Imploding CRTs at Tektronix

SCANALYZER Tracking with Closeups
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In 1967, a bunch of Tektronix employees decided to see what would happen if various Tektronix cathode ray tubes were to implode as a result of an impact on the tube face. They set up a test rig that smashed them with a metal ball and tested a variety of tubes, glass and ceramic, with and without shields, filming the results both in real time and extreme (4000 frames per second) slow motion.

The film is slient. You’ll have to supply your own kabooms.

At the very end, they test an 11 inch direct view bistable storage tube from a type 611 storage monitor. It is memorable.

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Like Schweppes, curiously satisfying - I suppose this is in light of the fact that there have been occasional moments in my long life when I successfully resisted the strong, sudden impulse to hurl something through the screen (In my defense, I’ll say I haven’t discriminated among the tech, whether CRT, plasma, LCD) into Newton Minnow’s “vast wasteland” within.

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