RCA Electron Gun
July 1961 Radio-Electronics

July 1961 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Making and using LCD displays is child's play compared to what was required to design, manufacture, and implement cathode ray tubes for televisions, test equipment, security and industrial monitors, and in the end days for CRTs, computer monitors. That is not to say the evolution of LCD displays was an easy endeavor, just that now novice hobbyists can easily design an LCD display into a project. Such was not the case with CRTs, even after the tube itself was made available. Designing deflection coils and the driver circuitry required, even if the person is not aware of it, to account for relativistic effects due to the speed and mass of electrons in the beta ray stream used to cause the fluorescent dots on the face of the tube to glow. The electrons experience a relativistic mass increase which requires the beam deflection coils to generate greater force than if the electrons were moving more slowly. This promotion for RCA's efforts to develop a more perfect CRT appeared in a 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics magazine.

RCA Electron Gun

A Space-Age Bath for Electron Guns

Another RCA Precaution Against Picture Tube Callbacks

Superior TV picture tube quality depends largely on an electron gun that is precision-made and clinically clean. RCA assures the cleanest guns possible in Silverama Picture Tubes by employing the costly space-age technique of ultrasonic cleaning: scrubbing gun mounts with high-frequency vibrations in a super-wet detergent to remove even microscopic foreign particles.

In this and every respect, RCA Silverama Picture Tubes are built to the highest standards of the picture tube industry. They contain an all-new electron gun, all-new parts and materials except for the envelope which is used.

These extra precautions help substantially to reduce troublesome "in-warranty failures" and costly callbacks. So give yourself the advantage of selling the best name brand picture tube: RCA Silverama. It's now merchandised in an attractive, distinctive new package and is competitively priced with other leading brands of picture tubes. See your Authorized RCA Distributor this week.

Guns emerging from ultrasonic cleaning tank. Still in the same tray, they are placed immediately in the radiant drying oven shown in the photograph at right.

Gun mounts are dried for one hour at 150°C (302°F.). Then, super-dry and super-clean, they are taken out for final processing in our dust-free "White Room".

RCA Electron Tube Division, Harrison, N. J.

The Most Trusted Name in Electronics RCA®

Radio Corporation of America

Posted September 10, 2024