EEVblog 1577 - History of Cathode Ray Tubes with Kathy Joseph

[EEVblog]

Kathy Joseph from Kathy Loves Physics joins me on The Amp Hour to discuss the history and physics and we end up discussing the intricate history of the development of the Cathode Ray Tube.




00:00 - Kathy Loves Physics
02:45 - Philo Farnsworth, the farmboy who invented television
10:00 - Professor Julius Plucker & Heinrich Ruhmkorff
11:13 - Heinrich Geissler and Geissler tubes
14:28 - Johann Wilhelm Hittorf
16:15 - William Crookes and the Crookes Radiometer
20:00 - Heinrich Hertz
25:00 - Scintillating Scotoma
27:00 - Philipp Lenard
31:25 - Wilhelm Rontgen
38:45 - Mihajlo Pupin
44:00 - Francis Perrin
49:10 - Henri Becquerel
55:39 - Curie Piezoelectric Quartz Balance Electrometer
1:07:46 - Philco & Bob Pease
1:08:44 - Vladimir Zworykin
1:15:12 - Free Energy & Debunking

https://tinyurl.com/TheLightningTamers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Pl%C3%BCcker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Daniel_Ruhmkorff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Gei%C3%9Fler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wilhelm_Hittorf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_radiometer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Hertz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Lenard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Perrin_(physicist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_K._Zworykin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihajlo_Pupin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_R%C3%B6ntgen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philco
https://medium.com/@johnwelford15/the-canals-of-mars-2a6fcce973c#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9Coceans%E2%80%9D%20that%20Herschel%20spotted,is%20not%20one%20of%20them!
http://waywiser.fas.harvard.edu/objects/15043/curie-piezoelectric-quartz-balance-or-electrometer;jsessionid=905D1CA90CE49F4637CBC07F90BC8BFE

[N2IXK]

A really interesting history of early developments, and their impact on the science of physics, the discovery of the electron, etc. Good stuff!

If anyone is interested in a REALLY deep dive into the history of the CRT, from the early history covered in this episode, through the final developments before flat panels took over the market, I can highly recommend Peter Keller's Book "The Cathode-Ray Tube: Technology, History and Applications".

https://www.amazon.com/Cathode-Ray-Tube-Technology-History-Applications/dp/0963155903

Keller was a CRT engineer with Tektronix, and the book has extensive coverage of CRT development for oscilloscopes, as well as television, radar, and all kinds of exotic specialty applications.

BTW, Bob Pease worked for George A. PHILBRICK, not "Philco"....

[EEVblog]

BTW, Bob Pease worked for George A. PHILBRICK, not "Philco"....

Yep, wonky memory.

[floobydust]

I recall they found in Nazi Germany square, perfectly flat screen CRTs. Apparently their glass manufacturing technology was decades ahead, the first to make them flat and square.
It was also shocking they were very close to having TV as I recall the documentary.
The impact of the CRT on humanity is absolutely huge, propaganda included.

[N2IXK]

Why a square CRT?  Did Nazi-era German TV use a square image?  The US standard was a rectangular image, with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

Early CRTs were round, but rectangular ones came along once TV really started to take off in the 1950s.   The deflection angles slowly got wider and wider, allowing increasingly shallow tubes.

[floobydust]

I think it was pre-war TV like Telefunken FE II 1933/34 small CRT but flat and square. The CRT- glass technology played a major part. You can see many were round as well.
VHF transmitters were also part of the tech, not sure what Germany had.

"At the end of 1946, only 44,000 {American} homes had a TV set; by the end of 1949, there were 4.2 million TV homes. By 1953, 50% of American homes had television."
https://www.earlytelevision.org/postwar_american.html