Television History - The First 75 Years
 
 

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1939 July Radio-Craft

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July

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"10 Years of Radio Craft -- Ten Years of Radio Progress" by Hugo Gernsback > See Enlarged Text below.

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Ten Years of Radio Craft -- Enlarged Text

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Television

General Electric made a bold prediction that by 1944 (5 years into the future), there would be 1.9 MILLION television sets in the United States.  The fact of the matter was that there were less than 10,000 sets in the whole USA, in 1944.  Of course, GE had no way of knowing that World War-II would shut down television sales and production for almost five years.   Perhaps a more telling part of their prediction was that there would be 200,000 sets in 1940 -- in reality it was less than 5,000.  One true fact: "by July 1939 more than $13 Million had been invested in television".

CAUTION (726K high resolution scan)
1939 TRK-9 and TRK-12 Television Schematic - Wiring Diagram

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David Sarnoff was photographed ... and televised, at the N.Y. World's Fair

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Ad for RCA television tubes

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"Glass Enclosed" Interior of RCA (TRK-12) Television Set at the NY World's Fair (close-up from ad above).

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Meissner 5" CRT TV Kit -- $139.50

The Meissner advertisement above offers a 'free' television kit folder.  Shown below are a few scans of that 1939 folder:

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