A CRT museum?

Old buck, here. and been fascinated by CRTs ever since Life magazine in the earlier 1940s had a custom gas-focused CRT made to teach the general public about CRTs. No, I'm not kidding. Would love to know date of the issue.

Gas-focused CRTs have a visible beam, and vary beam current to optimize focus. They're obsolete, because their frequency response (CRT, not the amplifiers) goes only into the low AM range, if that.

Anyhow, I see splendid examples such as my own curb-find spherical 21- inch aperture-grille Diamondtron, a few flat-screen types, and a highly- developed very-wide-deflection-angle TV CRT (Sony?) -- all put out as trash to recycle. (Btw, just what *is* the deflection angle of that really-short CRT? I have photos of it. Somebody took the yoke for the copper.)

Doesn't somebody, somewhere, want to save one apiece of representative samples of the big bottles? In a few decades, they will be amazing items, really scarce, if any examples exist at all. (For instance, are there any Zenith Flat Tension Mask tubes still in existence? (I'd guess, a few, probably all unloved))

Fwiw, I used to own a burned-out Western Electric 224-B gas-focused CRT. It had been hanging from the ceiling of the store of Blan, The Radio Man, which was demolished to build the NYC WTC. Covered with lots of dark dust, he sold it to me for something quite modest such as $10. It had been a personal treasure I took good care of, and sadly let go in a time of horrid personal crisis. (I'm essentially OK, now, if too reclusive.)

It must have been the CRT in the General Radio 'scope, the one with the CRT in a separate enclosure with a cable to the main cabinet. As well, it was very likely the first practical, low-voltage (hot cathode) CRT.

For more info, See Rider's Encyclopedia on 'scopes.

--
Nicabod =+= Waltham, Mass.
willing to bet that no amateur constructor
anywhere is winding his own modern deflection yokes
but willing to be surprised.
Reply to
Nicholas Bodley
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It's more than CRTs, but this place is well worth a visit:

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Reply to
Smitty Two

Agreed! Many thanks. It's waiting as a tab in Firefox.

In my neighborhood is a Dell flat-faceplate monitor out on the curb; been sorely tempted to save it for a museum, but I don't have the space.

In the future, Zenith FTM (?) (Flat Tension Mask, iirc) monitors will be rare, if any exist at all.

--
Nicabod =+= Waltham, Mass.
Reply to
Nicholas Bodley

I saw one of these 20 years ago. Beautiful.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

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