The purpose of a television set is to reproduce images and sound, transmitted wirelessly over radio waves. The Tosca black-and-white television set presented here was produced by Zakłady Radiowe Diora w Dzierżoniowie, specialising in the production of radio receivers. The manufacturer’s name is an anagram of the word “radio”. In the late 1950s, having fulfilled the demand for radios by order of the central authorities, the enterprise undertook the manufacture of television receivers, which it was supposed to continue until the market was saturated with this product. In the mid-1960s, all Polish factories producing television sets and operating within the framework of Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Elektronicznego i Teletechnicznego Unitra launched production of unified receivers. The purpose of such a solution was to reduce production costs, as the same electronic components were used in different TV set models. The institution entrusted with the development of a homogeneous design platform for subsequent models of Polish television sets was the Research, Development and Unification Bureau of the Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne. The Tosca was one of the four television set models produced in Dzierżoniów, the others being the Szeherezada, Aladyn, and the Tosca Lux. The application of a 17-inch CRT with a deflection angle of 110° and the use of printed circuits allowed the external dimensions of the housing and the weight of the device to be significantly reduced. The television set presented here was acquired for the Museum’s collection with the help of the Kraków Association for the Protection of Relics of Technology.
An interesting fact: the receiver employs a light sensor, enabling automatic adjustment of the contrast of the image displayed depending on the lighting conditions in the room.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Piotr Żabicki