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Learn more - CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN JOIN IEEESIGN IN Close Access Thousands of Articles -- Completely Free Create an account and get exclusive content and features: Save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders -- all free! For full access and benefits, join IEEE as a paying member. CREATE AN ACCOUNTSIGN IN History of TechnologyTopicTypeFeatureConsumer Electronics The Day the U.S. TV Industry Died Why the last major U.S. television set maker, Zenith, finally gave up Tekla S. Perry 01 Aug 1988 15 min read Man in white coveralls holding cathode ray tube surrounded by industrial equipment Michael L. Abramson/Getty Images Driven finally into unprofitability in its traditional market by ever stiffer competition from abroad, harmed rather than helped by a decade of economizing cutbacks in research and development, Zenith Electronics Corp.--the sole surviving U.S. manufacturer of television receivers--reportedly plans to call it quits in the business it helped to create and nourish through some 40 years of innovation. Indeed, nothing so neatly reflects the company's present situation as its latest and arguably its second greatest innovation: a flat shadow mask for a flat-faced cathode ray tube hailed everywhere as a major breakthrough. Announced in 1986, the Flat Tension Mask, as it is called, increases the brightness of the cathode ray tube by up to 80 percent, its contrast ratio by up to 70 percent, and its resolution by up to 15 percent over current tube designs, which use a curved face plate and curved shadow mask. The flat mask is stretched so tight that it can maintain color quality even when heated unevenly by high concentrations of electrons in bright areas of the picture. This article was first published as "The longest survivor loses its grip." It appeared in the August 1988 issue of IEEE Spectrum. A PDF version is available on IEEE Xplore. The photographs appeared in the original print version. Such a product exemplifies Zenith's pursuit of high quality, even if that has meant sticking to the high end of the market. Its tube plant in Melrose Park, Ill., is one of the most profitable parts of its business, bearing witness to the company's manufacturing skills. But at about $1000, the flat tube is not a consumer product and instead is benefiting Zenith's latest focus of interest-its relatively new and highly profitable personal computer business. The TV era ends The television market was quite different back in 1960. Then, the Glenview, Ill., company tussled for the No. 1 spot with RCA Corp., of New York City, each holding over 20 percent of the domestic market. Twenty-five other companies, such as Admiral, GTE Sylvania, and Magnavox, shared the rest of the business. But one by one, these companies either folded their television divisions or sold them to non-U.S. competitors until, by the end of 1987, only Zenith remained. The company's major concerns last year were summarized in its annual report: "Long-anticipated industry price stability did not materialize in 1987 because of continued dumping by Far Eastern suppliers, ineffective dumping law administration by our government, and the failure of Korea and other newly industrialized Far East countries to revalue their currencies." Those difficulties in the consumer area led to a corporate pretax loss of $28.9 million, despite an operating income that analysts estimate at $70 million from its successful computer business. Zenith has not officially confirmed that its television business is on the auction block, confining itself merely to the statement that it is examining "all options to restore corporate profitability to a satisfactory level." But Lazard Freres & Co., of New York City, is reportedly accepting bids on behalf of the company for the entire consumer electronics division. The Evolution of Zenith (and the TV Industry) 1918 Chicago Radio Laboratory established; later adopts as its trade name Z-Nth, the identification of an amateur radio station. 1924 Zenith produces the world's first portable radio, which includes large batteries, vacuum tubes, and a horn speaker; an early model is here being held by Admiral Donald B. McMillan. 1926 Zenith manufactures the first commercial radio set to operate on ac. 1940-41 A prototype of the Trans Oceanic receiver undergoes successful field testing in the Arctic. [svg] 1945 The Television Broadcasters Association reports TV sets sold in the United States before World War II totaled 10,000. 1947 Nearly 200 000 TV sets sold, including more than 115,000 table models, 37,000 consoles, 12,000 projection types and 25,000 consoles with radio/phonograph. Nine U.S. manufacturers exhibit new models at the 1947 Chicago Furniture Mart. 1948 Zenith enters the TV receiver business, buying Rauland of Chicago, a picture tube manufacturer. All told, 31 U.S. TV makers sell 103 models. 1953 Zenith and 12 other TV manufacturers demonstrate NTSC-based color TV receivers to the FCC. 1955 Zenith develops prototype color TV with remote control. [svg] 1956 Zenith patents first remote control for a TV set, the ultrasonic Space Command. [svg] 1957 Zenith patents fringe-lock technology, a cure for loss of picture synchronization. 