In 1953, RCA submitted 700 pages of documentation to the FCC as a “Petition For Approval of Color Standards for RCA Color Television System”.  Due to the bright red cover, it is generally referred to as The Red Book, and every detail you could possibly want to know about RCA’s color system is included.  I have extracted two segments of the original to make it easier to get to the information that we are most interested in…the equipment and the history.

This is The History part, with 89 pages of detail that will captivate you for hours! In essence, there are three phases of color development, once the process left the RCA Lab…The Washington Field Test, The New York Field Test in NBC Studio 3H, and The New York Field Test at The Colonial Theater. This is the most detailed description of these test, and locations ever set to paper. There are many rare photos included here too!  Presentation of this rare document would not be possible without the help of our friend David Gleason and his one of a kind resource site, http://www.americanradiohistory.com/  The full 700 page presentation is at this link  http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Catalogs/RCA/RCA-FCC-Color-Proposal-1953.pdf