In the 1950s, we had a B&W TV that had a plug-in socket on the back that was supposed to be for a color converter. The idea was that in the future, when color TV would come out, you could plug in a converter to get color TV.

It seems like nonsense now, and probably was then. Probably just a marketing ploy? But was there anything to this concept?

There were color wheel kits sold that worked like the CBS system. www.tubesandmore.com used to even sell these back in the 90s (NOS). Wish I could have tried one. They were out of my price range at the time, though, as most things were at that time. They sold the wheel, motor, and tube circuitry. They also gave instructions on how to wire it to your set. A lot of color wheel sets had rather small tubes. I wonder how large the wheel had to be in order to cover a bigger tube of a typical 1950s B&W.

T.

Thomas, are you saying that such a contraption would have worked to give us color TV on that old set?

I guess. Never had one. I just know that www.tubesandmore.com sold them in the 1990s, and said that they used to be sold in the 1950s for converting B&W sets to color. The CBS system was not compatible with the method of TV broadcasting that we use to this day. However, the contraption that www.tubesandmore.com sold may have been. I don't know how well it would work. Obviously the scan rate of each color would change somewhat. However, if you could get the scanning circuits to paint the picture with intensities that corresponded to the colors passing by, it is possible that this system could be used with the RCA color system. I really don't know all the details. I just know that such a thing was sold. I don't know what it was compatible with.

T.

Absolutely rediculous, but amazing, just the same. I love it! Click on "success" to see pictures of the unit in operation.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/colordaptor_restoration.html

I can only imagine that the color and the picture in general would be less than perfect. Aside from sync problems, a color tube scans all three colors at the same time. With the color wheel and the RCA system as its signal source, it would only be able to scan one color at a time, as I said before. You may think of it kind of like the difference between 24 fps theatre projection and 16 fps home projection. Of course the frame rate of the television doesn't change, but the color frame rate is 1/3 that of a true color television. Persistance of vision might not be able to handle that properly. Therefore color might be less than satisfactory.

Thomas

Here's an interesting one. I don't think that this one is designed to be used with the RCA transmission system, as it hadn't been invented yet (in 1950). It's an amazing device, though, with all of the circuitry contained within the unit. Too bad there aren't pictures of it operating. Interesting to note that the converter unit had a voltage doubler, which caused the picture to be brighter for color viewing. I wonder how well the CRT handled this.

T.

As always, it helps to post the web site.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/cbs_color_converter.html

:I guess. Never had one. I just know that www.tubesandmore.com sold them in the 1990s, and said that they used to be sold in the 1950s for converting B&W sets to color. The CBS system was not compatible with the method of TV broadcasting that we use to this day. However, the contraption that www.tubesandmore.com sold may have been. I don't know how well it would work. Obviously the scan rate of each color would change somewhat. However, if you could get the scanning circuits to paint the picture with intensities that corresponded to the colors passing by, it is possible that this system could be used with the RCA color system. I really don't know all the details. I just know that such a thing was sold. I don't know what it was compatible with.
:
:T.

I've seen these things spinning in front of the screen. However, I didn't know that there was any circuitry involved with them. they only gave a very slight illusion of dim color.

Will

Guys,

Back in the 50s there was available a translucent plastic film one could buy that would attach to the CRT that was blue at the top and green at the bottom to give some simulation of color TV. You had to have a bit of imagination as I remember. Similar to this was a translucent film that kids could get from mailorder to interact with a popular kids TV program called Winkie Dink (not sure of the spelling). The film was attached to the front of the CRT and while watching the show, if the star Winkie was being chased by the bad guy and came say to a canyon, the program would halt and you could take a crayon and draw a bridge across the canyon so he could cross and you were instructed to quickly erase the bridge before the bad guy could cross. Of course the bad guy would fall into the canyon. I am sure this was not at all safe, however I never heard of anyone getting hurt.

Radiodoc

:I guess. Never had one. I just know that www.tubesandmore.com sold them in the 1990s, and said that they used to be sold in the 1950s for converting B&W sets to color. The CBS system was not compatible with the method of TV broadcasting that we use to this day. However, the contraption that www.tubesandmore.com sold may have been. I don't know how well it would work. Obviously the scan rate of each color would change somewhat. However, if you could get the scanning circuits to paint the picture with intensities that corresponded to the colors passing by, it is possible that this system could be used with the RCA color system. I really don't know all the details. I just know that such a thing was sold. I don't know what it was compatible with.
:
:T.

Interesting. How come it would be dangerous to draw on the screen?

