Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

New Color Television Tube Seen Bringing Color Programs to the Home Sarnoff Acclaims New Development as Miracle of Science and Declares it a Key to a Practical Color Television System for Home Reception. He Sees Future of All-Electronic Color Television Assured for the Public A COLOR television picture tube, long recognized by sci- entists as vital for the complete de- velopment of a practical, simplified color television receiver, was demon- strated by the Radio Corporation of America in Washington, D.C., on March 29. Performance of the electronic color tube in this first public dem- onstration, revealed beyond doubt that the scientists and engineers of RCA have succeeded in discover- ing and developing the only link that up to now had been missing in color television for the home. As a result, another major advance has been made in the RCA all-elec- tronic, high-definition, fully com- patible color television system. The new picture tube, or kine- scope, was shown in two direct- view types. The color picture is viewed directly on the face of th'e tube the same as black-and-white pictures are seen on the majority of the 5,000,000 television .sets already in use. The high-definition color pictures are reproduced ail- electronically. The receiver is un- encumbered by any mechanical parts or revolving disks. Thus, there is no flicker, no color break- up and no whir of a disk such as characterizes any system utilizing a mechanical scanning disk. Sarnoff Evaluates Color Tube Praising the scientists and en- gineers of RCA who developed the full-color tube. Brig. General David Sarnoff, Chairman of the Board of RCA, acclaimed the development as miraculous, both from a scientific and artistic standpoint.* * Reprints of General Sarnoff's ex- temporaneous statement to newsmen at the press conference and demonstra- tion of RCA color tube in Washington, D.C., March 29, may be obtained from the Department of Information, .SO Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, N.Y. [RADIO AGE 3; "Measured in comparison with every major development in radio and television over the past fifty years." said General Sarnoff, "this color tube will take its place in the annals of television as a revolution- ary and epoch-making invention. When historians at the close of the 20th Century evaluate the most im- portant scientific developments, I will predict that this tube will be among the great inventions of the second half of this Century. As the master key to practical color television, it is an outstanding de- velopment of our time. "We are on the threshold of a new era in television—the era of color," said General Sarnoff. "We can see ahead to the commercial development of practical and sim- plified color receivers. Our genera- tion is assured of clear and natural color television programs. Genera- tions yet to come will see around the world in color because this tube, which will go down in history as the father of future color television picture tubes, is the key to greater achievements destined to come. Scientists Congratulated "I congratulate the scientists, research men and engineers of RCA whose skills have achieved this great success," continued General Sarnoff. "They have made a tre- mendous contribution to the art and industry, and have greatly inten- sified television's effectiveness not oidy in entertainment, but in edu- cation. By learning to harness elec- trons to 'paint' with perfection in natural colors, these men of science and engineering have added to the preeminence of the United States in television. ".As Dr. y. K. Zworykin's inven- tion of the iconoscope and develop- ment of the kinescope revealed to e.xperimenters in the Twenties that the old mechanical scanning disk was a crude and impractical device for the sending and receiving of RCA COLOR TELEVISION RECEIVERS ARE THE SAME AS THE COMPANY'S STAND- ARD TABLE-MODEL BLACK-AND-WHITE SETS I.N SIZE AND AITEARANCE.