Michael Black wrote:


People were probably making tv sets as soon as there were tv signals.
This would date to the days of various experimental schemes, who can
forget the neon bulb and rotating wheel?, but of course would become
less experimental once regular broadcasting started.

Since there were few or no commerically made TV sets circa 1939,
the only way the average person could see the broadcasts from the World's
Fair that year was by building a TV set.

I've heard that the hobby magazines carried construction articles then
or a bit later.

See this post...
http://www.sparkbench.com/tv.jpg

This was a magazine cover from 1928. Amazing in a Jules Verne kind of
way how we now have similar looking TV sets not to mention a QVC host
pushing off baubles on the viewer!
The articles inside the magazine, however, show nerdy looking guys in
funny looking suits peering thru a peephole of a room-sized receiver
just to see a still image.

-Bill M