Overview of Charactron and Typotron CRTs
Source document courtesy Bitsavers.org
Full document
The RCA Selectron -- Shaped-Beam CRT Reprints
These excerpts and documents include reproductions of material not readily available from libraries in electronic form, and may contain original research content.
If the Selectron was the first Random Access Memory in an electron tube then the Charactron was the first Read Only Memory -- the character generator ROM -- in an electron tube. And there were even field-programmable devices where an optical input (projected font slide) replaced the fixed metal stencil inside the tube.
The development of the Charactron and the Typotron, both registered trademarks, in the 1940s was neither proprietary nor secretive as one might guess. Collaboration with universities, suppliers, and even competitors was essential.
An excellent overview of the Charactron and Typotron tubes (and their second sourced equivalents) is presented in the AN/FSQ-7 Theory of Operation training documents prepared by International Business Machines Corporation.
Overview of Charactron and Typotron CRTs
Source document courtesy Bitsavers.org
Full document
AEM Typoscope press notice, 1957
Courtesy americanradiohistory.com
Bell Telephone Laboratories US Patent 2379880, filed 07 October 1942
Cover Elorg 1975 Short Form Catalog
Shaped Beam CRT only
Copyright 1975 Elektronorgtechnica
Hughes Vacuum Tube Products documents page
Ise 5 by 7 beam matrix CRT
Copyright 1974 Ise Electronics Corporation
All Rights Reserved
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- Project Whirlwind
Development of the Charactron and Typotron
Motorola Printoscope paper
Copyright 1957 Motorola, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Originally from www.lasers.org.ru article on the LN-105 (ЛН-105) grafekon electrical readout shaped beam tube, circa 1988
Image copyright 2019 lasers.org.ru Упырь Болотный
ELECTRON BEAM TUBES WITH ACCUMULATED CHARGES by N.P. SUPRYAGA
MILITARY PUBLISHING HOUSE
USSR MINISTRIES OF DEFENSE
MOSCOW - 1961
ЭЛЕКТРОННО-ЛУЧЕВЫЕ ТРУБКИ С НАКОПЛЕНИЕМ ЗАРЯДОВ я Н. П. СУПРЯГА
ВОЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО
МИНИСТЕРСТВА ОБОРОНЫ СССР
МОСКВА— 1961
,
Soviet military monograph about cathode ray tubes with storage elements.
Typotron description on page 106
Optical Input Character Selection and Display Tubes
Back to Selectron Home