Regarding the color wheel and circuitry, circuitry would be necessary in order to synchronize it with the picture. An ordinary black and white television does not contain color circuitry. With the RCA system, a black and white television receives all three color signals. The combination gives you your black and white picture. With the CBS system, which is not compatible with ordinary black and white televisions, three separate pictures are sent out in succession. Each one is of the intensity of the color that originally passed through a color filter at the studio (red, green, and blue filters). If converting a black and white television to the CBS system, the grid of the picture tube must be sent in succession the different intensities of the different colors. This must be synchronized with the color wheel. With the RCA system, all three color signals are broadcast at once, and with a color receiver, all three color guns scan at the same time. To use with a color wheel, the grid of the black and white tube must be sent in succession each of the intensities that the color guns would receive in a color set of the RCA type. This must be synchronized with the color wheel. Delay must be provided in the circuitry so that all of the information may be displayed. The color wheel is only capable of displaying one color at a time. Normally all three colors are broadcast at the same time with the RCA system. If no delay is provided in the circuitry, some of the color information will be lost, as the wheel can only display one color at a time even though they are all being broadcast at the same time. The circuitry must choose from the three signals according to what color on the color wheel is in front of the screen at any one time.

T.

Doug/Thomas,
Come on guys lets get serious. I remember some of those contraptions from the 50's. Yea, by putting a rotating color wheel or celluloid mask in front of a black/white screen, and really stretching the imagination, you could call it colored TV, even if the broadcast originated in black/white, but maybe thats why they started calling some of the early color broadcasts "In Living Color" I guess any hint of color in those days would have been better than the glare of black/white. I'd bet a lot of shady salesman made millions selling that snake oil. The black/white CRT's were unable to produce color onto the phospher coated glass tube, even with an extra receptacle on the chassis. Maybe that extra receptacle was for higher anode voltage, extra wires for 3 color guns to a new external 2 inch crt with color mask. Almost sounds like my first mental vision of TV itself. I learned of this new miracle from my older brother who was into all that electronic stuff in the 40's an 50's. As for my knowledge of vaccuum tubes, it was a glass tube about 4 or 5 inches high, with mica spacers and black metal inside, and somehow I envisioned little people dancing around on those mica spacers as if it were a stage of some sort. A child's imagination run amok. Gonna need some powerful glasses for this new TV thingy.

marv

:In the 1950s, we had a B&W TV that had a plug-in socket on the back that was supposed to be for a color converter. The idea was that in the future, when color TV would come out, you could plug in a converter to get color TV.
:
:It seems like nonsense now, and probably was then. Probably just a marketing ploy? But was there anything to this concept?

Sounds like you didn't even read the article. Your comment has very little to do with what I was talking about. This isn't just some thing you put in front of the screen and imagine color. It's a color wheel system. If a color wheel is synchronized with a black and white tube properly, and the tube is fed brightness signals according to what color is passing by the screen, you're going to get a color image, possibly of very good quality. Zenith had a system similar to the CBS system in the 1940s. They used it for live color broadcast of surgeries to nurses in training. Nurses who experienced this said that the color was fabulous. The color all depends on how well the unit is built and synchronized. The CBS system also performed quite well. However, it was mechanical, and was combersome, and wasn't compatible with the black and white transmission process. Over a million black and white receivers were already in homes at the time CBS brought out its system, and these would have all been made obsolete.

If there's anything I dislike, it's when people make comments without first reading thoroughly.

T.

I will just slip this into the thread just after Sir Marv's comment.....(Thomas at post time), so as to not untimely stagger the entrys width and prematurely widen the displays width on some users monitors.

The output connector was in all probability a sampling of composite video as well as vert and hoz sync signals.
The color wheel technology was and STILL is compatible with current NTSC color standards. The big mechanical drawback was the actual space consideration of having to have a large wheel, a little in excess of twice your screen size mounted to the side/and/front of the pic tube so that the viewed smaller 10-12 inch screens viewing path could be precisely and segmentally "chopped up" into multiple sequential R-G-B spiral portions of color information. This being much in the order of moviing pictures created from sequential still frames,yet with the multiple displays speed being greater than the vision/brain response time. One advantage at that time was the black and white tube being able to be driven to high brightness levels as compared to the quite bucolic brightness performance of the first generations of conventional tri gun shadow mask color picture tubes. Thereby the overall color brightness as well as resolution was quite great.The precise color purity was all dependent upon the selection of the specific color filter coloration selected.

In my magazine archives I know I have an article from Radio and TV News or Radio Electronics ? that specifically gave an electronics home construction article for constructing your own color wheel with its package of outboard tube electronics.
Its function was to separate the individual R-G-B video information from a NTSC signals video and sequentially apply it such that the video was in sync with the specific color segment spiral that was passing in front of the display area. The wheel was spun by a small 60~ synchronous motor that probably spun the wheel at 1800 rpm or a slower multiple. Seems like the wheel had six segments, with them being of a quasi spherical shaping to optimize coverage and compromise with the sweep speed of a trace across the kine screen versus the area covered by a segment close to the hub as to that area covered out at the extreme peripery of the wheel.

