The Early Days of Color TV

Factual Questions
1

Back in the 60’s (Yeah, I know: I’m that old!) my best friend’s family were the first on our street to get a color television. It had to actually be installed by a technician who used a cable of some kind which swirled around the screen in a rainbow of colors and from that time on, we got to watch Star Trek in color.

Now, I know that what the technician did resulted in the color, but what were the logistics involved, anybody remember back that far?

For our younger Dopers, no: I haven’t been into the mushrooms!:slight_smile:

Thanks
Quasi

2

The gadget was probably a degaussing coil. Old color TV’s had to be manually degaussed.

3

Must have been the early '60’s, since we had color TV in the late '50’s. I don’t remember what you are talking about, but then I might not have been home when it was delivered.

4

Second yabob.
You were watching NBC, right?

5

Kids today. I bought my first color TV around 1963, IIRC. No one had to come out and install it, though. I suspect yabob nailed it on this one.

6

[hijack] I’m that old too. Our first TV (b&w) (c. 1954) had a coin box on it. 25 cents bought you a 1/2 hour of viewing. About once a month (TV only broadcast for a few hours a day), a guy would come over and empty the coin box. That was your payment. When the TV was paid off, he removed the coin box.
[/hijack]