30^ Conversion

One big stumbling block to color TV is the cost of converting existing black & white sets. By last week ingenious amateurs were showing TV engineers how to get around it. One such was a Roselle, N.J. electrician named Forrest Killy who converted his set to color with 30-c- worth of red, blue and green Cellophane.

CBS engineers, making daily experimental color telecasts from Washington, found that Killy had set up a Cellophane wheel, driven by an old phonograph motor, before his TV screen. Once the wheel was synchronized with the transmitted signal he got a six-inch color picture. "Anyone can do it," said Killy of his makeshift converter. "All the technical stuff you need is to know how to hook up an adapter switch and regulate the speed of the color wheel." Killy's opinion of color TV itself: "I think it's easier on your eyes."

In Washington last week, thousands of other plain citizens were sharing Killy's opinion as they crowded around eight CBS sets in the Walker Building to get their first look at color TV. The two one-hour shows each day are in answer to a Federal

Communications Commission request for public reactions to color TV. Some 5,000 questionnaires filled out by the viewers have been mostly critical raves, e.g., "This is it!", "I'm willing to write off my black & white set. . ." But one carper pleaded: "Please God, give us programs worth looking at, in color or black & white."

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