A television set is a device for receiving television programmes transmitted by a broadcaster over radio waves, in which the images and sound transmitted over large distances are encoded. The Tosca-Lux television receiver presented here is an example of a unified receiver. This means that the internal design is based on the same components as those used in receivers manufactured in a similar period by three Polish production facilities representing the television industry, belonging to the Unitra Union of Electronic and Teletechnical Industry: Zakłady Diora w Dzierżoniowie (the manufacturer of this model), Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne (WZT), and Gdańskie Zakłady Radiowe (Gezar, renamed in 1972 to Gdańskie Zakłady Elektroniczne Unimor). As a result, all television receivers in this family of devices differed mostly in terms of their external appearance only. The Tosca-Lux was manufactured between 1968 and around 1971. The receiver had a 19-inch screen, and its distinguishing feature was a rotary base allowing the device to be turned to the best angle for viewing. The most important innovations in its design included the introduction of non-implosive CRTs and the use of transistors in the audio path. Other representatives of this line of Polish television sets, apart from the Tosca-Lux, were the Tosca (made by Diora), Ametyst and Opal (made by WZT), and the Atol (Gezar).
Interesting fact: the division into different television broadcasting technical standards that existed in Europe from the 1940s until the 1990s, with different standards for the Comecon and the Western countries, required the use of a specific type of television receiver for a given region. The political and economic transformation ensuing from the dismantling of the USSR resulted in unification of television signal broadcasting in most of the region’s countries.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Piotr Żabicki