From Time Magazine, January 30, 1950:
One big stumbling block to color TV is
the cost of converting existing black & white sets. By last
week ingenious amateurs were showing TV engineers how to get
around it. One such was a Roselle, N.J. electrician named
Forrest Killy who converted his set to color with 30 cents worth
of red, blue and green Cellophane.
CBS engineers, making daily
experimental color telecasts from Washington, found that
Killy had set up a Cellophane wheel, driven by an old
phonograph motor, before his TV screen. Once the wheel was
synchronized with the transmitted signal he got a six-inch
color picture. "Anyone can do it," said Killy of his
makeshift converter. "All the technical stuff you need is to
know how to hook up an adaptor switch and regulate the speed
of the color wheel." Killy's opinion of color TV itself: "I
think it's easier on your eyes." |
Robert Peters (L), inventor of TV color converter, and Carl Weiner,
watching TV color program with others. South Orange, New Jersey, July
1951
(Life Magazine photograph by Carl Mydans) |
