Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Good evening all,

A mate and I have made an interesting discovery on the South coast where this mystery set has been unearthed. I've been through all the books but can't seem to identify it (yet!) The cabinet depth, crt, and internals are all shouting pre-war mains eht but I'm undecided. Any thoughts chaps?

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Interesting set, looks a bit home-made to me, but I could be wrong!

Regards,
Lloyd

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

I also thought it looked home made, or is maybe a prototype, but I don't know much about prewar tellies.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

That bulge on the front is a magnifier to make a small crt look bigger. You may find something without it is what you're looking for.

If that red cylinder is an EF50, it'll be postwar.

Found it- it's a Premier kit set.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/premier_televisor.html

There's a picture of an identical one in the Science Museum collection at:

http://collection.sciencemuseum.org....ision-receiver

Yours has a nicer cabinet!

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

It's post war (EF50's) Premier televisor (kit):

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/premier_televisor.html

Lawrence.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

That was working a long way from AP. They worked very well if built with care.
That boil needs to lanced..

J.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Nice to see the old Pye coax connectors. They were in profusion on WW2 kit and the market was full of them post war.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Ah a Premier kit! Brilliant! I did suspect it could be a home-brew set. Then we thought it could be pre-war but heavily modded (hence the EF50s) great to finally pin it down.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Yes, they persisted well into the 1960s in two-way VHF mobile-radio applications!

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Is that a water-filled lens?

EF50 were only just a pre-war development. There's an interesting tale of how Philips got them and their production equipment off to Britain only just ahead of the invading Nazis. They couldn't have been in any production TVs by then.

After the war they cropped up in RADAR IF strips which were handy for TV builders. I think this set has one at upper right, probably set up as a TRF for channel 1.

The CRT base is huge, is that a socket for the side-contact base of a VCR97 I-spy?

David

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

They were filled with liquid paraffin. I suspect there might have been some contamination when being filled in 1950!
I have many lenses but only one has turned that nasty colour.

I wonder what the picture was like? If discovered around the Portsmouth area it would have required a high aerial and pre amplifier. Rowridge came into operation in 1954 and this receiver pre dates it.

It may have been located high up on the South Downs, a significant advantage. I have read that a 1939 Cossor 1210 was working in Southampton with a three valve pre amp and a Murphy dealer with a V86C received excellent pictures with a huge aerial tower and pre amps at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. [Murphy Service News] . John.

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

I recall a provincial auction house from my teens where sets like this used to sporadically pass through with the distinctive "half a goldfish bowl" hanging off the front and was told that it contained paraffin- presumably, this would take longer to go "off" than water, although all the ones I recall were of various shades of that amber sort of colour, presumably as a result of slow oxidation. Perhaps there was also a refractive index consideration?

What would a fire safety official think of such a suspended incendiary attached to an occasionally fault-prone wooden box filled with hot-running components?

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Never seen one of those although I recognised the VCR97. many of the '50s sets used those liquid paraffin magnifiers the Bush TV12 and 22 particularly. Interesting find.

Peter

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

There's a bit of a difference between "liquid paraffin" and "paraffin oil" that you'd use in your lamp, stove or garden flame thrower;)

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Liquid paraffin was used as a medicine to 'get things moving' you could say. There was a screw you could remove at the top rear to replace the liquid when it became discoloured as that one certainly has.

Peter

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

As a kid I chucked one of these old magnifiers on to a bonfire - certainly didn`t burn like real paraffin.....

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Aha, I was imagining something more like kerosene, i.e. somewhat searching, smelly and flammable!

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

I've seen that Premier advert many times in Practical Wireless adverts, nice to see one in the modern world :)

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Hi Matt,
I must admit I'm quite jealous. I've been after one for years having had a copy of the instructions for some time (don't ask me where they are!).
I hope you get the chance to restore it.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Mystery set to identify! pre-war?
 

Does the restoration job for something like that cost an arm and a leg?

Amazing set btw! I love it.