THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG — televisor

So whats the story I hear you say? Well, during the 1930s, early tests showed  that conventional make-up techniques were not suitable for television for although superb in real life or still photography it looked truly appalling on black-and-white television. Just look at this photo showing what "slap" of the day looked like on a JLB televisor transmission: - No wonder then that Peter Eckersley, the BBC’s chief engineer until 1929, put it: It was “An insult to the public to put on such a poor service and encourage the idea that the broadcast pictures would improve”.  Further stating that  “If...

Today, we are going to talk about photocells  and in particular 'gas amplification,' an interesting phenomenon shown by gas filled photocells and  I was reminded of a hilarious occurrence when a vintage radio 'expert/forum gobs__t' proudly visited proclaiming that he had just 'stolen' a Baird Televisor lamp and on proudly producing it with a smug flourish, I was able to deflate his arch sense of triumph by regrettably informing him that in actuality he had 'stolen' a Mullard 56CG photocell. With photocells, although the manufacturing methodology is the same as for a standard thermionic valve,  a precise aliquot of a noble (inert) gas...