[ohohyodafarted]

My take on this from a business point of view is that CBS was smart enough to understand that their superior patent for placing phosphor dots on the inside face of the crt using a photographic process with colimated light source, was more valuable if sold to RCA, than if they had tried to market color tv sets. I would imagine that CBS understood that even if they had played hardball against RCA and refused to license or sell the CBS patent, that the public was not ready to spend big dollars to own a color tv set. And because patents only have a life of 7 years, eventually RCA would be able to use the process that CBS invented free of royalty any way. So why hang on to a patent that dosent make you any money. So CBS sold it to RCA and put a million bucks in their pocket while RCA invested and lost many millions of dollars for many years trying to promote color television.

CBS may have lost the color wars on the starndards issue, but in my eyes they were the ones that won the color war based on superior color crt technology.

I was down at John Folsom's a few weeks ago and we were working on the CBS set with the 19VP22. I gotta tell you that it has a "KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF" picture that makes a CT100 look pretty shabby in comparison. We're talking full gamut phosphors deposited directly on the face of the crt, and dynamic electromagnetic convergence that works very well. I think if CBS had the financial resources and the desire to block RCA and run with it's crt patent to compete against RCA, I think CBS would have been considered the company that brought color tv to the masses and not RCA.

But in the end it's always about the money. He who has the deepest pockets and can weather the storm for the longest, usually is the winner. RCA won because it had very deep pockets and they were willing to lose as much money as necessary to win the color war. Thankfully we still have examples of the 19" CBS set to demonstrate how far out in front of RCA, that CBS actually was. OF course this is just my opinion, but I think that most any collector who was to see the 19" CBS set in person would agree, that it runs rings around anything RCA had to offer.

And in the end nobody really knows what went on behind the scenes of the negotiations for RCA to obtain the CBS patent. In all likelyhood, RCA had patents on circuits and demod techniques which were used as a wedge against CBS to convince CBS to sell the CRT patent to RCA. Sarnoff was a ruthless business man and he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.

A good example of the "better mousetrap" was the fellow that invented the intermitant windshield wiper that Ford Motor Co. stole. It took that poor fellow many years to fight against Ford and to finally be vindicated. IN the process it pretty much ruined his personal life. My guess is that CBS knew what they were up against in dealing with RCA, and CBS made the only smart business decission they could make. And that was to take the money and sell the patent to RCA.

John Folsom has a lot of very rare color sets. There isn't a single one in the bunch that isn't ultra rare and super desireable. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, I would have to vote for the CBS 19" color set as being at the top of the list for performance and quality of craftsmenship. I think CBS knew what a wonderful CRT they had produced, and I think they wanted to market a set that would demonstrate the ability of that CRT. CBS spared no expense in producing this set. Every last detail says "high quality and expensive" From the service man oriented, dual chassis design with up front service controls and the removable CRT truck to the massive cabinet made from, thick, solid, heavy materials, this set says "CADILAC" in every respect. You've got to see it to understand.