One thing that was not included within the circuitry was the synchronization of the speed of the color wheel, instead relying upon the TV stattion using 60~ sync as well as the color wheel motor at the receiver also utilizing 60~ AC line sync. This led to the one mechanical feature of the system thereupon there was a "speedometer" type of cable from the mechanics over to the prime viewer/operator seating. The idea was for a spring loaded pistol grip handle with its thumb operated button that pressed against the inner cable and end actuated a micro brake pad to the color wheel. The purpose to incorporate a fine tuning to the color wheel speed to "sync" for any cumulative speed variance from the station. Apparently, good for minutes of re-sync at each time.

As far as color wheels , they have been around since the day one of color televison, and as late as even today.

http://www.dlp.com/dlp_technology/dlp_technology_overview.asp

73's de Edd

Edd/Thomas,
OK!! You guys called my bluff. I've never really experienced a color wheel display, and I may be shooting from the hip, but I did browse the web site you mentioned, and did note the mention of a color wheel, however it appears to be an electronic wheel/switch vs a electro-mechanical device, and much faster I might add. In addition the organic (OLED) LED light source is created at the pixel level I believe, vs a color wheel that encompasses the entire screen. The synchronizing problem of the color wheel (30cps frame rate 15,750cps sweep rate)would have been a practical impossibilty. Perhaps a color mosaic in a spiral pattern might have worked better, but I still propose it was colored TV vs "Color TV" Black is considered to be the lack of color, so what do you remove/add to make a blue suit appear. It reminds me of the Gain(sp) air needle valve offered years ago, for the old 1 barrel carburetors of yesteryear. If I recall correctly, numerous testimonials appeared in the Sunday Parade, Popular Mechanics and several trade magazines. Increased horsepower and mpg in the 10-20% region were just 2 of its notables, but at 10 mpg, thats real gravy. It was just a new needle valve with a hole (1.5mm)through it and a small dust cover over the hole. But wait, how can you meter in air at idle speed when mpg is 0 anyway and increase mpg when the top of the carb is fully open(approx 2 inches) My Dad bought one for our old Chevy 6 banger at about 6 or 8 bucks, but once again more Madison Ave. snake oil. The Gain needle valve did outlast the Chevy though.

marv

:I will just slip this into the thread just after Sir Marv's comment.....(Thomas at post time), so as to not untimely stagger the entrys width and prematurely widen the displays width on some users monitors.
:
:The output connector was in all probability a sampling of composite video as well as vert and hoz sync signals.
:The color wheel technology was and STILL is compatible with current NTSC color standards. The big mechanical drawback was the actual space consideration of having to have a large wheel, a little in excess of twice your screen size mounted to the side/and/front of the pic tube so that the viewed smaller 10-12 inch screens viewing path could be precisely and segmentally "chopped up" into multiple sequential R-G-B spiral portions of color information. This being much in the order of moviing pictures created from sequential still frames,yet with the multiple displays speed being greater than the vision/brain response time. One advantage at that time was the black and white tube being able to be driven to high brightness levels as compared to the quite bucolic brightness performance of the first generations of conventional tri gun shadow mask color picture tubes. Thereby the overall color brightness as well as resolution was quite great.The precise color purity was all dependent upon the selection of the specific color filter coloration selected.
:
:In my magazine archives I know I have an article from Radio and TV News or Radio Electronics ? that specifically gave an electronics home construction article for constructing your own color wheel with its package of outboard tube electronics.
:Its function was to separate the individual R-G-B video information from a NTSC signals video and sequentially apply it such that the video was in sync with the specific color segment spiral that was passing in front of the display area. The wheel was spun by a small 60~ synchronous motor that probably spun the wheel at 1800 rpm or a slower multiple. Seems like the wheel had six segments, with them being of a quasi spherical shaping to optimize coverage and compromise with the sweep speed of a trace across the kine screen versus the area covered by a segment close to the hub as to that area covered out at the extreme peripery of the wheel.
:
:One thing that was not included within the circuitry was the synchronization of the speed of the color wheel, instead relying upon the TV stattion using 60~ sync as well as the color wheel motor at the receiver also utilizing 60~ AC line sync. This led to the one mechanical feature of the system thereupon there was a "speedometer" type of cable from the mechanics over to the prime viewer/operator seating. The idea was for a spring loaded pistol grip handle with its thumb operated button that pressed against the inner cable and end actuated a micro brake pad to the color wheel. The purpose to incorporate a fine tuning to the color wheel speed to "sync" for any cumulative speed variance from the station. Apparently, good for minutes of re-sync at each time.
:
:As far as color wheels , they have been around since the day one of color televison, and as late as even today.
:
:http://www.dlp.com/dlp_technology/dlp_technology_overview.asp
:
:73's de Edd

Not that I'm not one for inappropriate commentary (sorry about that)....

