PHILCO (FORD) MOD. BLACK CLIFF YEAR 1967.

 

 

The PHILCO (FORD)  MOD. BLACK CLIFF is a 24 inches (61cm) B/W television with 4 programs preselection and potentiometric tuning search system, was first PHILCO model featuring keyboard tuning.

The set has a front heavy black glass and the chassis is tubes based since it's the same of older models but with keyboard tuning system.

The mechanical turret approach to television tuning has been used almost exclusively for the past 60 years. Even though replete with the inherent disadvantages of mechanical complexity, unreliability and cost, such apparatus has been technically capable of performing its intended function and as a result the consumer has had to bear the burdens associated with the device. However, with the " recent "  Broadcast demands for parity of tuning for UHF and VHF channels, the increasing number of UHF and cable TV stations have imposed new tuning performance requirements which severely tax the capability of the mechanical turret tuner. Consequently, attempts are now being made to provide all electronic tuning to meet the new requirements.

The invention relates to a tuning unit with bandswitch for high frequency receivers, especially radio and television receivers, having a potentiometer system for the control of capacity diodes, the said potentiometer system consisting of a plurality of parallel resistance paths along which wiper contacts can be driven by means of screw spindles disposed adjacent one another in a common insulating material housing in which a bandswitch formed of metal rods is associated with each tuning spindle.
In these tuning units, the working voltages of the capacity diodes in the tuning circuits are recorded once a precise tuning to the desired frequency has been performed. A potentiometer tuning system has great advantages over the formerly used channel selectors operating with mechanically adjustable capacitors (tuning condensers) or mechanically adjustable inductances (variometers), mainly because it is not required to have such great precision in its tuning mechanism.
Tuning units with bandswitches formed of variable resistances and combined with interlocking pushbuttons controlling the supply of recorded working voltages to capacity diodes are known. Channel selection is accomplished by depressing the knobs, and the tuning or fine tuning are performed by turning the knobs. The resistances serving as voltage dividers in these tuning units are combined into a component unit such that they are in the form of a ladderlike pattern on a common insulating plate forming the cover of the housing in which the tuning spindles and wiper contacts corresponding to the variable resistances are housed. The number of resistances corresponds to the number of channels or frequencies which are to be recorded. The wiper contact picks up a voltage which, when applied to the capacity diodes determines their capacitance and hence the frequency of the corresponding oscillating circuit. The adjustment of the wipers is performed by turning the tuning spindle coupled to the tuning knob. By the depression of a button the electrical connection between a contact rod and a tuning spindle is brought about and thus the selected voltage is applied to the capacity diodes. Since the push buttons release one another, it is possible simply by depressing another button to tune to a different receiving frequency or a different channel, as the case may be.
 Moreover, using this arrangement, the only indication--during adjustment--of which channel is selected is by station identification.



Here you can see a nice PHILCO Washing Machine.

(Television set kindly donated to me by Marshall Elia Z.)


The B/W Tubes Television set was powered with a External Voltage stabiliser unit for Television (portable metal box) which relates to voltage regulators of the type employed to supply alternating current and a constant voltage to a load circuit from a source in which the line voltage varies. Conventional AC-operated television receivers exhibit several undesirable performance attributes. For example, under low-line voltage conditions such as those encountered during peak load periods or temporary power brown-outs imposed during times of power shortage, picture shrinkage and defocusing are encountered and under extreme brown-out conditions the receiver loses synchronization with a resultant total loss of picture intelligibility.

On the other hand, abnormally high-line voltage conditions are sometimes encountered, and this can lead to excessive high voltage and X-ray generation. In addition, either abnormally high steady state line voltage conditions or high voltage transients such as those encountered during electrical storms or during power line switching operations may subject the active devices and other components of the receiver to over-voltage stresses which can lead to excessive component failure.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved AC-operated television receiver having greatly improved performance characteristics in the presence of fluctuating power supply voltages.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide an AC-operated television receiver affording substantially undegraded performance under even extremely low-line voltage conditions without excessive high voltage and X-ray generation under even extremely high-line voltage conditions.