1959 6,300,500 sets sell this year, down from 1955's peak of 7,700,000 and from 1950's 7,300,100. 1960 (27 U.S. TV manufacturers recorded--the countdown begins.) 1964 Zenith patents Chromacolor, or "black matrix" technology, but does not introduce it until 1969. [svg] 1968 (18 U.S. TV makers remain after Westinghouse Electric, Capehart, Conrac, Dumont, Hoffman, Mattison, Olympic, Symphonica, and TraVler drop out of TV business.) 1969 (Admiral buys Cortron, leaving 17 U.S. TV makers.) 1970-74 (12 U.S. TV makers left alter departure of Emerson, Arvin, Satchel-Carlson, TMA, and Teledyne Packard Bell.) 1971 Zenith opens its first non-U.S. production facilities, in Matamoros, Mexico, and in Taiwan, and patents surface-wave intermediate-frequency filter. [svg] 1973 Zenith introduces Power Sentry, the first consumer use of a saturable-core transformer to regulate voltage. 1974 (Nine U.S. TV makers left after North American Philips buys Magnavox Consumer Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial of Japan buys Motorola's television business plus its Quasar brand name, and GTE Sylvania buys Philco trademark.) 1975 Zenith introduces first one-chip color demodulator and TV sets with Zoom feature. 1976 Zenith increase pretax profits by $27 million over 1975 total of $978 million. 1976 (Sanyo Electric of Japan buys TV business from Warwick Electronics; Andrea Radia, a small New York-area family-owned company, fades from the market.) 1977 Zenith halves R&D staff, laying off about 200 engineers. 1978 Zenith opens manufacturing plant in Reynosa, Mexico. 1978 (Six U.S. TV makers left when Admiral Group, by now a Rockwell subsidiary, leaves TV business.) 1979 Zenith introduces first microprocessor-based tuning system and first cable-ready receiver; buys Heath to get into the personal computer business. 1980 Zenith introduces Spacephone, which lets viewer answer phone through TV set. 1981 (Five U.S. TV makers left after Philips buys GTE Sylvania.) 1982 Zenith moves from ultrasound to infrared technology for its remote controls. 1984 Zenith's scheme for stereo TV, Multi-channel Television Sound, is accepted as the industry standard. 1984 (Wells-Gardner and Curtis-Mathes brands no longer in TV business) 1986 (GE buys RCA.) 1987 (GE sells GE/RCA consumer electronics business to France's Thomson CSF; Zenith is only U.S. TV manufacturer left. 1987 Zenith announces Flat Tension Mask, a breakthrough in cathode ray tube technology; loses money in consumer electronics for the first time. 1987 Zenith cuts R&D staff, laying off 60 engineers. 1988 Zenith consumer electronics division is reported to be up for sale. Editor's note: Zenith's last year of profitability was 1988. In 1991, Lucky-Goldstar, now known as LG, purchased 5 percent of the company. In 1995, LG purchased a majority share. In 1999, Zenith filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and LG acquired the remainder of the company. Stockholder pressure on the company to sell may have increased from an investment partnership that has acquired 7.1 percent of Zenith's stock and has announced its intent to force Zenith to "enhance shareholder value." Analysts presume the partnership plans to force the sale of the consumer electronics unit. Active contenders for the purchase reportedly include the four major Korean companies-- Samsung Electronics Co., Daewoo Corp., Lucky-Goldstar Corp., and Hyundai Electronics Corp. Each would profit from stronger U.S. distribution and a U.S. brand name, and each would find the endemically small profit margins of the TV market quite compatible with its long-term outlook. Thomson CSF of France has also reportedly entered a bid; it recently purchased RCA/GE's consumer electronics division with the observation that "volume is one of the rules of the cost-competitiveness game." NV Philips of the Netherlands, analysts report, is another likely contender. Most of the Japanese consumer electronics companies already have a strong U.S. presence, and only one of them is said to have made a bid. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the union representing many Zenith employees, has also expressed interest in bidding, but seems not yet to have done so. "If you are in a balloon drifting across the ocean, and you know that there will be cannibals waiting when you reach land, if you start sinking you still throw out everything, including the guns and ammunition, because if you don't get to shore, it won't matter if you have guns or not." --Robert Adler, former Zenith Vice President of Research The winds of change started blowing in the 1970s, when Zenith led the fight to preserve the U.S. TV industry from Japanese advances. Through court action and proposed Congressional legislation, the then Zenith president John Nevin became a familiar national figure as he pressed the case for protection against alleged dumping. When such pleas proved futile, the company took drastic actions to maintain profitability--notably a halving of its research staff in 1977. "Many of us could not understand how Zenith could blow away