Regarding idle metering jets, with the throttle almost closed, all fuel and some air is drawn through the idle jet (idle air bleeds in the idle circuit allow for this air). The remaining air is drawn past the throttle plate. As the throttle is opened, additional idle discharge ports are exposed. These actually also served as air bleeds when they were covered by the throttle (they were on the atmospheric side of the throttle, not the vacuum side). Now being exposed to vacuum, they start to discharge fuel as well, enrichening the mixture. Now, it says in my Chevrolet manual that at higher speeds and at full throttle, the main discharge takes over. However, what I've found out by reading elsewhere, and then by re-reading my Chevrolet manual, is that if the timing advances are adjusted properly on your engine, the idle discharge holes are what supply your fuel through 60 MPH, when cruising (not climbing hills, accelerating, etc.). That said, it is entirely possible that a design change in the main idle discharge could have a significant effect on driving mileage and performance. I sort of doubt this, though. During a normal tune-up, you already adjust the throttle and idle port so that they produce the proper air/fuel ratios. Adding more air...well, I guess you could re-adjust for this by opening the needle further. You'd still get correct air/fuel ratios. You know, actually, thinking about it, that's a teriffic idea. The small amount of air rushing through the center of the fuel discharge might atomize it even better. If you only got 10 mpg, though, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I'm surprised, because I usually get 17-20 mpg with my one barrel. I do have another interesting thing that I ponder, though, and want to try. This would be an auxilary air port on the idle system (a controllable vacuum leak on the idle circuit). Normally, at idle, the vacuum never goes above 21 inches of mercury. When driving, the vacuum never goes above 21. However, when coasting with the throttle near closed, the vacuum will go up to about 24. I'd like to have a vacuum controlled switch that would control a valve to the auxilary port (that I'd add) on the idle circuit. It isn't necessary to feed the engine gas when coasting. Whever coasting, the increase in vacuum would open this air port, taking away all suction to the idle circuit, making it inoperative. Any time the engine was brought down to idle, or when the throttle was opened again, the air valve would switch off, allowing normal idle circuit performance. Some modern cars switch off the injectors whenever coasting. What a smart idea. Don't know how much fuel you'd save. Probably not much. Every little bit helps, though. In rush hour traffic it might help, as the car is constantly speeding up and slowing down. Hybrid technology works, even though it only assists during start-out acceleration. You can get 50 mpg in the city, though, so it must be doing a great deal even though it seems like so little. I guess there's a bit of a difference between the gas that an engine sucks during acceleration as opposed to coasting, though.

T.

Amazing. Not a huge fan of digital technology. I'm a die-hard Kodachrome fan. That is breathtakingly amazing, though. I never used to be a fan of Hondas. When you realize the supreme engineering and manufacturing accuracy and quality that goes into them, though, you really have to appreciate them a lot (and I do...they're my favorite modern car). The whole digital mirror thing really commands respect, and the fact that they use color wheels with such precision makes me want to do a flip. Of course, with to-day's motor technology, I guess it's quite possible. They already do it in VCRs.

Thomas

Felt groggy and sleepy all day. Didn't sleep well last night. Must have been that huge serving of crow I consumed.

marv

:Amazing. Not a huge fan of digital technology. I'm a die-hard Kodachrome fan. That is breathtakingly amazing, though. I never used to be a fan of Hondas. When you realize the supreme engineering and manufacturing accuracy and quality that goes into them, though, you really have to appreciate them a lot (and I do...they're my favorite modern car). The whole digital mirror thing really commands respect, and the fact that they use color wheels with such precision makes me want to do a flip. Of course, with to-day's motor technology, I guess it's quite possible. They already do it in VCRs.
:
:Thomas

Color Wheels are more alive today than they have ever been!!!!! Most Single Chip DLP TVs and Projectors have them!

:Sounds like you didn't even read the article. Your comment has very little to do with what I was talking about. This isn't just some thing you put in front of the screen and imagine color. It's a color wheel system. If a color wheel is synchronized with a black and white tube properly, and the tube is fed brightness signals according to what color is passing by the screen, you're going to get a color image, possibly of very good quality. Zenith had a system similar to the CBS system in the 1940s. They used it for live color broadcast of surgeries to nurses in training. Nurses who experienced this said that the color was fabulous. The color all depends on how well the unit is built and synchronized. The CBS system also performed quite well. However, it was mechanical, and was combersome, and wasn't compatible with the black and white transmission process. Over a million black and white receivers were already in homes at the time CBS brought out its system, and these would have all been made obsolete.
:
:If there's anything I dislike, it's when people make comments without first reading thoroughly.
:
:T.