South Yorkshire Times April 7, 1951
Attic Is Television Workshop
Conisbrough Lad is Making His Own Set at 16
Green flickerings, vivid black flashes and dots, and intermittent sound effects can be seen and heard most nights in the attic of No. 7, Ferry Terrace, Conisbrough. The attic is quite devoid of furniture, but it is by no means empty. Its most regular occupants are several boxes of radio and television parts, a half-made television set, and a 16-year-old boy.
He is Donald Jones, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Jones, and an apprentice electrical engineer at a Doncaster radio firm. He has been working on his television set for a few months now, and is expecting to complete it in a few more.
The set is not being brought up to commercial standard, however, but is being used mainly as an experimental and experience-providing piece of work. Donald is making it in his spare time out of ex-Government stock. By this fact he can buy a normal £12 cathode ray tube for as little as £2. Otherwise the set would not pass the early stages.
Donald uses two outdoor rods as an aerial, has fixed the tube to the attic wall, and has already had some reception. Sound is quite good, and although the picture on the 4-inch screen is green, it may prove to be better than the normal white image. Eventually he hopes to be able to enlarge the picture, and when the set is built up on to- a permanent chassis lie is expecting it to be up to commercial: standard.
Trained as an electrical mechanic at Mexborough Schofield Technical College, Donald’s only experience in building sets has come from reading and a. few hints from his ex-radar instructor workmate. He has already repaired many radio sets, and has adapted his own models from ex-Government units. The Wesley Methodist Youth Club also benefits. He is a member of this club, and this week he is working on an amplifier for them.
Television and radio work are not going to be his only pastimes this summer. He is more than a promising tennis player.