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Our First Telly

W

Wendy

Guest
I was talking to my brother on the phone tonight we had such a laugh remanissing about the first television Dad built. The television was made from a ships radar screen bought from a local army and navy store. The screen was green and about 8 inches across. It was built before I was born as a prototype because he wanted to build a better one so that the family could see the Queens Coronation. Well he did it and Mom said over half the street crammed into the living room in Coleraine Road Great Barr to see the Queen crowned she said it was a lovely day!
 
What I great story Wendy - I could just imagine all those people crowding in your living room - Did your mom have to serve them tea??
 
Had our TV same year for the Coronation. Yes we had a standing room only in the Front Room. I remember the Kids on the floor.

How much Mom saw I don't know but I remember Sandwiches Tea & Cakes being passed around all the time. Mom was like that:)
 
Watching the coronation of the Queen - I think you have a great sense of humour Alf - sitting cross legged - you didn't want to go to the toilet in case you missed something.

I don't know about anyone else but I must admit I was intrigued when it came to the anointing with oil part of the ceremony -
 
Wendy, just seen your bit about the first telly your dad built (been away for a few days) which is almost exactly what I remember of my dad's efforts from a bit earlier perhaps. I think it was 1948 but it might even have been 1947. After having a lush time in Bournemouth in RAF uniform, playing in bands and concerts for two years or so, he was noticed, and sent off to become a radio instructor before going out to India to help in equipping an RAF base near Karachi.
After he was demobbed he had become a bit of a tv ham. and he used to use a VCR 97 tube, green as you say, but only 4 inches diameter on the front end and about eighteen inches from front to back. He said the tube was used by the RAF for bomb aiming, but he may have been having us on. I can remember proudly going to an Army surplus dealer in Dale End in 1949 or early 1950 (while I was still at school) to buy a replacement tube for Fifteen Shillings,
He was picking up test signals from Alexandra Palace in London, before the transmitter near Blake Street started, I think, in 1948 or 1949, and neighbours would come round to look at this tiny picture about two inches by three, white on green. The "set" was in three parts - the power pack with a massive transformer, the receiver with lots of valves and tuning condensers, and the amplifier. On top of that was this tapering tube, four inches across at its wide end. To start with he mounted it on a three-tier tea trolley with castors. Everything was quite exposed and we were all warned not to touch anything. The result could have been serious.
After a bit he made a 'cabinet' which had a three-tier wooden frame to support the three chassis, but was then enclosed with 1/8 inch hardboard. What amused me was that he covered the all the corners with gummed paper parcel tape and then painted the whole 'cabinet' walnut brown with brush graining. The deception didn't really work, as the oil paint lifted the gummed paper tape off most of the hardboard.
But it did work and we used to see Muffin the Mule, Sylvia Peters, and lots of horse racing I remember. The programmes were very amateurish at first, but I think by the time of the Coronation in 1953 they had become a bit slicker. Not that I saw much tv in those days as I was more interested in getting out and about, not to mention courting.
Peter
 
Lovely memories Moma P,Peter, and Alf. I can hpnestly say I had never heard of a home made TV set before but when you think about it I bet there were quite a few around built by those who understood the fundamentals of picture transmission, etc. I enjoyed reading about that
very much. Times were so different to today and many people were truly innovative in creating their inventions.

One family in our road had the first TV and I remember being invited in to watch Children's Hour, Jennifer Gaye announcing. Like thousands of others
our first TV arrived in time to watch the Coronation. It was a 10" Marconi
that carried on for several years and even got as far as having the converter box put on when commercial TV came along. Remember...."It's time to switch over".
 
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I am glad this has sparked so many memories. Mom told me that the day of the coronation was like a millitary opperation everything was pre planned. All the women organised cakes sandwiches etc and they made use of our family tea urn which was filled up and put in the room so that no one would miss anything.

My Dad was an electrical engineer and he was always building telly's and radio's. He had a workshop in the loft I remember seeing valves coils of copper wire and a strange smell, I suppose this may have been when he was welding. He built a sterio system in the late 50's my cousin who is the same age as me still talks about that sterio now!
 
I remember my dad changing the valves in the TV I used to be fasinated when he took the back off seeing all of the valves, my kids can't believe that all the TV's were black and white when I was a child in fact I was 15 when we had our first colour telly.
 
First Telly

I SEEM TO REMEMBER THE FIRST COLOUR TRANSMISSION BY SOMEONE LIKE OXO .AND THEN THIS OTHER SCREEN WHICH YOU HAD TO PUT OVER THE FRONT OF THE TELLY TO GIVE SOMETHING LIKE A 3D EFFECT OF COLOUR I MAYBE WRONG ABOUT OXO.YES I REMEMBER MUFFIN THE MULE AND THEN I THINK STILL IN BLK / WHITE FOUR FEATHER FALLS AND I AM SURE TALES OF THE RIVERBANK THESE TWO JUST COME TO MIND . I USED TO HAVE A MONEY BOX WHICH LOOKED LIKE OUR PYE T.V IN FACT I STILL HAVE SOMEWHERE . THE SETS THEN FAR MORE FUN THAN TODAYS 50" FLAT SCREEN PLASMA HD etc etc etc . STOOD ON A CHAIR WITH THE INSIDE ARIEL. HAPPY DAYS

JOHN
 
Talking about valves, saw an advert for a stereo about a week ago which is using them, its the latest thing and comes at a price:Aah:
 
Valves

Valves have been used continuously Alf. A lot of HiFi Audiophiles buy equipment which contains them. There is still other electrical equipment manufactured that contains valves.
 
