Old televisions, any enthusiasts here?

A friend of mine was clearing out recently, and unearthed this in their loft. Rather than see it go in the bin, knowing that I have a soft spot for technology of days gone by, he offered it to me...needless to say, I said "yes please" and went to retrieve it, utterly irrespective of the lack of space in here!

I've managed to identify the set as a Kolster-Brandes KV-024.

In my opinion, quite possibly one of the smartest looking televisions in existence.



I've been finding myself utterly unable to put a precise date on it. Can't decide if it's got the hardware of its time with a very futuristic case, or a late case and oldschool hardware.

Fifteen vacuum tubes in there, CRT included.

Further details (and many photographs) are on the webpage you can get to by clicking this link.

I've been utterly unable to find any information on this set so far...so any input from those of you who know such things would be VERY welcome!

I'm not sure I'd consider myself an "enthusiast", but I like old televisions very much. In my spare bedroom I have a 1963 Super Zenith black and white TV. It's somewhere around a 21 inch or so. It was given to me by one of my customers I moved a couple years ago. It works well.

With retro being "in" these days, I think it would be neat if tv manufacturers would put modern tv guts into classic looking cabinets. That way you could have stereo sound, remote control and modern features and reliability in a case/cabinet that looks cool. I personally like tv's with the thin legs that sit a foot off the floor.

I will try to give a little limited info. I spent 38 years in the TV industry (RCA & Sony) in the USA. Since this is an England made set it makes it harder for me.

The technologly looks right for the period. If in USA I would make this to be in the 60's. It is interesting to see the HV rectifier tube marked as Valve which is what the English tube makers called rectifiers. In fact, the original name was valve.

The set appears to be all tube. Normally the first thing to go solid state was the tuner, but this set is all tubes. Also, the tuner is completely mechanical. You have to rotate it to different positions to contact different tuned circuits for each frequency.

Cannot say much about the cabinet because English cabinets looked different, but it appears to fit the chasis.

Just one possible lead. RCA did have partners in England in the 60's....I cannot remember their name. So, this might be a set with ties to the USA.

Just thought of one name. Look-up Plessey of England. Not sure if any connection, but Plessey was very old in TV industry in England. They had connection with several English makers.

Not much help...but thats all I know.

Well, you're right on the money for at least one component MagMag, the CRT itself is a Plessey part. You've been doing your homework, haven't you!

neat looking set!
i collect and restore radios and tv's here.
closest to that i have is a hitachi 7 system set that i found in a yardsale in the base housing area near wpafb
looks odd with the crt protruding through the bezel.and one of the 7 systems it supports is ntsc(never twice same color)

Zelandeth said:

Well, you're right on the money for at least one component MagMag, the CRT itself is a Plessey part. You've been doing your homework, haven't you!

Click to expand...

Can't take credit for homework.....just popped into my head when I was thinking about my old working days.

I mostly collect antique radios but I do have an old Admiral table top TV with tubes. Its from the 50's. Doesn't work but looks cool. I'd like to get another one that works sometime. Just don't have any where to put one plus I need more Flashilghts

There's a site out there somewhere that sells ultra-mini PC system boards, for like automotive use and such. In one of their customer galleries a guy custom installed a complete PC into an old-school TV. When the keyboard and mouse are put away, it looks like a TV, and he can watch TV on it (IIRC it has a small LCD instead of a tube) but with the flick of a switch it's a snappy-looking PC!