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Did You Ever Wonder Why Early TV Sets Used A Mirror?

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Eyes Of A Generation.com

Did You Ever Wonder Why Early TV Sets Used A Mirror?

Me too, but now I know. As odd as it seems now, the mirror was actually not a bad solution to a big problem.

The first cathode ray tubes for home receivers were actually quite long and a chassis for it would have stuck out from the wall about three feet. Getting people to by a TV set in the late 30s was hard enough…there was very little to see and they were quite expensive, but if it had been so cumbersome an item of furniture, the job would have been even harder.

The answer at RCA and GE was to stand the tube up in a cabinet about the size of a floor model radio of the time. This helped with the integration of a set into living rooms, but required the viewers to stand up too. This was quickly remedied by adding the flip top mirror which could reflect the small eight inch image to seated viewers. Pass the popcorn please.


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3 responses to “Did You Ever Wonder Why Early TV Sets Used A Mirror?”

  1. Dennis Degan

    Lack of suitable high-voltage transformers meant that the tubes had to be that long. Otherwise, the pictures would have postage stamp sized.

  2. Lou Spinnazola

    I’ve heard about these, but have never seen one.

  3. Roy Fechter

    I remember seeing an RCA “Director’s Console” when I visited KMOX-TV in the early 1960s while in high school. It was a desk console with a row of monitors mounted vertically that you would view through a mirror. I think it was purchased when the station started out as KWK-TV in the 1950s.

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