William Englebert Fahrenfeld and his TV

[vts1134]

I took a trip last weekend to NY to the home of William Fahrenfeld's granddaughter. I went to pick up William's first television, an RCA TRK-5. When I arrived and saw the set for the first time I was speechless. I spent a short time speaking with the family about William, the TRK-5, and their history. I am still working with the family to write a history to share with the collector community.

This is William at age 24.



I have spent the last five days cleaning and photographing the set. I have no plans to electronically restore the set. There are only a couple of aesthetic things I plan on fixing, more on that later. For now the set is in many pieces, once I fix those few issues I'll put the set back together.

TRK-5 deconstructed.



The cabinet.