Western Television (Echophone) TV
acquired the Echophone radio company in the late 1920s and began
manufacturing mechanical televisions.
The photo below
shows the chassis, scanning, disc, and crater lamp in this set.
The Model 41
was introduced in 1932. It was an improved version of the 1929 Visionette
mechanical television, as follows:
41 featured a new 8-inch diameter, 45 hole lens scanning disk
and a new type of hot cathode crater lamp developed by Lloyd
P. Garner (the Visionette used a 17” scanning disc).
41 created a 4-1/2 inch picture (compared to the 3-inch “lens
enlarged” picture of the Visionette).
- The Model
41 had a built-in shortwave radio for picture reception.
The photos below
show the cathode crater lamp and lenses in the Model 41 scanning
Both the Model
41 and Visionette displayed an orange-red picture from the neon-kine
The scanning rate was only 15 pictures per second. By comparison,
today's TV sets scan at 30 or more frames per second. However, the
unique scanning disc interlaced each picture frame three times.
Despite the low scanning rate, the disc eliminated much of the flicker
Signal: Although the Model 41 had no receiver for sound,
it had an 8-tube superheterodyne receiver for the picture.. Audio
is received using any regular AM radio (not connected to the picture
suggest the Echophone Model 14 or Model 16 radios as desirable companions
to the Model 41 television receiver. A Model 16 cathedral radio
is shown below on the left (three Echophone tombstone models, which
I kind of prefer, are also shown). Note: The Model
16 radio chassis is similar to the chassis in the Model 41 picture
and Operation: The set has three control knobs: on/off/contrast,
station tuning for picture, and picture framing/sensitivity.
To operate the
Model 41, one did the following:
- Turn on the
television receiver and adjust contrast to the maximum setting.
- Tune to the
desired television broadcast station (for picture reception).
- Adjust the
picture framing/sensitivity control until a clear image appears
on the special ground glass screen. (The objective is to get the
picture receiver motor sycynronized with the transmitting receiver.)
- Reduce the
contrast as needed for optimal clarity and smoothness of the picture.
- Tune any
separate AM radio to the same television broadcast station (for
The Model 41 in my collection has a complete but unrestored
chassis. The cabinet was carefully refinished by a previous collector/owner.
A picture of the cabinet before refinishing is shown below.
of Mechanical Televisions: The Depression (and perhaps
evolving television technology) made early mechanical televisions
luxury items – beyond the financial means of the general public.
getting a mechanical television receiver into sync and holding it
in sync for more than a few minutes proved to be a challenge. Although
the image on a mechanical receiver is better than people expect,
there is no comparison to even the 1931 RCA electronic set.
lingered in the public space for a while in the 1930s due to manufacturers
like Baird, Jenkins, and Sanabria. However, there was no way mechanical
technology of the time could compete with electronic television
technology being developed by RCA and others.
As a “newbie” to mechanical TVs, I am curious about
- Were these
sets advertised and sold to the public in radio/electronic magazines,
at department stores, or in a Sears catalog?
- Were there
other technologies used in mechanical TVs other than scanning
- Were upcoming
program broadcasts listed in the local newspaper?
- How many
mechanical TVs would the Western Television company produce at
its facility in a week, month, or year (and why are there so few
Movies: Early (mechanical) television sets appear in a
couple of 1930s movies.
House (1931) shows a Radioscope being demonstrated by inventor Dr.
Wong (trying to tune in the six-day bicycle race and gettng Cab
And, below are
two photos of transmitting and receiving television equipment shown
in Murder By Television (1935). According to IMDB, the equipment
in the film was borrowed from Los Angeles television researchers.
of Model 41 Advertisement