Sprague Capacitors
December 1954 Radio & Television News

December 1954 Radio & TV News

[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio & Television News, published 1919-1959. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Aside from vacuum tubes occasionally going bad, capacitors were undoubtedly the most frequently failing components in television and radio sets. All electronics of the era (and earlier) of this 1954 issue of Radio & Television News magazine had chassis full of high voltages and high temperatures which really strained the integrity of capacitors, especially electrolytic types used in power supplies and plate circuit decoupling circuits. As if a couple hundred volts wasn't challenging enough, TV cathode ray tubes (CRTs) often had bias voltages over 10 kilovolts. Most of us over 60 years old recall at least one instance of a sizzle followed by a loud pop, followed by the television going dark when a capacitor failed. It always seemed to happen at the most intense point of a program. Of course when that kind of failure occurred you knew the set would be out of service for a while since Dad wouldn't be able to fix it by pulling out all the tubes and taking to the hardware to test them all on the automated machine. In our very low income house with five kids, everyone scrambled looking for change in pants pockets and under sofa cushions to help fund a rapid repair. Repair shops replaced a lot of electrolytic capacitors (referred to as 'lytics in this ad) at the time.

Sprague Capacitors Ad

Never thought we could get pictures with so much puch 'til we had those Sprague Capacitors put in.

Don't Be Vague ... Insist on Sprague

Accept no substitutes. There is a Sprague Distributor in every sales area in the United State. Write for the name of your nearest source of supply today.

* Trademark

Insist on Sprague Ceramics

Tiny, tough, dependable ... in every application ... whether discs, plates, buttons, or door knobs. And there's a Sprague ceramic capacitor to meet every service need. You give your customers dependable service, guard yourself against costly call-backs, when you use only Sprague Ceramic capacitors.

Insist on Sprague Twist-Lok* 'Lytics

Sprague TVL's fill the top performance bill in the toughest TV circuits. High temperatures, surge voltages, ripple currents won't faze them. Like all Sprague capacitors, Twist-Lok 'Lytics are your first line of defense against expensive call-backs.

Insist on Sprague Black Beauty® Telecaps®

The most imitated capacitor Sprague ever introduced. But you get Sprague performance only when you insist on Sprague Telecaps. Hundreds of millions are in use today as first choice of quality conscious manufacturers and servicemen. It's the premium molded tubular at no extra cost.

Get your copy of Sprague's latest radio and TV service catalog C-610. Write Sprague Products Company*, 51 Marshall St., North Adams, Mass.

*Distributors' Division of Sprague Electric Company

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Posted November 4, 2022