Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1959)

13 Westinghouse will incorporate the 23-in. tube in some models if it is available in time. However, doubt was expressed that sufficient quantities of envelopes will be on hand to make the June showing. Motorola informed us that it had not received enough samples to decide whether it will be able to use the new tube in its upcoming line. The tube has been evaluated and turned over to the company's designers. Admiral foresees the possibility of using the new tube in a "limited" number of models this year, depending on availability. TV sales mgr. Ross D. Siragusa Jr. said, however, its use will increase set prices "considerably." Hoffman plans to use the new tube in high-end models as soon as it is available and add it to other models as quantity production gets under way. =)!**:{! Adaptations of the "twin-panel" idea are coming from other glass manufacturers, we learned. Kimball Glass Co. of Toledo is sampling the industry with a contoured safety glass front similar in many respects to the Corning tube. Also, Pittsburgh Plate Glass is offering a bent glass front which makes possible many of the styling innovations inherent in the Corning tube. Several plastic manufacturers are talking with TV set makers about the use of moulded plastic implosion plates similar to those incorporated this year in Philco's Predicta line. Whether the twin-panel tube may be recovered was a question to which we got contradictory answers. Some time ago we were told the tubes could not be recovered. However, we now learn that some tube re-builders have been able to bake the plastic from the face of the tube and return the envelope to its original condition for re-use. The process is expensive and may preclude the use of twin-panel tubes by re-builders until a more economical method has been developed. TV-RADIO PRODUCTION: TV set production was 112,762 in week ended Jan. 23 vs. 103,696 preceding week & 103,444 year ago. Three-week total for 1959 was 307,670 vs. 325,491 last year. Radio production was 293,721 (108,359 auto) for the week vs. the preceding week's total of 279,954 (109,765 auto) & 232,845 (80,036 auto) last year. Total for 3 weeks: 827,696 (325,999 auto) vs. 708,585 (262,260 auto) last year. Trade Personals: Titus Haifa, chairman of Webcor, assumes duties also of pres., succeeding Nick Malz, resigned. John H. Ihrig, v.p.-gen. mgr., lam'nation div., promoted to exec, v.p., succeeding Joseph L. RaEfel Jr., also resigned. L. O. Kressman promoted to secy. L. A. Garfinkle to treas. . . . Joseph J. Toyzer promoted to mgr., RCA TV receiver plant, Indianapolis. Robert W. Sears named mgr. of TV cabinet plant, Monticello, Ind. . . . Raymond C. elevens, exgen. sales mgr., promoted to v.p.. Symphonic Radio & Electronics. Joel J. Zimmer promoted to chief purchasing agent, succeeding Harold Beck . . . Leonard C. Truesdell, Zenith sales v.p., elected to the board of directors . . . Roger S. Drew resigns as Philco’s asst. gen. merchandising mgr. He was formerly RCA coordinator of color TV set sales . . . Raymond K. McClintock named mgr. of Sylvania’s new Mountain View (Cal.) special tube plant. Elmer J. Perry promoted to manufacturing mgr., semiconductor d’v. . . . Thomas L. Taggart, treas. of Ampex Corp., elected a v.p. . . . Lewis E. Gillingham, ex-RCA International, named marketing & adv. mgr., Altec, Los Angeles . . . Maj. Gen. George I. Back (USA ret.), ex-Chief Signal Officer, now asst, to pres, of International Resistance Co,, elected to the board of directors . . . Abe Morin, ex-Radio Receptor, named purchasing agent, Siegler’s Bogen-Presto div., succeeding Louis Ellenson , . . Herbert A. Frank, formerly national sales mgr. of Steelman Phono & Radio Co., named sales director, Granco . . . Joseph C. Mathews named national promotion mgr., Capitol Records Distributing Co. Flat Tube from Tung-Sol? A practical picture-on-thewall TV display tube may be an important byproduct of the cold-cathode tube discovery announced last week (Vol. 15:4), Tung-Sol engineers believe. “We have a design we think will work,” research director Dr. A. M. Skellett told us. The next step, he said, will be to build a small experimental model, probably no more than 6-in. square. Basically the coldcathode flat picture screen would be an extremely thin vacuum tube. The unusual feature — made possible by the development of the cold cathode — would be a large flat cathode covering the entire inside back portion of the flat tube and replacing the cathode ray gun. Horizontal and vertical voltages applied to a crisscross grid would let electrons through one spot in the cathode at a time. Dr. Skellett called this arrangement an “electron spotlight” as opposed to the conventional electron beam. He said brightness should be better than a CR tube and “1000 times better than the flat electroluminescent devices shown to date.” This flat-tube approach, if it comes, is still a long time off, but Dr. Skellett says Tung-Sol hopes to be producing conventionally shaped CR picture tubes with cold cathodes this summer and “a line of receiving tubes for 3-way portable radios” by early 1960. Already