its research department," recalled Alan Sobel, one of the engineers laid off at that time and currently with Lucitron Inc., of Evanston, Ill. Sobel recalls the then vice president of research, Robert Adler, explaining it "to us this way: 'If you are in a balloon drifting across the ocean, and you know that there will be cannibals waiting when you reach land, if you start sinking you still throw out everything, including the guns and ammunition, because if you don't get to shore, it won't matter if you have guns or not.' ," Zenith bet that videodisk players, rather than videocassette recorders (VCRs), would be the consumers' choice. The 200 or so research engineers and technicians who survived the 1977 layoff were then assigned targets that often proved off base. For example, like its U.S. competitors, Zenith bet that videodisk players, rather than videocassette recorders (VCRs), would be the consumers' choice. The company started and stopped its videodisk research program twice between 1971 and 1974, then ended up buying VCRs to resell under its own name. Zenith at first chose to go with the Betamax VCR format, buying units from Tokyo's Sony. But after the U.S. market demonstrated its preference for VHS, the company switched to selling VHS VCRs from JVC of Yokohama. Zenith boasts that these Japanese-made VCRs have more input from a U.S. company than any other models on the market, because it manufactures the tuner and remote controls in Mexico and supplies them to Japan. Another strong but perhaps premature effort focused on digital TV. "We put a lot of engineering into a digital chassis," one engineer recalled, but in the early 1980s "people just weren't interested ... because most couldn't really see the difference in picture quality." Zenith says its sales have been competitive with those of the rest of the digital TV industry, but admits the industry as a whole is only now beginning to take off. Large screens--picture tubes with diagonals of 35 inches (90 centimeters) or more--were not pursued because of an unwillingness to invest $0.5 million in retooling its manufacturing facilities. According to another engineer, large screens--picture tubes with diagonals of 35 inches (90 centimeters) or more--were not pursued because of an unwillingness to invest $0.5 million in retooling its manufacturing facilities, then and now limited to a maximum screen diagonal of 27 in. Zenith's substantial claim to fame in the early 1980s was its role in the development of the U.S. industry standard for stereo television broadcasting, endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1984. Zenith gave this technology to the industry royalty-free, and received a 1985 Emmy for this work. The R&D staff, in a burst of cost-cutting during the third quarter of 1987, was reportedly reduced by another 60 percent to some 20 engineers, though this number is hard to verify because they no longer work in a research laboratory but have been scattered throughout the company. Zenith staff members report that the company abandoned most work on advanced color picture tubes (although a Zenith spokesman denies this, indicating that work continues on color tube enhancements as well as on the Flat Tension Mask). The same staffers, however, say Zenith continued work, albeit on a reduced scale, on interactive television technologies, digital television, and high-definition television (HDTV). Some analysts suggest, though, that Zenith may no longer be in the technical position to design HDTV products. When it was still hoping the U.S. Congress would ease competitive pressures on TV manufacturers, Zenith began to hedge its bets by diversifying. A company spokesman said that in 1978, management began seeking new business areas that would draw on Zenith's strengths in high-volume and high-quality manufacturing, engineering R&D, and brand-label marketing. For example, a new division was set up to make components to sell to other manufacturers (it now sells primarily to the computer industry), and in 1981 Zenith began another division to manufacture decoders and other products for the cable television (CATV) industry. The 1979 acquisition of Heath Co., St. Joseph, Mich., led to the company's most successful venture beyond its traditional boundaries. Zenith's interest was piqued, not by the well-known do-it-yourself electronic Heathkits, but by Heath's desktop computer based on the 6502 microprocessor. Zenith used the computer to catapult itself into becoming a major manufacturer of IBM-compatible personal computers. Last year it boasted some $1 billion in sales in this area. Thriving through technology TV was not Zenith's original product. A manufacturer of radio receivers since 1918, Zenith sold its first black and white TV set in 1948, the same year it acquired the Rauland Corp., a Chicago-based picture-tube manufacturer. That first line incorporated a turret tuner that could be upgraded for higher frequency channels simply by having extra tuning strips added to it. In 1952, when UHF assignments were made to broadcast stations, Zenith customers, unlike those of other manufacturers, could adapt their TVs cheaply. Thus began what was to