Geer Tube - History - After NTSC

After NTSC

Geer continued to work on his basic concept for some time, as well as other television related concepts. In 1955 he filed a patent on a flat TV tube that used a gun arranged to lie beside the image area that fired upward towards the top. The beam was deflected through 90 degrees by a series of charged wires so the beam was now traveling horizontally across the back of the picture area. A second grid, located beside the first, then bent the beams through a small angle so they hit the back of the screen.

It does not appear that this device was ever constructed, and the arrangement of aiming elements suggests focusing the image would be a serious problem. Two other inventors had been working on this problem was well, Dennis Gabor in England (better known for the development of holograms) and William Aiken in the US. Both of their patents were filed before Geer's, and the Aiken tube was successfully built in small numbers. More recently, similar concepts were used, combined with computer controlled convergence systems, to produce "flatter" systems, typically for computer monitor use. Sony sold small-screen monochrome TVs using basically-similar nearly-flat CRTs; they were used for outside-broadcast monitors, as well. However these were quickly displaced by LCD-based systems.

In 1960 he filed for a patent on a three-dimensional television system that used two color tubes and a 2-dimensional version of his pyramids. The vertical channels reflected the light in two directions, providing different images for each eye.

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