5 Apr
2012
5 Apr
'12
5:59 a.m.
Your belief is not a factor, you didn't work for
DEC.
Rod and I both worked for DEC, I also worked with the terminals people
during the Vt220, VT24x and VT320 series. ? DEC actually did interact
with CRT designers to get the exact product they wanted to DEC
specifications.
Since the 1970s, maybe even the late 60s, just about all CRTs were
semi-custom parts. The tube companies normally would work with a
manufacturer to fit the needed specs and tweak certain characteristics
at no extra cost. I am sure DEC was do so with the tubes they were
buying.
I'm old enough to rember and worked on old tVs
that didn't have such
a safety layer. ?It was never an issue. ?For sport my brothers would take
the
tubes (CRT) ?from junkers and haul them out back where they would
stand back 20-30 feet and pelt them with rocks. ?I've observed they
can be quite robust fromt he front but quite fragile from the neck side.
I have wondered if the whole CRT safety glass issue was the result of
some sort of nationwide scare - the real reasons are probably lost to
time. The stories of tubes imploding and sending shards of glass out
the front like a shotgun sound fantastic - but it seems that really
never happened (I should say "never"). Even with the big 12 inch radar
scope tubes from World War 2 with the glass in the face much thinner
than those in the late 1940s or 50s tubes - the necks were always the
weak part and took all the damage.
--
Will