1850 Iconoscope

Early Electronic Television

1850 Iconoscope

The 1850 was the first commercially available camera tube, introduced in 1938 by RCA. It was used in studio cameras through World War Two and in film chains into the 50s.

Specification sheet for this tube (courtesy of Troy Walters)
The Magic of the Iconoscope - Radio News, March 1939

A smaller version, the 1848, was introduced in 1939, and was used in field cameras. The 1846 was made in the early 40s for use in military cameras.

Early Television

C7373A developmental iconoscope made in 1938. This appears to be a pre-production version of the 1850

(donated by Dick Malm)

Here are Dick's recollection of the history of this tube:

In the early days of W6XIS/ KDYL-TV, the Engineering Staff built most of the equipment used. I can recall that the station had two Studio cameras (that required a high level of lighting to get a useable picture) and one (1) film projector camera that was optically switched between two film projectors. This film camera was built by the Staff. These units all used Iconoscope camera tubes. The Image Orthicons cameras arrived sometime later from RCA.

Early Television

Courtesy of Steve Dichter