become one of the company's most valuable assets-customer loyalty. Zenith engineers took part in the birth of color TV. They built color-signal-generating equipment in the early 1950s and, along with 12 other manufacturers, demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) color receivers built to the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard. Then Zenith drew ahead by solving one of the commonest problems of the day--loss of picture synchronization due to interference from, say, an electric razor or a car idling nearby. Its solution was fringe-lock circuitry that prevented the spurious noise from fragmenting the picture or causing it to roll. Zenith filed for a patent for this technology in 1951 and got it in 1957. The company successfully--and profitably--sued Admiral for patent infringement. Zenith won more customers in the 1950s by being the first to the market with a wireless remote control. Invented by Robert Adler, this ultrasonic device was marketed as Zenith's Space Command feature. It was so popular that at one point, Zenith credited it with boosting sales some 40%. It was licensed to RCA Corp. and adopted, with Zenith's permission, by many other U.S. companies. Admiral again infringed the patent, and Zenith profited from a successful suit. The technology endured for about 20 years before yielding to infrared remote controls, whose greater bandwidth allowed more functions. Man wearing white jacket and hair cover holds a TV panel in a dimly lit factory Zenith's newest technological breakthrough, the Flat Tension Mask tube, is produced at the company's picture tube plant in Melrose Park, Ill. Zenith Electronics Corp. The black matrix One of Zenith's biggest claims to color TV technology fame is Chromacolor, a type of tube that the rest of the industry dubbed negative guard band black matrix. The company patented it in 1964 and introduced it in 1969. Before Zenith's innovation, color TV screens had trios of partly overlapping red, green, and blue phosphor dots, the overlap forming a white background. A shadow mask between the electron beam and the phosphor grid narrowed the beam till it illuminated only the center of each dot, leaving the surrounding phosphor unlit to prevent color bleeding. In Zenith's Chromacolor tube, the phosphor dots are reduced in size and a black carbon material--the black surround--is deposited between them. The electron beam is allowed to bleed around the dots: the black surround keeps the colors separate on the screen. This change helps brighten the picture by allowing more of the electron beams to reach the phosphors. It also improves contrast--the black surround prevents the reflection of ambient light and so sharpens picture detail. In 1976 Zenith patented the tri-potential electron gun, also called the extended focal length gun. The longer focal length of the main lens produced a more sharply focused electron beam, and led to the sharpest TV image tube available from a U.S. manufacturer; only Sony's Trinitron tube (using a different technology) equaled it. But according to Peter Bingham, formerly of RCA/GE and now executive vice president for Thomson Consumer Electronics in Indianapolis, it did not help Zenith because "it wasn't cost-effective. It required bigger power supplies, and it was more difficult to manufacture." In the late 1960s, Zenith had also been awarded a number of patents for surface-wave intermediate-frequency (SWIF) filters, now known as surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters. Easier to manufacture and more effective at separating adjacent channels than the transformers they replaced, the solid-state devices consist of a small platelet of piezoelectric material with a carefully engineered pattern of parallel aluminum lines photolithographed onto its surface. Today they are common components in color TVs and VCRs worldwide. To this day, Zenith profits from a number of SAW patents. "We were so early in the game that we got some broad patents," said Robert Adler. "For example, we were awarded a patent on any transmitting and receiving transducers on piezoelectric materials that have different numbers of lines." Zenith did not immediately patent SAW technology outside the United States, a former staff member told IEEE Spectrum, because key executives in the late 1960s did not believe that non-U. S. competition could ever be a threat. "When I was hired," he said, "I asked about the impact of Asia, and I was told that we would never have to worry about it." That attitude permeated Zenith's early strategy, he indicated. Zenith disagrees, and a spokesman said the company's lack of patent activity overseas was due to cost concerns. Slender profit margins--historically 5 to 7 percent, narrowing to 2 to 3 percent in recent years--common to the entire consumer electronics industry, leave little room for errors in marketing or manufacturing, to say nothing of design. Slender profit margins--historically 5 to 7 percent, narrowing to 2 to 3 percent in recent years---common to the entire consumer electronics industry, leave little room for errors in marketing or manufacturing, to say nothing of design. Competition from