On 27 August 1940. CBS. using its experimental television station in New York, broadcast colour television pictures for the first time. A private test of CBS's system was given the following day to the FCC's chairman. J.L. Fly, and some of his staff Fly seems to have been impressed and stated 'that if we can start television off as a colour proposition, instead of a black and white show, it will have a greater acceptance with the public'. CBS claimed that colour television was capable of being accommodated in a 6 MHz channel and that 'existing receivers need not suffer radical changes to adapt them to three colours instead of mere black and white'. The FCC representatives were quite excited by the test, although they were concerned that the method could only work with film. But soon CBS was able to adopt a new camera tube, the orthicon, to its colour system, thereby providing a direct pick-up capability.

Inspec keywords: television camera tubes; television receivers; television picture tubes; television broadcasting

Other keywords: RCA; colour television pictures broadcast; CBS; colour system; experimental television station; orthicon; camera tube; receivers

Subjects: Radio and television receivers