Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-09-23


about by DR.. Ernest o. Lawrence
may not have been as shattering
as those which ultimately followed
his invention of the cyclotron in
the middle 1930s. but it has given
the television industry a noticeable
jar.
DR.. Lawrence came along last
week to demonstrate his contribu-
ton to color television-a new
viewing tube which may clear up
the color muddle and give us all
tinted TV in a hurry or which, on
the other hand, may make things
even more confused for awhile.
What DR.. Lawrence has sounds
fine. It is a color tube which will
work, he says, in the CHS field
lsequential or any other known
color television system. This
would include the RCA dot
Isequential system, which now has
been developed, observers think, to
ia sufficient degree of perfection
that the FEC will be asked to re-
consider it.
So far, neither CHS nor RCA
has taken official note of this new
development and probably a lot
of watchful waiting is going on.
Neither of the major opponents in
the color fray is going to abandon
his own projects to hop on DIR.
LaWrence's bandwagon, but nei-
ther. after CHS learned it's lesson
by getting the successful RCA tri-
color tube right in the teeth after
.belittling it. is likely to sell DR..
Lawrence short.
It's a New Color Tube,
Not New System
Televiewers eagerly awaiting
color should bear in mind that
DR.. Lawrence has developed
new tube. not a new color TV
system. The RCA tricolor tube
is equally adaptable to other
color systems and also can be
used in place of the spinning
disc in the CHS system.
The advantage of the new tube,
developed by Chromatic Tele-
vision Laboratories, Inc, a sub
sidiary of Paramount Pictures
Corp, seems to lie in it's SIM
plicity and similarity to black
and-white tubes. According to
claims made for it, the new view
ing tube can be made by any
manufacturer of standard tubes
at a cost no greater than black
and-white tubes.
The tube is seen as ''the simple
answer to the color television
problem" by Barney Balaban,
president Of Paramount Pictures.
"A unique feature of the tube"
he added in a statement, lis its
ready adaptability for mass pro-
duction on an economic basis
that will bring color television
within the means of the millions
rather than a few"
The new tube, according to
descriptions, employs a single
electron gun. the same as an
Ordinary black-and- white tube,
one factor responsible for the
simplicity and comparatively low
cost.
Without getting too technical,
the tube achieves its color images
like this: The gun fires the cleo
iron stream, which makes up the
picture. through a grid, which
serves as an electron lens, onto a
color plate directly behind the
viewing face of the tube. This
color plate is composed (just as
the RCA tube has alternating dots
Iof color phosphors) of alternat-
ing lines of red, blue and green
IphoSphors. The grid, or electron
lens, focuses the electron stream
onto the proper lines on the color
plate to produce the color picture.
Even though DR.. Lawrence is
one of the leading atomic scien-
fists, neither radioactiWty nor
Indclear flssion has anything to do
with his new TV development.
It's just a regular kinescope view-
ing tube with some changes made.
He Was Trying to ExpIoin
Color Tv to His Children
The scientist came upon the
principles he has employed during
his spare time from his post as
director of the radiation labora-
tory of the University of Cali
fornia His new color TV tube
is the direct result of his efforts
Il