Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
Making Yesterdays Electronics Work Today
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These TVs look really great, but I don’t think that they sold as well as our Gosport-produced 1500s and 1600s. Theoretically they should have been more reliable being solid state (although 1600 was solid state but known to have fire issues with its dropper catching fire.) Thankfully by 1985 the TVs and monitors were extremely reliable.
An ex work colleague of mine used to work at the Philips UK factory; he told me that it was a really great company to work for, with great pay and conditions. He told me that once the requisite number of tellies were produced, they could sit and watch TV whilst the TVs were on burn-in. The bosses had a good relationship with their workers. So these sets were put together with great pride and care! There are not many companies like that nowadays, and this probably explains why modern stuff doesn’t last as long!
Circa 1972 when I was a still a teenager I was asked to fix one of the new 24″ models by a local pub manager. The fact that he was asking someone totally unqualified like me and not the person he bought it from suggests it was stolen property. I left well alone. Most of this kind of set in this area were rented by a firm called “Collis of the Midlands” which specialised in Philips rental. Their shop was on my route home from school between 1967 and 1970 but I don’t recall ever seeing a colour model in their shop window.