Japanese manufacturers in the form of low-priced TV sets in the late 1960s made the business even tougher. What began as a trickle in the 1960s and early 1970s rapidly turned into a rout as the Japanese cut prices and gained market share. The great shakeout By 1974, major players were affected. Motorola, for one, sold it, Quasar television division to Matsushita Electric Industrial. "We were in several businesses that required a lot of capital," said a Motorola spokesman, and "our strategy indicated that our future in semiconductors and two-way radio was better than consumer electronics." Zenith's archrival, RCA, "redirected R&D to blue sky research," Bingham said, and for a few years lost its edge in color television. But as a large, diversified company, RCA survived this error and returned to more fruitful TV research in the late 1970s, according to Bingham. Woman holds a panel to examine it above an assembly line Zenith's manufacturing plant in Reynosa, Mexico, uses computer-controlled equipment to produce parts of Zenith's TV chassis Zenith Electronics Corp. In those days Zenith had no businesses outside consumer electronics to fall back on, and so had to stay the course. While pursuing cost-reduction efforts, the company resisted coming out with low-cost, low-quality products, and through most of the 1970s was rated among the highest-quality manufacturers by Consumer Reports. It continued to advance color TV technology, if with fewer dramatic breakthroughs than before because of the field's growing maturity. Zenith also began to shift its product mix to higher margin products--large console sets with many features--that would be less affected by price declines. On several occasions, however, the decision to add a feature was made late in the design cycle, one Zenith engineer told Spectrum, with a net increase in both the complexity and price of the final product. Moreover, the popularity of some features proved short-lived--for example, Zoom in the 1970s and Spacephone in the 1980s. With Zoom, a button on the remote control enabled the viewer to magnify the center section of a picture till it filled the entire screen. With Spacephone viewers could answer telephone calls by talking through their television sets. The 1970s' survival strategy included the start of Zenith's removal of some manufacturing operations out of the United States, in 1971 to Matamoros, Mexico, and Taiwan and expanding later to other towns in Mexico and other countries. Today Zenith builds components, subassemblies, chassis, and other parts in Matamoros, Reynosa, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It produces picture tubes in Melrose Park, Ill., as noted earlier, and does final assembly of TV sets in Springfield, Mo., and Reynosa. Zenith was one of the last TV manufacturers to move from hand wiring to printed circuit boards. Some industry observers argue that Zenith erred in not relocating manufacturing operations outside the U.S. in the late 1960s, when some of its U.S. competitors did. They believe Zenith trapped itself with an advertising campaign touting the fact that its products were "Made in America," and only moved after competitors used lower labor costs to undercut Zenith on price. Similarly, Zenith was also one of the last TV manufacturers to move from hand wiring to printed-circuit boards. Again Zenith capitalized on its practices by advertising with pride that its televisions were "hand-crafted." In the early days, PC boards faced reliability problems and were very hard to repair, industry executives say, but only for a while. They indicated that Zenith stuck with the old technology far longer than made sense. In fact, they say, the company's recipe for success has for decades been to stick as long as possible to proven technology in both product design and manufacturing techniques, in this way reaping the benefit of increased reliability and an enhanced reputation for quality. For example, Zenith was also slow in automating its factories, although today they are among the most highly automated, and resisted replacing tubes with transistors. On the other hand, Zenith's conservative approach to model styles and furniture is believed to have limited the appeal of its new models to older TV buyers. And the company's failure to attract young consumers has in fact contributed to the gradual erosion of Zenith's U.S. market share. Zenith's reluctance to change its marketing system also may have hurt the company, analysts say. Its loyal network of distributors--who buy from Zenith and sell to retailers--is one of their assets in rural areas. But this two-tier distribution system simply adds another layer of cost in areas with large chains of retail stores. A Zenith spokesman disagreed, stating that though on the surface this system seems more expensive, the distributor system makes local marketing efforts more efficient. The consumer group's noted development of the Flat Tension Mask (FTM) cathode ray tube has proved a boon for the computer division, but a mixed blessing to the mask's developer. The consumer division spent some $80 million, analysts estimate, to make FTM a reality, but is hard-pressed