PHILCO "APPLE"  DOCUMENTATION

 

    We have acquired over a thousand pages of documentation about the Philco "Apple" Receiver project. The "Apple" television receiver was an attempt at making a color CRT using color stripes instead of the normal color triad used in the contemporary CRT's.  Philco worked on this project for over 10 years before throwing in the towel due mainly to the cost ($15M) to tool up for production; Ford was purchasing  Philco and they had no interest in spending any additional monies on the project. There were twelve prototype receivers built, but all information points to the fact that all were destroyed after being evaluated.

This information was acquired from a retired Philco engineer who worked there during the early 50's. Thanks to Dave Abramson for making sure that these papers did not end up in a landfill, lost forever. I plan on scanning these papers as my time permits and making them available on this site in PDF format.

**********************************************************
I have received some new history on the Apple sets from a retired Philco engineer who designed the last version of the tube used in the "Advanced Apple" design. I hope to be able to post this late information in a couple of months.

One thing I did learn is that the "Apple" didn't completely die at Philco, one of the engineers acquired the rights to the system and tried to continue the set into the early 70's. The system was renamed "Uniray", an article was published in the February 1972 issue of Popular Science. Steve McVoy has posted the article on the ETF site at: http://www.earlytelevision.org/uniray_crt.html.

**********************************************************
 

 

Philco Apple Receiver Documentation Bibliography

 

Patent:               Color TV CRT using stripes, filed Oct 1945; granted Nov 1950 (315K)

Report:              Color Measurements, Dec 1946

Report 177M:    Present Status of the Line-Phosphor Color Display, Dec 1950  (291K)

Memo:                Color Signal Makeup, Nov 1951

Report D/698:  Limited Index and Associated Secondary Emission, Jan 1952

Report 0/213:   Seven Megacycle Cohered Oscillator with Schematics, Oct 1952

Report M/123:  Method Employed in Designing and Aligning a Color TV Receiver
                           Incorporating the Philco Apple Tube, Nov 1952  (2,170K)

Report:              Revised Specifications for Field Test of NTSC Compatible
                           Color Television, Feb 1953


Book:                  The Apple System Engineering Book,  Jul 1954 to Jan 1956

                                        ESB-101 - NOTES CONCERNING APPLE SIGNAL REQUIREMENTS,  July 13,1954

                                        REPORT -  NOTES ON THE USE OF SECOND-HARMONIC COMPONENTS IN THE
                                                         GRID-DRIVE WAVEFORM FOR APPLE TUBES

                                        D/739   -   SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR PHILCO COLOR LINE TUBE

                                        ESB-102 - DESCRIPTION AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE BALANCED MIXER
                                                        TRANSFORMER OF THE SIDEBAND AMPLIFIER

                                        ESB-103 - TYPICAL SIZE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES AND EQUIPMENT,  July 7, 1954

                                        ESB-104 - ASSEMBLY AND ALIGNING INSTRUCTIONS FOR MARK II YOKE AND FOCUSER
                                                        WITH "APPLE" TUBE AND BRACKET ASSEMBLY,  July 7, 1954

                                        ESB-105 - A SUBJECTIVE COLORIMETER,  July 14, 1954

                                        ESB-106 - INDEX STRIPE REGISTRATION MEASUREMENT,  August 17, 1954

                                        ESB-109 - FOCUS RING MAGNET MEASURING EQUIPMENT,  December 13, 1954

                                        ESB-110 - ASSEMBLY AND ALIGNING INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLE TUBE AND
                                                        BUCKET ASSEMBLY, MARK II OR MARK III YOKE ASSEMBLY,
                                                        AND MARK III FOCUSER ASSEMBLY,  November 12, 1954

                                        ESB-111 - A CRYSTAL CALIBRATOR FOR APPLE CIRCUIT FREQUENCIES,  November 17, 1954

                                        ESB-113 - SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE LINEARITY SERVO LOOP PROBLEM,  January 18, 1955

                                        ESB-114 - A NEW SELF-OSCILLATING FREQUENCY CONVERTER,  January 31, 1955

                                        ESB-115 - A FEEDBACK SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING OF OXIDE CATHODES,  February 15, 1955

                                        ESB-117 - A TEST STAND FOR APPLE DEVELOPMENT WORK,  April 27, 1955  (5,600K)

                                        ESB-118 - THE DESIGN OF FLUORESCENT SCREENS FOR EFFICIENCY
                                                        AND WHITE BALANCE,  March 21, 1955

