event that happened that year was the coronation of Elizabeth II in Great Britain. Of course we gathered around that old set upstairs, in the attic, and watched, as the new Queen of England, in a steady color scheme of fuchsia and lime, walked solemnly down the aisle of Westminster Cathedral! It's funny - but I doubt if I'd remember that particular occasion, if it weren't
for the absolutely astounding difference that a bi-colored presentation offered! I can see it in my mind's eye even now - especially as she knelt to the the coronet placed on her head!
Of course, at that time, the only "programming" that the researchers at GE had was generated in their own little TV station - a geodesic dome on the fringe of Electronics Park. Our "Standard" TV was decidedly strange!
It wasn't that long before Color went Viral! When we were in Connecticut, visiting my grandmother, we went to watch TV at one of Dad's fellow workers. He had a "TV set" the time of a bureau - maybe six feet wide, three feet tall and two feet deep. The tub showed a "mirror image," and a lid slanted above it held the mirror in which viewers actually saw the image. The one program these folks could get was "The Howdy Doody Show" with Buffalo Bob Smith, broadcast from New York City. We could see that Howdy's checkered shirt was red and white with black lines, and all that. Kukla Fran and Ollie showed up too. But it was a couple of years before our neighbors could see color TV too. Some occupations have special advantages!
Thank you for writing about Dummer!
Integrated circuits! Wow! That comes close to home! My Dad invented TV sets for General Electric (Generous Electric, he'd say). One day in 1952 he came home with a wooden wine-sized barrel, full of vacuum tubes. "They've switched to integrated circuits", he explained. I'll use these to repair the TV we have.
So there we were, with an "old-time TV" while the stations converted to transmission that would fit with transistors. The really big event that happened that year was the coronation of Elizabeth II in Great Britain. Of course we gathered around that old set upstairs, in the attic, and watched, as the new Queen of England, in a steady color scheme of fuchsia and lime, walked solemnly down the aisle of Westminster Cathedral! It's funny - but I doubt if I'd remember that particular occasion, if it weren't
for the absolutely astounding difference that a bi-colored presentation offered! I can see it in my mind's eye even now - especially as she knelt to the the coronet placed on her head!
Of course, at that time, the only "programming" that the researchers at GE had was generated in their own little TV station - a geodesic dome on the fringe of Electronics Park. Our "Standard" TV was decidedly strange!
It wasn't that long before Color went Viral! When we were in Connecticut, visiting my grandmother, we went to watch TV at one of Dad's fellow workers. He had a "TV set" the time of a bureau - maybe six feet wide, three feet tall and two feet deep. The tub showed a "mirror image," and a lid slanted above it held the mirror in which viewers actually saw the image. The one program these folks could get was "The Howdy Doody Show" with Buffalo Bob Smith, broadcast from New York City. We could see that Howdy's checkered shirt was red and white with black lines, and all that. Kukla Fran and Ollie showed up too. But it was a couple of years before our neighbors could see color TV too. Some occupations have special advantages!