to see any return on the investment. "We supported [computers] to get them going," one engineer said. "Some of the profits ought to be put back into us." Abandoning ship Money is not the whole story. A former Zenith staff member told Spectrum that the company no longer has the R&D capability to develop FTM into a consumer product. Indeed, "the cash cow that let them get into the computer business has become an albatross around their neck," said Nicholas P. Heymann, an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert, of New York City. And the albatross has been getting heavier in the past few years. With the recent entry of Korean companies into the television business, the steady 2 to 3 percent annual drop in receiver prices has doubled to 5 to 6 percent annually--difficult cost savings to achieve under any circumstances. Until late in 1987, analysts believe, Zenith still hoped its consumer division would become profitable. The strength of the yen was expected to force the Japanese companies to raise TV prices and the Congress was coming close to passing protective legislation, for which Zenith was lobbying heavily. But neither happened, so at some time either late in 1987 or early in 1988, Zenith apparently gave up. Most of Zenith's highly specialized engineers believe their expertise would be necessary to any company that took over their division. There are some 500 or so scattered through the company, former employees reckon (Zenith declined to estimate this number). The minority opinion, as voiced to Spectrum by one engineer, is that such a buyer would be interested only in "market share, and would keep the engineering group a short period of time, then disband it." A major question is exactly what Zenith would package with its consumer electronics unit. Manufacturing operations in Mexico and in Taiwan would certainly be part of the deal. Analysts are at odds, however, over the tube-making facility in Melrose Park, Ill. A highly automated plant, it has been geared up to produce FTM tubes for computer monitors, as well as simpler types for receivers, and would cost Zenith about $330 million to replace, according to Martin Hurwitz, an analyst with IDS Services, a division of American Express, in Minneapolis. However, the facility may also be the most attractive part of Zenith's business for any buyer. To probe further Patent 2814671 for The Noise Pulse Interruption of Synchronizing Signal Separator, better known as the Fringe Lock, designed by Robert Adler and Meyer Marks, was assigned to Zenith on Nov. 26, 1957. Patent 3446975, for the Acoustic Wave Filter designed by Robert Adler and Adrian De Vries, was assigned to Zenith on May 27, 1969; it was the basis of many later refinements in television engineering design. From Your Site Articles * Your Guide to Television's Quantum-Dot Future - IEEE Spectrum > * The Dawn of Digital TV - IEEE Spectrum > * Kiss Your TV Goodbye - IEEE Spectrum > Related Articles Around the Web * Why Americans don't make televisions anymore > * ZENITH SOLD TO S. KOREAN COMPETITOR - The Washington Post > * Heritage - Zenith Electronics > historytelevisionrebootdisplayshistory of technology Tekla S. Perry Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University. The Conversation (0) Two men hold a large gold cylinder that is suspended by several narrow gold pipes. ComputingTopicTypeSemiconductorsGuest Article Disentangling the Facts From the Hype of Quantum Computing 8h 4 min read Two people sit at monitors coding ComputingTopicTypeNews Coding Made AI--Now, How Will AI Unmake Coding? 10h 5 min read A small white robot with four wheels, moving ears, and an expressive animated face reacts cutely to being pet by a human RoboticsTopicTypeNews Video Friday: Loona 16 Sep 2022 3 min read The InstituteTopicTypeHistory of TechnologyNews Take a Trip Through Switzerland's Museum of Consumer Electronics IEEE members get free admission and can help curate exhibits Joanna Goodrich Joanna Goodrich is the assistant editor of The Institute, covering the work and accomplishments of IEEE members and IEEE and technology-related events. She has a master's degree in health communications from Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J. 16 Sep 2022 4 min read an old computer in a display box surrounded by other old computers Museum ENTER claims to have the largest collection of working Apple computers in Europe. ENTER Museum ieee newsieee member newsIEEE Historymuseumconsumer electronics history of technologytype:ti For more than a decade Museum ENTER, in Solothurn, Switzerland, has been a place where history buffs can explore and learn about the development and growth of computer and consumer electronics in Switzerland and the rest of the world. On display are computers, calculators, floppy disks, phonographs, radios, video game consoles, and related objects. Thanks to a new four-year partnership between the museum and the IEEE Switzerland Section, IEEE members may visit the facility for free. They also can donate their time to help create exhibits; translate pamphlets, display cards, and other written media; and present science, technology, engineering, and math