Still another and extremely important object of the invention is to provide a new and improved AC-operated television receiver having greatly improved reliability against component failure. Such regulators are frequently provided employing saturable core reactors and condensers connected in circuit...  in such manner as to provide a plurality of variable voltage vectors which vary in different senses, as the line voltage varies, but which add vectorially in such manner that the
voltage stabilization
is automatically effected by the provision of an inductive pilot control device which is adapted to provide two excitation supply voltages for producing excitation or satuation of two magnetic circuits of a reversible booster transformer unit or units and diversion of flux from one magnetic circuit to the other, the booster unit being energized by primary windings from the A. C. supplysystem and being provided with a secondary winding or windings connected between the supply system and the corresponding inain or distribution circuit and in series therewith, through which a corrective boost voltage is
introduced into the circuit under the influence of the pilot control device, of an amount equal to that of the supply voltage fluctuation which initiated it and appropriate in polarity and direction for restoring the voltage to normal value and providing automatic stabilization of the circuit voltage against supply voltages which fluctuate above and below normal value.

Their vector sum remains substantially constant upon variations in line voltage, for providing automatic voltage stabilization of single or multiphase A. C. circuits where the supply voltage and frequency are subject to variation above and below normal value and where the load is subject to variation between normal limits.
The pilot control device which may be employed singly or may comprise three units or their equivalent when applied to multiphase supply systems comprises a pair of closed magnetic circuits or cores constructed of strip wound magnetic material or stacked laminations, the two
circuits forming a pair being constructed of materials possessing dis~similar magnetic characteristics when jointly energized by identical windings in series or by a collective primary winding, the said magnetic circuits being suitably proportioned to provide equal fluxes when energized at normal voltage.

The pilot control device is provided with a main and an auxiliary secondary winding or group of windings, the main secondary winding or windings being adapted to provide a voltage representing the difference in the fluxes of the two circuits to which it is jointly associated, while
the auxiliary secondary winding embraces only one circuit, preferably that subject to the least amount of flux variation. Either of the windings consists of two equal sections or in effect a double winding with a center tapping to which one end of the single winding is connected.

The voltage in the single secondary winding of the pilot device becomes directionally additive to that in one half of the tapped secondary winding a nd substractive in respect to that in the other half. When the supply voltage is normal the voltage provided by the single secondary winding is zero, since there is no difference of flux in the two magnetic circuits, and the two excitation voltages
produced in the halves of the other secondary winding are equal and when connected to the two excitation windings of the booster units, do not produce any diversion of flux between the two circuits or sets of circuits in the magnetic system of the booster transformer unit become equal, and since the series winding on the booster unit is arranged to provide a voltage due to the difference of
the fluxes in its two magnetic circuits or sets of magnetic circuits, no corrective voltage is introduced into the main circuit by the booster. If, however, the supply voltage varies from normal the pilot control device provides a voltage across the one secondary winding due to the difference in the fluxes of the two dis-similar magnetic circuits of which it is comprised, which voltage is combined with thosc in the halves of the other secondary winding to provide two excitation voltages which vary complementarily to each other as the supply voltage fluotuates, and cause a transference of flux between the two
circuits or groups of circuits in the booster unit and automatically provide a corrective boost voltage in the main circuit in which the series winding of the booster transformer is included of a value equal to that of the variation in supply voltage which initiated it.
The pilot device may be arranged in various ways, forboth single phase and multiphase operation, as exemplified by the constructions hereinafter more fully described.Similarly, numerous arrangements of the booster transformer unit are possible, some of which are hereinafter described in detail. The booster transformer unit embodies thc principles of the inductive devices described in my co-pending Application No. 411,189, filed February 18, 1954.

As an alternative to the provision of an auxiliary secondary winding on the pilot control device this may be
replaced by an independent or external source of supply,which may be either subject to or independent of supply voltage variation, provided such supply may be arranged with a center tapping if required.

Feed-back arrangements may be employed for providing compensation against voltage drop due to the effects of load in various ways. These are preferably providedon the booster transformer unit and may comprise a current transformer in one or more lines of the main circuit,
the secondary output of the transformer being rectified and arranged to energize an additional excitation winding on the booster transformer unit which in clfect increases the amount of the corrective boost voltage as the load increases.

Philco, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company (formerly known as the Spencer Company and later the Helios Electric Company), was a pioneer in early battery, radio, and television production as well as former employer of Philo Farnsworth, inventor of cathode ray tube television. It is currently a brand of Philips.

Philco's rise to the top of radio makers was an amazing feat. While other makers like Atwater-Kent, Zenith Electronics, RCA, and many now-forgotten others (Freshman Masterpiece, FADA Radio, AH Grebe, etc.) sold many battery-powered radios in the early 1920s, Philco made only batteries, "socket power" units, and battery chargers. With the invention of the rectifier tube, which allowed radios to be operated from the wall socket, Philco knew their business was doomed, and decided in 1926 to get into the booming radio business. By 1930 they would sell more radios than any other maker and hold that first place position for over 20 years.

