TeleTales #48…Take A Minute To Look And Think About This

This 1944 ad from RCA gives us a few highlights of television’s history and brings to mind a question that is often asked here…what did television do during World War II?

Basically it shrank and took a back seat to the war effort, but it didn’t die. Notice that in 1941, RCA began offering larger home receivers, demonstrated large screen projection TV, and W2XBS became WNBT and a commercial broadcaster.

On December 7, 1941, all that forward progress stopped when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. RCA had already been heavily involved in making radar and electronics for Britain, but now went full speed ahead for the US military.

Around 1941, these cameras, the RCA Orthicon cameras, the Model 1846 were introduced here in limited quantities for the limited amount of broadcasts occurring. More on them in one of today’s coming posts, Notice the last sentence in the very last paragraph which hints at something new coming, but only after the end of the war. That something would be the new Image Orthicon tube which they were already making for television guided bombs for the Air Force. The IO tube was a military secret and even after the war ended, it took some persuasion on RCA’s part to get the military to approve the use in civilian broadcasting. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

Source