19/4/20 (tonight) 10pm BBC4

[ppppenguin]

'Televisions Opening Night - How The Box Was Won' is being repeated. Originally broadcast in 2016 for the 80th anniversary. It's a bit cringeworthy but you can see some great characters. Lily, the irrepressible dancer who appeared on TV in 1937. Prof Danielle George presenting. A few seconds of me (keep a sick bucket handy) and I think Paul Marshall appears too.

I'll also shamelessly promote our newly formed charity: https://becg.org.uk/ There's at least one new article on the website, about THames TV OBs.

[ppppenguin]

Link to the BBC programme guide: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0817s4g

[ppppenguin]

Forgot to mention that in the programme you get a look at Paul Marshall's place which is also the base for the BECG. An enormous amount of kit, more than just about any of us have got. I think there's a brief look at Ronnie and Reggie, two very large and very menacing turkeys. Once has since died so it's less scary now.

[Panrock]

I'll also shamelessly promote our newly formed charity: https://becg.org.uk/ 

At the BECG, you're making things happen rather than dreaming about them. All based on hard work.

One very minor point. In the 'scale models' section of the site is shown this van. It seems to me more likely it's an 'A40 van' - not an 'A35' one as stated - since this is based on the Austin Devon, which was the first manifestation of the A40. 

The A35 was smaller, and is memorable to me, since it was the car my gran and I rolled over and over in, going down River Hill near Sevenoaks one icy morning on the way to school in 1959. Was there brain damage? Could account for a lot...  

[ppppenguin]

Steve, thank you for your vote of confidence. We all know that you are a do-er, what with your restoration business, the Retrovisor and your efforts to get 405 back on air again.

[peter scott]

Interesting to see it again. Good to see Paul Reveley totally compos mentis. Nice to see Paul Marshall's camera in operation too. Perhaps not too surprising that most of the program was devoted to the Baird System. Historical accuracy went slightly awry with Adele's cleavage that should have been concealed by a rose and there was a distinctly unconvincing lack of flicker from spotlight studio but a brave attempt.

Peter

[ppppenguin]

The Baird system stuff was much more visually impressive. Not surprising as things with whirring machinery always look more fund than electronics that just sit there and work.

During the making of the programme in March 2016 I talked to the woman who sang the TV song. I said it was probably the first time it had been sung in a public setting since 1936. Can't imagine it had been sung privately too often either. The main hall used for most of the programme was freezing cold. Very close to seeing breath condense.

Hugh Hunt's team were using some pretty impressive technology. His team of postgrad students were an impressive bunch too. While the disc itself was fairly basic (and only 120 lines) they were using some very expensive photomultipliers feeding a high speed data acquisition system in a PC. I suggested using a low cost VGA to PAL converter to get the 120 line pictures into modern TV.

Shame about the TV22 when they could have had my 702 if they'd arranged suitable transport. The side room with the TV22 was pleasantly warm. It was also my engineering base, a warm retreat for various people and Danielle George's dressing room. So I had to make an occasional retreat and guard the door.

[Panrock]

My memory may be playing tricks but I really thought they ended up doing a 60-line demonstration, not 120. How was their Nipkow disc produced? An accurate 120-line disc would have been quite an achievement, even today. The only demonstration I have seen was of the one made by the late Peter Yanczer and understandably the pictures were blurry.

Steve

[valvekits]

Thanks for giving us the heads up that it was on Jeffrey, it’s the first time I have seen it.
I noticed that they were fabricating the disc holes by some kind of high pressure water injection.
I have had small holes laser cut in sheet steel but under high magnification you can see tiny melted fragments around the hole perimeter which are like volcanic lava, and difficult to de-burr.

Eddie

[Nick]

I believe that's called "profile cutting" and uses extraordinarily high pressure fine water jets combined with very fine garnet powder abrasive - 60 to 90,000 psi is used with the jet reaching Mach 2 or 3 through a jet about 15 thou in diameter. The grit size is typically 80 mesh, or about 7 thou.

I use a local company that does this to make stainless steel top panels for my amps etc. It's stupidly precise and most importantly it's cold, so doesn't mark the metal, unlike laser cutting which can cause colour changes.