Philco built many iconic radios and TV sets, including the classic cathedral-shaped wooden radio of the 1930s (aka the "Baby Grand"), and the very futuristic (in a 1950s sort of way) Predicta series of television receivers.

Philco started experimenting with television in the early 30s and financed for a while the experiments of Philo T. Farnsworth, considered by many as the “father of television.”An experimental TV station was licensed to Philco in 1931, one of the first all-electronic television ;

Granting of such experimental broadcasts by the FCC was common practice at that time, as television took its first tentative steps in New York City, Schenectady, and Philadelphia. While the rest of the country remained oblivious to the new medium, viewers in those cities bought several thousand sets to watch the limited schedule of programs transmitted by pioneering broadcasters of the East Coast who jumped at the opportunity to go from experimental to commercial television broadcasting.

By 1937, Philco was using an experimental 441-line television system which utilized a 12” television receiver—a direct, but bulky competitor to David Sarnoff’s RCA 12” set.

Along with the stations that would become WNBC-TV and WCBS-TV in New York City and WRGB-TV in Schenectady, WPTZ-TV, Philco Corporation's station in Philadelphia, gravitated to sports to fill air time.

On October 5, 1940, when there were about 700 sets scattered throughout the Philadelphia area, Philco broadcast the University of Pennsylvania's Quakers 51-0 victory over the University of Maryland at Franklin Field.

Today, the Philco brand name is carried by several different companies and holding groups throughout the world.

Philco International

In 1974, 13 years after purchasing the Philco Corporation, Ford begins divesting part of the Philco business by selling the Consumer Electronics Division to GTE Sylvania. Three years later, Philco International is purchased by White Consolidated Industries (WCI). In 1986, Philco and WCI are purchased by AB Electrolux of Sweden. And, in 1988, Philco finally moves out of Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, to join other WCI affiliates.

Itautec-Philco S.A.

In 1989, Philco-Brasil is bought by the group Itaúsa, part of Bank Itaú. Most of its plants are centered around three plants in Manaus for the manufacture of TV sets, video cassettes, fax machines, printers, and PC boards.

Philco-Argentina

It is owned by Jorge Blanco Villegas and has a plant in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. It manufactures mostly Semi Knock Down (SKD) type components, i.e., fabrication of pre-assembled PC boards and components. The German company VDO imported Philco-Argentina auto radios into Brazil for a while¾but with little success.

Philco-Italia S.P.A.

During the 70s, Philco-Italia became part of Bosch-Siemens and was subsequently acquired in 1987 by the Gruppo Merloni with Felice Colombo as president. It currently manufactures refrigerators and air conditioners in northern Italy having distributors in all 5 continents, Philco G.B. Ltd. in England, Philco Trading in Egypt, Bendix Unit B1 in Australia, among others.

A good point  on good  old  B/W Televisions.....................

The Sixties was a time of great change for TV. At the start of the decade there were just monochrome sets with valves, designed for 405 -line transmissions at VHF. By the end there was 625 -line colour at UHF, with transistorised chassis that used the odd IC.

The following decade was one of growth. The "space race" had begun in 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik 1 and terrified the Americans. Thereafter the USA began to spend countless billions of dollars on space missions. This got underway in earnest in the Sixties, with the announcement that America would be going all out to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade. There followed the Mercury series of earth - orbit missions, then the Apollo launches. Success was achieved in 1969. Most of these missions were televised, and in those days anything to do with space was hot stuff. It was inevitable that everyone wanted to have a television set. At the time an average receiver would be a monochrome one with a 14in. tube - there was no colour until 1967. It would cost about 75 guineas. 
TV sets were often priced in guineas (21 shillings) as it made the price look a bit easier on the pocket. Anyway 75 guineas, equivalent to about £78.75 in 2000's currency, was a lot of money then.  For those who couldn't, rental was a good option. The Sixties was a period of tremendous growth for rental TV. 
Much else was rented at that time, even radios, also washing machines, spin driers, refrigerators and, later on, audio tape recorders (no VCRs then). 
For most people these things were too expensive for cash purchase. 
There were no credit cards then. And when it came to a TV set, the question of reli- ability had to be taken into account: renting took care of repair costs. 