                                        ESB-119 - APPLE DRIVE SIGNAL PROCESSING NOTES AND WAVEFORMS,  April 14, 1955

                                        ESB-120 - INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASSEMBLING AND ALIGNING RECEIVER 6 TYPE YOKE
                                                         FOCUSER, SHIELD, AND TUBE ASSEMBLY,  May 11, 1955  (2,440K)

                                        ESB-121 - THE ORDINATE ADDER, A DEVICE FOR SIMPLIFYING CERTAIN CHROMATICITY
                                                        CALCULATIONS,  May 12, 1955

                                        ESB-122 - RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION OF INDEX CHANNEL NOISE,  August 10, 1955

                                        ESB-123 - AN AUTOMATIC HIGH-VOLTAGE CURRENT CONTROL SYSTEM FOR
                                                         APPLE RECEIVERS,  September 23, 1955

                                        ESB-124 - TRANSIT TIME ERROR CORRECTION BY CONTROLLED INDEX
                                                         DISPLACEMENT,  November 25, 1955

                                        ESB-125 - RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLE COLOR PICTURE TUBE,  November 28, 1955

                                        ESB-126 - THE MARK V RADIAL FOCUSER,  December 22, 1955

                                        ESB-127 - AN IMPROVED ALIGNMENT UNIT FOR APPLE SYSTEM
                                                         ELECTRON OPTICS,  January 20, 1956


Report 0/456:  Processing for Apple Receivers, 1954

Report 0/458:  Principles of Operation of an Apple Receiver, Nov 1954 (562K)

Report 0/482 : Charging Effects in Apple Tubes, Feb 1955

Report 0/497:  Rauland Post-Deflection-Focus Shadow Mask Tube, 1955

Report 0/550:  Partial Notes on the Discussion with Dr. Sheperd
                          on Secondary Emission, Sep 1955

Report 0/556:  Thoughts on New Apple Systems, Oct 1955  (317K)

Report 0/575:  Signal to Noise Considerations in Index Systems, Nov 1955

Report 0/586:  Notes on Ultra Violet Reflectors, Mar 1956

Report 0/589:  Experiment to Determine the Effects of Thermal Velocities
                           in the Standard Apple Gun, Mar 1956

Report:              Engineering Specification AD-2 for 21" Rectangular
                           Color Tube, Jun 1956  (237K)

Paper:                A New Beam-Indexing Color Television Display
                          System (The Apple System), Jun 1956 (300K)

Paper:                A  Beam-Indexing Color Picture Tube -
                          The Apple Tube, Jun 1956 (784K)

Paper:                Current Status of Apple Receiver Circuits 
                          and Components, Jun 1956 (1,550K)

Report 0/612:  Electrolytic Tank Study of Transit Time Induced
                          Phase Shift in Apple Tubes, Aug 1956

Report 0/625: Status  On Color TV Receivers and Systems
                          (Apple & Advanced Apple), Oct 1956  (80K)

Report 0/629: Optimum index Phosphor Wavelength for Photoelectric Displays, Nov 1956

Report 0/633: Phosphor Figure of Merit for Time-Sharing Systems, Nov 1956

Report 0/635: Study of Flat Displays Report #1, Nov 1956

Report 0/640: Comparison of Photoelectric Optical Chain Performance, Nov 1956

Report:             TV 8M-101 Tentative IF Alignment Procedure, Nov 1956

Report:            Apple Writing Beam, Feb 1957 (1,400K)

Paper:               An Advanced Color Television Receiver Using a Beam
                         Indexing Picture Tube,  Mar 195
7 (3,160K)

Paper:              Recent Improvements in the Apple Beam-Indexing
                        Color Tube, Mar 1957 (630K)

Report 0/735: CRT Masks, Oct 1957 (90K)

Memo:              Status of Electron-Optical work and Outline of Work
                         for the Next Month, Nov 1957  (83K)

Report:            Status of Electron-Optical work, Nov 1957

Report 0/751: Apple Tube Production (10/1/57 - 12/8/57), Dec 1957 (69K)

Report 0/782: Cost Analysis - Apple vs. Shadow Mask Receivers, Mar 1958 (452K)

Article:             The "Apple" Tube for Colour Television - New Scientist, May 1961 (201K)           

Schematics:      1958 to 1960

 


Report:            Direction and Time Line for Advanced Apple Program, not dated

Report:            Specifications for Apple Tube, not dated

Lecture:           Apple Tube, not dated

Report H-105: Research Advanced Apple Program, not dated

Report:            JF Series Apple Tube Data, not dated

List:                 Apple Tube List, not dated  (82K)

Paper:              Accuracy of Color Reproduction in the "Apple" System, not dated

Schematic:       Cohered Oscillator (COHO); hand drawn, not dated

 

HOME