Also of interest

Accessories

The Museum’s collection holds TV accessories as well as major components. At the receiving end these include “rabbit ears,” those small antennae of early sets, and remote controls, which have given us the modern sport of “channel surfing.”

“Rabbit ears” antenna (760467.2), ca 1954; Zenith Space Commander 400 remote control (870945.2), ca 1963; Neilson Recordimeter (710226), 1960s (CSTM/Peter Lindell)

At the production end are microphones, film and tape splicers and video mixers. Camera accessories range from lenses, tripods and dollies to a huge tower truck for beaming signals from remote locations to a TV studio or pick-up location (820643).

Library support materials

The Museum library has a collection of over one thousand television-related items ranging from the 1920s to the present. It includes books about television’s scientific and technological history and its influence on society and culture, textbooks, technical handbooks, periodicals, conference proceedings, manufacturer’s catalogues and service manuals.

A few pieces of trade literature from the Museum’s library collection (CSTM)

About the authors:

Michal Ann Crawley is a communications consultant in Ottawa. She wrote the original 1995 print edition of this profile.

Bryan Dewalt is Curator of Communications at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. He revised and updated this profile for the Web.

For more information, contact:
Bryan Dewalt
Curator, Communications
Curatorial Division
Canada Science and Technology Museum
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 5A3
Canada

E-mail: bdewalt@technomuses.ca
Fax: 613 990-3636

Links:
Curator’s Choice —
   Connexions
CBC Archives —
   http://archives.cbc.ca
MZTV Museum of Television / Musée de la télévision MZTV —
   http://www.mztv.com
Milestones of CBC’s History —
   http://cbc.radio-canada.ca/htmen/history/index.htm