So long, ol' pal
It looks like that the days allotted to a friend of mine are drawing to a close, and the fact that there's little time left started me thinking about all the things we've been through together.
It's hard saying good-bye to a friend who's shared your whole life
Back when I was just a kid, we'd meet every Saturday morning to watch cartoons�sometimes we'd get together so early that all that was on was the test pattern. Together, we watched Howdy Doody , Andy's Gang , Terrytoon Circus, and other shows that came to us in glorious black and white.
Years later, after both my friend and I had matured a bit, the Wonderful World of Disney showed us how the world could be “a carousel of color.” We also went “where no man has gone before.” But more importantly, we saw first-hand the reality of war, and our generation was changed forever.
It was with my pal CRT, the cathode-ray tube, that I shared warm experiences growing up. (Actually, the CRT did generate a palpable heat.) It was also one of the first pieces of electronics I experimented with. By holding a powerful magnet to side of the tube, you could distort the picture in weird ways, thus demonstrating an aspect of electromagnetic theory.
The demise of the CRT actually started some years ago. Personal computers and most instruments, like oscilloscopes, gave up the CRT in favor of more rugged LCDs first. And while televisions haven't used electron tubes for decades, the CRT still remained the predominant display, that is, until the last holiday season, when sales of LCD-based sets skyrocketed.
The closer we get to Feb 17, 2009�the date set by the U.S. Congress for the transition from analog to digital broadcasting�the graver the outlook for the CRT gets. Undoubtedly a few die-hards will try to keep their old sets working in the new age, but most people, I suspect, would not “rather fight than switch” (to echo one of the many advertising catch-phrases I learned from CRT-based TVs).
The irony is that the CRT is one of those technologies that really has been perfected. There is no longer any blooming or any of the other artifacts that once affected its operation. It is one of the most reliable technologies around�trust me, I've got a working set that's older than my college-age daughter.
So I for one, am not going to take the demise of the CRT lying down. I'm becoming a charter member of the Old FOCs (Friends of CRTs) Club, a group dedicated to the work of finding new uses for the tube. If you'd like to join, contact me.
Richard Comerford
rcomerford@hearst.com
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