Evening star., 1952-02-09
Color 1eIeyision
Fight Renewed
AT NPA Meeting
Possibility Seen
Thot Government Bun
Might Be Modified
By Francis P. DouoIos

:
The dispute over color television.
|quiescent for about three months,
today was faring up anew.
At the same time there was the
possibility that the Governments
ban on making color TV sets might
be modified.
What touched of the latest
color TV row was meeting of
industry representatives with Ma
tional Production Authority ofa-
cials yesterday.
The meeting was called IN
response to the requests of SOME
members Of the industry opposing
the NPA order banning the manu-
Ifacture of color TV sets for gen-
|eraI use. The suggestion was made
that manufacturers be permitted
to use materials allotted them to
make either color or black and
white TV sets, as they see ut.
Both the Radio Corp of America
and the Columbia Broadcasting
System asked that this be done.
INPA said this view viii be con-
sidered but added that the prime
consideration win be whether the
ban saves materials and maIt~
power for the defense effort
Conseryes Technical Ekills.
The agency said the predomia
lnant view Of the meeting was that
the ban should be retained to pre-
vent diversion of highly skilled
technicians from defense-related
work to production of color TV
equipment.
iRCA and CBS-two of the chief
rivals in color TV-traded verbal
blows over the merits Of their
respective color systems.
David Sarnoff, RCA board
chairman, asserted that CHS had.
learned that its system it calls
for spinning color screen in front
of the tube-was impracticable
and not acceptable to the public.
He asserted that the ban took
CHS "off the hook" and as much
as said CHS jockeyed the Govern
ment into issuing it.
His statement was made public
after the NPA meeting, which was
lcloSed.
StantOn RenIieS.
Frank Santon, CHS president,
later issued a statement saying
Mr.. Sarnoff had gone out of his
way to carry on his bitter and
desperate campaign to Illustrate
Color"
The date has long since passed,
he said, when RCA promised its
color TV system would be per-
fected.
"If Mr.. Sarnof really believes
that the RCA color system is now
ready to be adopted" he added,
''he well knows that the FEC
(Federal Communications Com
mission) and not the NPA is the
place to co."
Another to ask that manufac-
turers be permitted to use allotted
materials to make either color or
black and white sets was Barney
Balaban, president of Paramount
Pictures Corp. He spoke for
Chromatic Television Laboratories,
Inc, a Paramount affiliate and q
newcomer in the field.
Versatile Tube.
81 can fatty state" he said,
"that Chromite Laboratories has
developed the Lawrence tube to a
point where a set with this tube in
it can produce black and white
or color picture, and yet use no
other materials than are utilized
in any black and white television
SET"
The Lawrence tube was devised
by Ernest o. Lawrence, California
physicist who won the Nobel prize
for the invention of the CYCLIC
tron. d..
Mr.. Balaban said that, If the
requirements Of national defense
do not interfere with production Of
millions Of TV sets for black and
white. there is no purpose served
by prohibiting the production Of
sets capable of receiving both
color and black and white.