The Cathode Ray Tube site
150 years of CRT evolution
The Dutch collection
SYLVANIA 5BP4 / 1802-P4 Kinescope tube
5" CRT tube with white phosphor used in early US TV sets
like the pre-war RCA TRK-5 set (1939) and early radar displays.
P1 phosphor (green) P3 phosphor (yellow) P4 phosphor (white)
Philips MW 6-2 (1953)
Projection tube
B&K 5BKPV-1 Very short persistence
purplish blue phosphor flying spot tube.
The first TV pattern generators for adjusting and
testing TV receivers used the flying spot principle.
A CRT with a special UV phosphor produced a
blank full field picture using a frame and field
oscillator.
A transparent (diapositive) picture of the test
pattern was placed in front of the CRT, then the
image light fell on an sensitive image multiplier
tube which was connected to a circuit which
produced the RF video signal .
Click at the picture to see the working tube in an
old B&K TV pattern generator. It is the same
principle as the flying spot scanner invented by
Manfred von Ardenne in 1930. Von Ardenne's
work was a great contribution in the development
of our modern TV.
The MW6-2 was part of the Smitt optical box in a vintage Philips projection TV, TX 701. There is a nice article about this tube at the The National Valve Museum .
See more projection tubes here.
Hokuto E2282 10cm TV tube
Used in small portable TV equipment.
Hitachi 40LB4
24x28mm Viewfinder tube
Matsushita 30FB4
22x18mm viewfinder tube
NEC 5K28
16mm viewfinder tube
Citizen MO1KBY65WB
My smallest 9x12mm! viewfinder tube
8YP4 8" 110 degree CRT
Together with 8XP4 and 5AXP4 this tube from around the 1950's was used in TV repair shops as a test tube.
Was original sold in a carton carrying box.
Commercial TV started in the US at the end of
the thirties, the first commercial high vacuum
"long life" CRTs were used in these TV sets.
The tube on the right was also used in the RCA
model TRK-5 in 1939. Today only a few of these
TV receivers exists worldwide.
More info about this TRK-5 model can be found on
the ETF website.
Philips IARC HDTV projection CRT
This Philips IARC CRT was part of an HDTV projector produced for
the European Eureka Project. The first High Definition system
based on the HD-MAC system. Only 100 tubes were produced for
projectors used all over Barcelona during the Olympic games of
1992. This is the green model of the three tubes used.
(green, red, blue)
The face has a strange color scheme due to the vaporized spectral
filter combined with the hollow faceplate to increase the light output.
The special front was developed by Leendert Vriens from the Philips
NatLab (physics laboratory) based on optical knowledge.
After the Olympics the project was cancelled and the tubes were
never in commercial production.
The tube has no type, but a test date 15-3-91, and is kindly
donated by Frank Nijs.
There is a new Dutch website dedicated to the old Philips TV CRT
factory with interesting stories and pictures. Look here.
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Cathode Ray Tubes
Small TV CRT's