TV reliability.........The TV sets of the period were notoriously unreliable. They still used valves, which meant that a large amount of heat was generated. The dropper resistor contributed to this: it was used mainly as a series device to reduce the mains voltage to the level required to power the valve heaters. These were generally connected in series, so the heater volt- ages of all the valves were added together and the total was subtracted from the mains voltage. The difference was the voltage across the heater section of the dropper resistor, whose value was determined by simple application of Ohm's Law. 
As valves are voltage -operated devices, there was no need to stabilise the current. So the power supply circuits in TV sets were very simple. They often consisted of nothing more than a dropper resistor, a half or biphase rectifier and a couple of smoothing capacitors. If a TV set had a transformer and a full wave rectifier in addition to the other components, it was sophisticated!
 As the valve heaters were connected in series they were like Christmas -tree lights: should one fail they all went out and the TV set ceased to function. Another common problem with valves is the cathode -to -heater short. When this fault occurs in a valve, some of the heaters in the chain would go out and some would stay on. Those that stayed on would glow like search- lights, often becoming damaged as a result. Dropper failure could cause loss of HT (dead set with the heaters glowing), or no heater supply with HT present. When the HT rectifier valve went low emission, there was low EHT, a small picture and poor performance all round. CRTs would go soft or low emission, the result being a faint picture, or cathode -to -heater short-circuit, the result this time being uncontrollable brightness. On average a TV set would have twelve to fourteen valves, any one of which could go low -emission or fail in some other way. All valves have a finite life, so each one would probably have to be replaced at one time or another. The amount of heat generated in an average TV set would dry out the capacitors, which then failed. So you can see why people rented! 

The CRT could cause various problems. Because of its cost, it was the gen- eral practice to place its heater at the earthy end of the chain. In this position it was less likely to be overloaded by a heater chain fault. But during the winter months, when the mains voltage dropped a bit, it would be starved of power. This would eventually lead to 'cathode poi- soning' with loss of emission. The 'cure' for this was to fit a booster transformer designed to overrun the heater by 10, 20 or 30 per cent. It would work fine for a while, until the CRT completely expired. At about this time CRT reactivators came into being - and a weird and wonderful collection of devices they turned out to be. Regunned tubes also started to appear. You couldn't do this with the `hard -glass' triode tubes made by Emitron. These were fitted in a number of older sets. Yes, they were still around, at least during the early Sixties.



Developments................... A great deal of development occurred during the Sixties. Many TV sets and radios made in the early Sixties were still hard -wired: the introduction of the printed circuit board changed the construction of electronic equipment forever. The first one was in a Pam transistor radio. PCBs were ideal for use in transistor radios, because of the small size of the components used and the fact that such radios ran almost cold. 
They were not so good for use with valve circuitry, as the heat from the valves caused all sorts of problems. Print cracks could develop if a board became warped. If it became carbonised there could be serious leakage and tracking problems. In addition it was more difficult to remove components from a PCB. Many technicians at that time didn't like PCBs. As the Sixties progressed, transistors took over more and more in TV sets. They first appeared in a rather random fashion, for example in the sync separator stages in some Pye models. Then the IF strip became transistorised. Early transistors were based on the use of germanium, which was far from ideal. 

The change to silicon produced devices that were more robust and had a better signal-to-noise ratio. 
Car radios became fully transistorised, and 'solid-state' circuitry ceased to be based on earlier valve arrangements. Many hi-fi amplifiers had been transistorised from the late Fifties, and all tape recorders were now solid-state. 
Both reel-to-reel and compact -cassette recorders were available at this time. Initially, audio cassette recorders had a maximum upper frequency response of only about 9kHz. 
To increase it meant either a smaller head gap or a faster speed. Philips, which developed the compact audio cassette and holds the patents for the design (which we still use in 2000!) wouldn't allow an increase in speed. Good reel-to-reel recorders had a fre- quency response that extended to 20kHz when the tape speed was 15in./sec. 
This is true hi-fi. In time the frequency response of compact -cassette recorders did improve, because of the use of better head materials with a smaller gap. 
This led to the demise of the reel-to-reel audio recorder as a domestic product We began to benefit from spin-offs of the space race between the USA and the USSR. 
The need to squeeze as much technology as possible into the early computers in the Mercury space capsules used by the USA lead to the first inte- grated circuits. 
This technology soon found its way into consumer equipment. Often these devices were hybrid encap- sulations rather than true chips, but they did improve reliability and saved space. The few chips around in those days were analogue devices.  To start with most UHF tuners used valves such as the PC86 and PC88. They were all manually tuned. Some had slow-motion drives and others had push -buttons. They didn't have a lot of gain, so it was important to have an adequate aerial and use low -loss cable..............................

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