Ekcovision Portable Television

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Ekcovision Portable Television
Manufacturer	E K Cole Limited (later acquired by Pye)
Production years	1956
Production location	Southend on Sea.

The Ekcovision was the first truly portable television. It could run off batteries or be connected to the mains supply. The Ekco factory was in Southend on Sea. In 1956 it would have been able to receive just two programmes, BBC and ITV, dependent upon the roll-out of ITV's transmitter network, which commenced in London in September 1955, before expanding across the United Kingdom.

From Derek J. Cole, M.A. (Law), LL.B. (Cantab) detmcole@gmail.com, Former Director E.K.Cole Ltd, son of Eric Cole. At the bottom is an extract from my draft memoire about my father.

‘British Electronic Industries‘, later ‘Pye of Cambridge’ , was a merger of PYE and EKCO eventually taken over by Philips. The 405 line portable was first sold at the Radio Show September 1955 and was improved by EKCO spot-wobble which oscillated the lines slightly. 525 line models of the portable were made for America and 625 line models for general export.

QUOTE EKCO achieved world wide coverage in 1955 with the first portable television that could run off a battery, albeit a large car battery. Sets were sold in the USA and elsewhere. I drove round Sydney with one in action. It is even possible that Eden’s judgement before Suez was further impaired because the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, in London for urgent talks, tended to turn up late at Downing Street because he had ordered his chauffeur to drive round Hyde Park so that he could watch the Ashes on his EKCO portable.

In Belgium, I found that the EKCO dealer, Van Courtenburg, had persuaded an Electronic engineer from a major company to moonlight and convert the set the take the French 819 line service as well as the Dutch 625 system, with further switching because Belgium’s own service used a different sound system. They had four different systems!

EKCO even caused a change in the law and inspired a Punch cartoon. A Road Traffic Act going through Parliament was amended to enact that only the on/off-volume switch was to be visible or accessible to a motorist. In the cartoon, a weary motorist staggers down a country lane with his car battery leaving behind an open bonnet and a family gazing gloomily at the remains of a picnic surrounding a blank screen

The EKCO press officer admitted that at the photo session a strong man had to hold the portable until the last moment and the slender model then dropped it as soon as the publicity photograph was taken. He himself was quite compact and a spoof press release was circulated acclaiming the international success of EKCO’s new portable press officer. UNQUOTE

Derek J. Cole, M.A. (Law), LL.B. (Cantab) detmcole@gmail.com,

[edit] How it works

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In a black-and-white TV, the screen is coated with white phosphor and the electron beam "paints" an image onto the screen by moving the electron beam across the phosphor a line at a time. To "paint" the entire screen, electronic circuits inside the TV use the magnetic coils to move the electron beam in a "raster scan" pattern across and down the screen. The beam paints one line across the screen from left to right. It then quickly flies back to the left side, moves down slightly and paints another horizontal line, and so on down the screen. As the beam paints each line from left to right, the intensity of the beam is changed to create different shades of black, gray and white across the screen. Because the lines are spaced very closely together, your brain integrates them into a single image. A TV screen of that period would have had 405 lines visible from top to bottom.

[edit] Memories

[edit] In the Science Museum

Source: B Hyde. Inv: No: 1974-335.

This object is currently on display in the Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain exhibition at the Science Museum, London.

[edit] Images

[edit] Related Objects

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