workshops. room full of historical audio radiosThe technology on display includes televisions and radios from the 1950s.ENTER Museum Collections of calculators, radios, telephones, and televisions ENTER started as the private collection of Swiss entrepreneur Felix Kunz, who had been amassing computers and other electronics since the mid-1970s. Kunz and Peter Regenass--a collector of calculators--opened the museum in 2011 near the Solothurn train station. The museum's collection focuses on the history of technology made in Switzerland by companies including Bolex, Crypto AG, and Gretag. The technology on display includes early telegraphs, telephones, televisions, and radios. There are 300 mechanical calculators from Regenass's collection. One of the mechanical calculators, Curta, looks like a pepper mill and has more than 700 parts. The museum also has several Volksempfangers, the early radio models used by the Nazis to spread propaganda. Visitors can check out the collection of working Apple computers, which the museum claims is the largest in Europe. Free admission, discounts, and STEM education courses The IEEE Switzerland Section began its partnership with the museum last year, when the student branch at the IEEE EPFL hosted a presentation there, says IEEE Senior Member Mathieu Coustans, the Switzerland Section's treasurer. In May, the section and the museum organized a workshop celebrating 100 years of radio broadcasting in Switzerland. IEEE members presented on the topic in French, Coustans says, and then translated the presentations to English. Based on the success of both events, he says, the section and the museum began to discuss how else they could collaborate. The two organizations discovered they have "many of the same goals," says IEEE Member Violetta Vitacca, chief executive of the museum. They both aim to inspire the next generation of engineers, promote the history of technology, and bring together engineers from academia and industry to collaborate. The section and museum decided to create a long-term partnership to help each other succeed. In addition to the free visits, IEEE members receive a 10 percent discount on services offered by the museum, including digitizing books and other materials and repairing broken equipment such as radios and vintage record players. Members can donate historical artifacts too. In addition, IEEE groups are welcome to host conferences and section meetings at the facility. The IEEE Switzerland Section as well as members of student branches and the local IEEE Life Members Affinity Group have agreed to speak at events held at the museum and teach STEM classes there. "The museum is a space where both professional engineers and young people can network and learn from each other," Vitacca says. "I think this partnership is a win-win for both IEEE and the museum." She says she hopes that "collaborating with IEEE will help Museum ENTER gain an international reputation." The perks of the collaboration will become "especially attractive with the opening of the brand-new Museum ENTER building" next year, says IEEE Senior Member Hugo Wyss, chair of the Switzerland Section, who led the partnership effort. Exhibits on gaming, inventors, and startups The museum is set to move in May to a larger building in the village of Derendingen. When it reopens there in November, these are some new additions visitors can look forward to: * Audio guides, display cards, and pamphlets in German, English, and French. * "The Academy," which aims to inspire the next generation of engineers, offering workshops, lectures, and other events, as well as access to a technical library. * A data digitization laboratory where collectors and electronics enthusiasts can convert vintage media carriers, records, and film. * A public-gathering piazza with an attached cafe and meeting rooms. Electronic in foreground with a group of children watching adult use something in his hands in backgroundThe museum offers STEM workshops. ENTER Museum In addition, these eight permanent exhibits will be available, the museum says: * Game Area. A display featuring innovations that have driven the rise of gaming and high-performance computing. * Hall of Brands. A showcase of technologies from well-known companies. * Now. Current technology highlighted in the news. * Show of Pioneers. A look at the inventors of popular consumer and computer electronics. * Switzerland Connected. A showcase for the country's former and current accelerators, startups, and schools. * Time Travel. A retrospective look at 150 years of technology. * Typology of Technology. Applications such as optical and magnetic recording used for music and film. The museum also plans to curate special exhibitions. "We are going from being simply a museum with an extensive collection to being a center for networking, education, and innovation," Vitacca says. "That's why it's important for the museum to collaborate with IEEE. Our offerings are not only unique in Switzerland but also across Europe. IEEE is a great partner for us to help get the word out about what we do." From Your Site Articles * The Birth of Random-Access Memory - IEEE Spectrum > * The National Atomic Testing Museum: Come for the Nukes, Stay for ... > * Founder of Italy's Pavia Museum of Electrical Technology Works to ... > Related Articles Around the Web * Museum for computer, audio and video systems - ENTER > Keep Reading |Show less SensorsTopicTypeNewsTransportation Quantum Sensors Could Quell EV Range Anxiety Nitrogen-vacancy diamonds boost performance by 10% Charles Q. Choi Charles Q. Choi is a science reporter who contributes regularly to IEEE Spectrum. He has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, Wired, and Science, among others. 