The 1846 Iconoscope is a television camera tube. The 1846 was developed from the larger broadcast camera tubes and used at the end of WWII as an airborne camera as part of a guided bomb. This example is unused and was imported from America a few years ago. It is by far the most expensive acquisition made by the museum.
The tube is fitted with a miniature version of the International Octal base. The electron gun is the first part of the neck structures.
The gun and focus components. Note the glass beads holding the parts together and the springs keeping the gun firmly in place within the neck.
The image receiving section. The caps around the rim play no part in the operation of the camera and are used during manufacture. Possibly a getter mechanism?
The complete tube. The external lenses focus the image onto the internal mosaic through the window closest to the ring of caps. The electron beam scans the same side as the image is formed.
The complete tube. In use the gun points downward.
The style of 1940's television cameras, the shape being dictated by the Iconoscope inside.
BBC TV camera from the cover of Wireless World July 1946.
The image section. The caps connect to thick wires that pass through ceramic tubes to another cap. Two pairs of these structures exist. To the right of the silver band can be seen the mica back of the image mosaic.
The rear of the image section. The rectangular mica sheet and its connections.
The whole of the tube neck. Beam deflection was magnetic and deflection coils would fit over the neck.
One pair of caps with ceramic tube between.
A picture that did not work, but that ironically did capture an image on the photo-mosaic. The working end of the image sensor plate - and me.
The base and an oblique picture of the domed image window. Both sides of the image section are domed. Later camera tubes have optically flat image windows.
The gun assembly.
The end window envelope is 116 mm in diameter, and excluding the IO base pins is 140 mm tall.
References: Internet. Type 1846 was first introduced in 1941. See also1941 adverts.
