Britain's oldest working television has been tracked down in a house in London. The 1936 Marconiphone is thought to have been made in the months that Britain's first "high-definition" television service began.
The set belongs to Jeffrey Borinsky, an electrical engineer and collector of antique television and radio sets. He bought the set, which has a 12-inch (30cm) screen from another collector 10 years ago and is still working on restoring it to its original state.
The screen is mounted inside a wooden cabinet. The image from the cathode ray tube, mounted vertically inside the cabinet, is reflected onto a mirror. The few controls include volume and vertical hold, but there is no channel changer, as there was only one channel when it was made: the BBC.
The set appears to be in good condition, but Mr Borinsky aims to replace a number of modern components with originals. "The cabinet was beautifully restored by the previous owner," he explained,' but my aim is to gradually restore its electronics to its true 1936 magnificence," he said.
But the Marconiphone 702 still works as a modern television. It has been hooked up to a Freeview box so that it can show digital channels, although Mr Borinsky has had to install a standards converter so that a modern television signal can be seen.
Mr Borinsky only keeps the set turned on up to two hours at a time, and he uses it to view films from the 1930s and 1940s.
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