| The Set: Pete Deksnis's Site about the CT-100 Restoring a Vintage Color Television Set |
Revised April 15, 2018 Total surviving sets = 176 Total serial numbers = 118
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The CT-100 site came on-line in 1999 and began collecting data on surviving sets; serialization started in 2002 with the 55th known Merrill. I went through the list line-by-line and found the serialization to be basically accurate. Some details: [1] Twenty-five numbers from 2003 and 2004 were lost in a computer crash . Six of those 25 were recovered: #75, 77, 89, 94, 95, and 96. [2] Approximately one-third of the known Merrills on the list were added in the first three years of data accumulation. Nineteen were added in 2002. By January 8, 2006, 110 Merrills were known. One-hundred-twenty-eight by January 10, 2008. Only three each in 2009, 2010, and 2011. But in 2013 things picked up. Ten new Merrills popped up. Here is a file detailing the living CT-100s December 1, 2015: Another CT -100 has been added to the Living List of surviving sets. Its serial number begins with the ‘B111’ prefix. Most CT-100 serial numbers begin with B800. There is also one B900. It is unknown why RCA Bloomington assigned maverick prefixes, but they do appear interspaced with ‘regular’ B800 serial numbers. For example, only 63 sets separate CTC2 chassis B8001503 and CTC2 chassis B1111566. Both were packed for shipment – at the end of the same production line – during the week of April 5, 1954. If you can share information or a theory about these maverick-prefix serial numbers, please do so. For example, we know there was a connection between CT-100 B1111542 and two CBS engineering employees back in 1954 at its headquarters at 485 Madison Ave. in New York City. April 10, 2017 Two additions, #170 and 171 May 15, 2017 One addition, #172 April 15, 2018 Three additions, #173, 174 and 175 June 24, 2018 Two additiongs, #176 and 177 Serial number correction: B8003962 changed to B8003961 November 2, 2018 One addition, #178 |