:ange: Our first 'Telly' had a 2/- in the slot thingy on the back, this was in the early 1960's.
I saw The Coronation on my Gran's telly and would go to a friends to see 'Watch With Mother' I think it was called.
 
I have an old Valve set but the speaker is damaged the kids again.

I heard that the valve sets give the best sound and this old one did.

You find a lot of the old type radios in Garages covered in dust and I've asked where the music coming from and its usually one of them.:)
 
I was 5 years old at the time of the Coronation when we lived in Frederick Rd in Selly Oak but can remember helping putting out chairs for neighbours to come to watch it on our Tv. I soon got bored so went off to my bedroom to play. We kept that TV for donkeys years as it had 2 new tubes before Dad would buy a new set.
 
Covering the Tele

Our first tele appeared in the early 1950's. Small, brown and bakelite with an even smaller screen. It took ages to come up with a picture and then some time for 'it to settle down'. Perhaps the most remarkable thing was that my mother insisted that the screen had to be covered over with a cloth when not in use. Televisions in other peoples houses also lived under a cloth.

I never knew why, or when we stopped doing it. Anyone know?
 
We didn't get a TV until about the early 1950's. Our TV was given pride of place and for the first ever viewing, Mom placed a double row of chairs in front of it, and invited people in. We didn't switch it on until everyone was seated. Cups of tea and biscuits were served as well!!
 
re tv

ALF.great stuff vavles rule.i have 2 vave radios,we had a old tv in the shed untill 1970,then my friend had it,a tall box with a little screen,,and a big speaker,when we did use it,the police were using vhf for there cars etc,and they would come through the tv,you can still buy valves,for tvs and radios, pete
 
PETER. I remember those first TV's like you describe, they had a thick magnifier in front of the screen ( this may have been an accessory for the TV bought as an add on. The screens were very small ( 12 " or 14 " ? ) but what smashing programs to watch. We did not have one.
 
re tv

hello,ernie.yes the screen was thick glass.green looking.i loved whatching
it,all tem old progs,but he aerial was naff it was a telescopic vee thing,and you had to find the best spot for it.if you was posh you would
have a big band 3 H on your chimney.great stuff. pete:D
 
Hello Peter. I can remember the old H aerial . I was trying to remember those old programs like the TV Toppers, the Black and White Minsters, Educating Archie, I think there was one called OSS I think about American Secret Service ( I think it started with Warships on the High Seas )
 
re tv

ernie.i remember the toppers,that woman presenter.angie rippon,was one i think,can remember b/w minstrels on radio not tv,sorry.there are still a lot of them H beams still on pots here,i tryed to repair one,that i found in the scrap yard,iwanted for ham use,but it was too corroded.my old tv was a radio as well.
 
I don't know which year we had our t.v. I do know that the people next door had 'ITV!!' which I was allowed to go around and watch sometimes. I can always remember - 'Hands that do dishes can be soft as your face', and 'Emergency Ward Ten'. Very daring I seem to remember being told!! When we eventually got our own television, it was BBC - there always seemed to be a pair of hands making a clay pot or really OLD people, with moustaches!!! (Also speaking some very POSH language). One thing which really stands out in my memory - is seeing pictures of rocket ships and lots of talk about war & atom bombs. (Later finding out about Cuba during the 'Cold War') I remember dashing past the bomb site wall along Thomas Street, so that I could get home to my mum before they dropped 'The Bomb'.
 
Watton. I know I am going off thread a bit but I wonder how many people remember how scary " The Bomb" was back in the 1950's.
 
GER22VAN
I don't think we as children did know what it was all about. As always, the media gives & probably gave, the gravest scenarios. All I remember is that something horrible was or could happen to me and to my family. Such was the power of this new media (to us). At the time all I remember doing, was watching (probably) 'Panorama', and being very, very frightened. It really worries me, the effects modern day tv has on our childrens' minds and emotions. That's probably one of the reasons I so enjoy 'soft' tv, on a Sunday evening!!!!
 
Watton. I agree with you how shocking things are today and satellite TV pulls no punches with TV reporting. With the bomb in the 1950's it was a case of a bomb could blow a house up but now there was one that can blow an entire city up.
 
A neighbour of ours in The Broadway had the first TV I can remember - this would be about 1951 and it was a 9" Bush. Massive bakelite cabinet with this tiny oval of purple glass. It took two strong men to lift it. I was occasionally invited in to watch programmes like 'The Lamplighters' and 'Billy Bean's Funny Machine' - now I really am dating myself!

Our first box was a 12" Pye bought from the original Curry's shop at Witton Circle. You turned it on at about 4.30 so it'd be all warmed up for start of programmes at 5.00. It buzzed and produced so much heat from those beer-bottle valves that it actually warmed the room! It wasn't the most reliable piece of kit, and when the guarantee ran out my dad would spend hours trying to 'get a better picture'. But at least we watched The Coronation on it, which is why it was bought.

These days I think TV is 99% dumbed-down rubbish and rarely watch it.

Big Gee
 
Lovely pic Alf. Our ariel was in the loft and my Dad was often up there adjusting the ariel while we (the family) shouted as to which direction it should face tin order to receive the best picture.:D

Pete, don't forget you can go on the Whirligig site and revisit your childhood programmes on the radio and tv from the l950's at www.whirligig-tv.co.uk
Billy Bean is definitely there.
 
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