From: drake@Autodesk.COM (Dan Drake)
Newsgroups: misc.misc
Subject: Re: Magnets and tv screens
Date: 21 Jan 93 18:27:02 GMT
Organization: Autodesk Inc., Sausalito CA, USA

cdl0@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (CONRAD DANIEL LLOYD-KNIGHT) writes:
+ In article <1993Jan16.054150.5565@netcom.com+, rchao@netcom.com (Robert Chao) wr
+ ites:
+ +When I was small I put a small magnet on our color TV screen. Of course
+ +it screwed up the color. there was a green blob that floated around
+ +but never went away. A friend waved a magnet ring thing around it but
+ +the green thing stayed.
+ +
+ +Generally, will TVs today be wrecked by a magnet? Is there a way to fix it?
+ +
+ +--
+ +Robert Chao
+ +Oakland, California
+ +
+ 
+ Hey yeah, I'd like to know if there's any way to fix it! You see, TV's today
+ CAN be wrecked by a magnet - guess how this idiot found out! The cable went
+ out during a storm (the cable company itself was probably hit) and I decided
+ to entertain my baby sister.
+ Me thinking: duh...no TV....duh.....Pretty snow all over the screen....duh.....
+              wow you can see colours in it!.....hey wow, like, you could make
+              your own colours with a magnet and stuff.....magnet just pulls
+              electrons off course, hitting all the coloured bits..... hey,
+              kid, watch this...psychedelic, man......,etc. etc. etc...
+ Imagine my shock, horror, surprise,etc. after the colours didn't disappear
+ when I took the magnet away. Even when the cable came back on. Even after two
+ days. Even after two months! I took the magnet to it again, thinking if I
+ reversed the magnet, won't it push back whatever it pulled last time? Didn't
+ work, of course, but managed to improve it slightly. Still left with a green
+ splodge in the top right hand corner.
+ Does anyone know why the colours are stuck there?
+ Anyone know how to fix it?
+ help!
+ 
+ Thanx,
+ -C.L-K.
+ 
+ -- 
+ 
+ bye...
+ ________________________________________________________________________________
+ *               Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.               *
+ *                     Love is the Law, Love under Will.                        *
+ *______________________________________________________________________________*
+                            ___                                     - A.C.


[Entire article included here, out of spite at the asshole news software that
zapped my carefully crafted reply upon finding that my reply was so
succinct that its length was exceeded by the 10% of the original message
that had to be included to provide context.  Yah yah yah, I changed the
greater-than signs to + so you couldn't catch me.  (When will I write a
macro that does that automatically every time I start writing a message?
But I digress.)]

Behind the phosphor screen is a plate with holes (or lines, in a
Trinitron (tm) tube) that keep stray electrons from hitting the wrong
phosphor dot.  Magnetize that, and you get permanently weird color. 

Some TV sets, at least, have a DEGAUSS button somewhere.  Press it for a
second and let go.  I found one on our little Sony set when a child who
shall remain nameless took a magnet to it.

Incredibly, there are some computer monitors (high-tech stuff, right?
Not some mere cheap Don't Confuse the Stupid Consumer junk) that do NOT
have a degausser.  I discovered this when a cwsrn took a magnet to one.
This particular monitor was from Sony!  Be warned, and DON'T BUY THIS
KIND OF JUNK.


--
Dan Drake                 Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls;
drake@Autodesk.com        It tolls for Them.
Newsgroups: misc.misc