16 Sep 2022 3 min read dashboard lights reading 118 miles range with battery symbol iStockphoto nitrogen vacancy defectdiamondrange anxietyelectric vehiclesbatteries carbon emissionsquantum sensor A major concern when it comes to electric vehicles is how far their batteries will let them drive. Now, scientists in Japan reveal that diamond quantum sensors can help improve electric-vehicle battery-monitoring accuracy by a hundredfold or more, potentially significantly boosting their driving range. Electric vehicles monitor how much charge is left in their batteries, and their remaining driving range, by analyzing the batteries' current output. Although their average battery-current output is roughly 10 amperes, it can reach as much as several hundred amperes. Given the wide range of current strengths that electric-vehicle battery sensors have to analyze, they are typically limited to an accuracy of 1 ampere. This inaccuracy leads to an ambiguity of about 10 percent in battery-charge estimates, rendering battery usage inefficient. Now, in a new study, researchers in Japan reveal that diamond quantum sensors can work over a range of more than 1,000 amperes while also measuring current strengths with an accuracy of 10 milliamperes. This suggests they can reduce the ambiguity in electric-vehicle battery-charge estimates from 10 percent to 1 percent or even 0.11 percent. "We developed the world's first diamond quantum sensor for electric-vehicle batteries," says study corresponding author Mutsuko Hatano, an electrical engineer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "By developing a new sensor with high performance and improved accuracy, we can make efficient use of the batteries." Quantum technology depends on quantum effects that can emerge because the universe can become quite fuzzy at its very smallest levels. For instance, the quantum effect known as superposition enables atoms and other building blocks of the cosmos to essentially exist in two or more places or states at the same time. These quantum effects are very fragile to outside interference. However, quantum sensors capitalize on this fact to achieve extraordinary sensitivity to any disturbances in their surroundings. For example, scientists are currently developing quantum sensors that can detect features hidden underground with unprecedented detail. A common quantum-sensor platform uses microscopic artificial diamonds with defects within them, in which a carbon atom is replaced with a nitrogen atom and the adjacent carbon atom is missing. When these nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers are illuminated with green light, they fluoresce red. Magnetic, thermal, and other disturbances can alter this response, allowing NV centers to help serve as sensors. In the new study, the researchers experimented with diamond quantum sensors, each a 2- by 2-millimeter square that is 1 mm thick. They placed a sensor on either side of the busbar, the conductive bar that current from a battery flows through in the junction box. By placing two sensors far apart from one another instead of close together and then comparing their data to see what they had in common, the scientists could identify and eliminate false readings from each sensor that came from environmental noise. These sensors could detect battery currents as small as 10 milliamperes over temperatures from -40 to +85 degC, a range one sees in general vehicle applications, Hatano says. The sensors could also help monitor temperature, which can help improve battery control, she adds. The researchers note that the ability of these sensors to work at roughly 1,000 amperes will be needed as all-solid-state batteries promote higher power and higher capacities in electric vehicles. This capability will also find use when new fast chargers arrive, Hatano notes. These findings suggest diamond quantum sensors can extend the driving range of electric vehicles by 10 percent. Alternatively, they could help keep the driving range the same but decrease battery weight by 10 percent. This would reduce the energy needed to run each vehicle by 3.5 percent and the energy needed to produce the vehicles by 5 percent. Given an estimated 20 million new electric vehicles worldwide by 2030, such reductions would correspond to a 0.2 percent decrease in the global transportation sector's carbon dioxide emissions, the researchers say. Hatano, along with study lead author Yuji Hatano and their colleagues, detailed their findings online 6 September in the journal Scientific Reports. 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