The RCA Selectron -- Charactron Tube Development
These excerpts and documents are reproductions of material not readily available from libraries in electronic form, and span the history from the origins at Consoldated Vultee Aircraft Corporation through the final commercial products from Datagraphix Corporation.
Although the character stencil beam tubes had been explored at other organizations for purposes other than human readable displays Joseph McNaney Working for Convair was the first to reduce to practice both the CRT and supporting electronics. Like devices from Bell Telephone Laboratories, McNaney's first work was for converting alphanumeric data encoded as holes on punched paper tape in a digitally encoded format to human readable characters printed on photographic film. The first disclosure was in June 1940 as a US patent application which was granted in 1942 as US2275017. This patent teaches a way to transform a sequence of data punched onto a paper tape into a sequence of single characters appearing in the center of a CRT face which then exposed photographic film. This device anticipated the single character Indicoder of sixteen years later.
US Patent 2275017 Signalling System
US Patent US2735956 Cathode Ray Apparatus
Earliest trade magazine mention of the Charactron
Copyright 1949 Caldwell-Clements, Inc
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy AmericanRadioHistory.com
Earliest trade magazine photograph of Joseph McNaney
Copyright 1949 Caldwell-Clements, Inc
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy AmericanRadioHistory.com
Additional coverage of Charactron introductory press release
Copyright 1949 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
Photo of Convair's McNaney with VTP's Ulmer
This link takes you to John Atwood's One-Electron pages which include many documents and history about Harold Ulmer and Vacuum Tube Products Co.
This link takes you away from rcaselectron.com
Photo copyright 1952 VTP Co.
All Rights Reserved
Convair Charactron exhibit
Photograph courtesy of and used with permission of Glenn Robbins.
Convair employment ad
Copyright 1952 McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
Convair group photo with a 19" and 5" Charactron
Photograph courtesy of and used with permission of Glenn Robbins.
Convair group photo
Photograph courtesy of and used with permission of Glenn Robbins.
Convair employee newspaper
Copyright General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Used by permission.
Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 16, Wednesday, August 11, 1954, periodical, August 11, 1954; Fort Worth, Texas.
(https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777361/: accessed July 3, 2020)
University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu;
crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.
(Whew!)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- Project Whirlwind
Development of the Charactron and Typotron
Article on Charactron based Morse Code convertor/display by McNaney and Jackson
Courtesy March 1954 QST
Copyright American Radio Relay League / used by permission
All Rights Reserved
Photograph used in article on Charactron based Morse Code convertor/display by McNaney and Jackson
Photograph courtesy of and used with permission of Glenn Robbins.
Article on Charactron and its effect on air defense
Copyright 1954 Aviation Week
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Stromberg-Carlson Indicoder articles circa 1957
Stromberg-Carlson Charactron 1957 Catalog
Copyright 1957 Stromberg-Carlson / General Dynamics
All Rights Reserved
Don Pugh observing Charactron tube with multiple phosphors on one screen
Photograph courtesy of Pea Hicks
Vade Mecum listing of Charactron types in 1962
DatagraphiX S-C 1100 Charactron based terminal, circa 1965
Copyright 1965 Stromberg-Carlson
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy ADSAUSAGE
DatagraphiX S-C 1100 Charactron based terminal, brochure circa 1965
Copyright 1965 Stromberg-Carlson / General Dynamics
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy Internet Archive
DatagraphiX 1110 Charactron based terminal, circa 1969
Copyright 1969 Stromberg-Carlson
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy ADSAUSAGE
DatagraphiX 1072 Charactron based terminal, circa 1970
Copyright 1970 General Dynamics
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy Internet Archive
DatagraphiX 2220 Charactron based projection display, circa 1970
Copyright 1970 General Dynamics
All Rights Reserved
Archived copy courtesy Internet Archive
DatagraphiX Charactron based terminal, circa 1977
Copyright 1977 DatagraphiX / General Dynamics
All Rights Reserved