Early Electronic Television

ATC Kinet Technical Information

The Kinet gets its sweep and video signals come from the a "master" receiver.

The CRT 

The CRT is 5 inches in diameter, and the opening at the top of the set is 8 inches in diameter, for a magnifying lens. The mystery is what CRT is used. The dimensions suggest that it was a 5BP4. However, the socket is 8 pin, while the 5BP4 uses a 11 pin socket. I have a table which lists CRTs available in 1939 but none of the tubes listed there seem to apply. It is possible for a tube to have only 8 connections if two of the deflection plates are tied together, as some of the tubes listed in the table do.

Chuck Azzalina sent me a data sheet for a National Union 2005 "Videotron", made in 1938. This tube has a 8 pin base, and is the right size to fit the Kinet. Finding this tube will be almost impossible, so we will probably put an 8 pin base on a 5BP4, which very similar to the 2005. A 6.3 volt filament transformer will be needed since the 2005 has a 2.5 volt filament and the 5BP4 has a 6.3 volt filament.

The location of the CRT face and lens

The CRT socket and cable

The CRT housing, showing the location of the CRT socket, CRT, and lens

The Chassis

The chassis had many wires cut, and parts missing. Here is what we were able to determine:
• There are 2 – 879s as a voltage doubler to power the CRT and the horizontal sweep amplifiers 
• A 57 is a sweep amp, and a 27 as a phase inverter. I think they drive the horizontal CRT deflection Plates  
• There are no tubes for the vertical sweep. The waveform was probably sent over from the master receiver
• There are no tubes for video amplification. Video was sent over from the master receiver 
•   There are several 1000 vdc capacitors, indicating that the HV for the CRT was under a KV. That’s very low. The schematic we have for a circuit using the 2005 CRT shows the HV transformer has a 1400 vac winding.
•  Our Kinet has the wrong cable from the chassis to the CRT. It has an octal connector on each end (the CRT has an octal base. The original cable had an octal socket and connected to TS8
•  The chassis isn’t connected to anything – just floating

The Camera and Support Equipment

Video, horizontal sweep and vertical sweep are supplied to the Kinet, most likely through coaxial cables, from ATC's picture signal generator.>

The video is delivered at a level suitable to drive the CRT directly, as shown in this diagram: