May 19, 1945…Dumont’s W3XYT Signs On In Washington DC

May 19, 1945…Dumont’s W3XYT Signs On In Washington DC

With NBC/RCA having come to DC in 1939 with W3XNB, Dumont was the second experimental station in the capitol. In 1947, this became WTTG, and was named after Thomas T. Goldsmith, Dumont’s chief of engineering. Dumont’s first “network” consisted of a linkage from their WABD in New York, to WTTG in Washington.

In ’45, Dumont was still using the Iconoscope cameras, but the big difference between their camera, and RCA’s version of the Iconoscope, was the electronic viewfinder. RCA used a ground glass optical system, which was hard for the cameramen, but at least it streamlined the operation.

As you can see, the Dumont version required both a power supply, and a camera control unit with the camera, which was an awfully bulky situation. Even after the Dumont 134B Image Orthicon camera came about, all three elements were still required to be part of the camera unit, which is the reason for the “milk wagon” pedestal from Dumont. -Bobby Ellerbee

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