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Why do we turn the television set over to see what's on the other side?
Richardcoulter
Posts: 30,460 Forum Member
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As suggested in another thread, I thought I'd ask where the sayings associated with watching television came from.
Examples include such sayings as "turn the TV over" and "whats on the other side" and why we call it a "television set". Feel free to add any others that you can think of
My theory about "turning the TV over" to see "what's on the other side" came about because, when ITV first started in 1955, existing televisions were only designed to receive BBC (1).
In order to receive ITV, existing sets had to be modified with some sort of lever that had to be "turned over" to "the other side" between the two channels available.
The saying stuck, even though subsequent televisions were manufactured to receive the then only two channels available.
Dan's Dad thinks that the sayings come from the operation of turret tuners (for those too young to remember, these were large round channel changing mechanisms at the front of the TV) that were clicked through various positions until the desired channel was found.
As for the term 'television set' (set of what
):
Dan's Dad has heard several theories as to where the etymology originated from. One is that there are transmitting sets and receiving sets, another that it has military origins in connection with the set of equipment involved in field operations, that it refers to the set of Marconi patents or that it refers to the set of thermionic valves used in televisions.
Aidan Lunn believes that the term is derived from when people used to build their own TV sets out of kits ie a set of parts when, after the war, there was a surplus of Government equipment and personnel with the required experise to do it available.
Examples include such sayings as "turn the TV over" and "whats on the other side" and why we call it a "television set". Feel free to add any others that you can think of
My theory about "turning the TV over" to see "what's on the other side" came about because, when ITV first started in 1955, existing televisions were only designed to receive BBC (1).
In order to receive ITV, existing sets had to be modified with some sort of lever that had to be "turned over" to "the other side" between the two channels available.
The saying stuck, even though subsequent televisions were manufactured to receive the then only two channels available.
Dan's Dad thinks that the sayings come from the operation of turret tuners (for those too young to remember, these were large round channel changing mechanisms at the front of the TV) that were clicked through various positions until the desired channel was found.
As for the term 'television set' (set of what
):Dan's Dad has heard several theories as to where the etymology originated from. One is that there are transmitting sets and receiving sets, another that it has military origins in connection with the set of equipment involved in field operations, that it refers to the set of Marconi patents or that it refers to the set of thermionic valves used in televisions.
Aidan Lunn believes that the term is derived from when people used to build their own TV sets out of kits ie a set of parts when, after the war, there was a surplus of Government equipment and personnel with the required experise to do it available.
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I also don't call a channel The Other Side.
Might be an age thing, do younger people no longer say "what's on the other side"?
Maybe young people now say "what's on the other channel" now
Two sides, like a sheet of paper. You turn over a sheet of paper to see what's on the other side.
There were other controls like 'horizontal hold', and 'vertical hold', which were great fun too, but that's another story!
oh come on please tell you've mentioned it now:D
I looked and there was an ornament and a photograph. I might have been only 6 or 7 though!!
I remember that knob from the very early 60's, the set must have been a Bush from mid-50's or at least before ITV was born as it was an addition.
A bloody sight simpler than adding a box, plugging it in to the mains, and putting up a dish.....
Very quickly tv manufacturers arranged the turret tuners so that the local BBC and ITV channels were located adjacent to each other, for example in Central Scotland, Channel 3 (BBC) was beside Channel 10 (STV)
apparently that soon broke down too, so several programmable options is what obviously got used later!
My old Gran used to say "what's on the ITA?"
She gradually got persuade to call it Anglia by my Grandad, but often went back to calling it ITA.
When asked her why (Iwas about 8 years old) she said it must be the proper name becuse that's how it starts up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JHmvhbP7SI
Usually the early sets would only have the components for the local channel(s) installed on the turret.
And some who had contact with the ITA etc would continue to call it that just to annoy them rather than try to remember what they were calling themselves that week!
In layman's terms the loss of 'Horizontal hold' resulted in the lines being out of sync with each other. The whole picture looked like jagged diagonal lines. A loss of 'vertical hold' resulted in the frame timing getting out of sync. The result was that the picture rolled up or down. The controls allowed you to adjust these values to get a watchable picture.
To be fair these values only needed to be changed as the set wore out. Normally they could be left alone. If the holds needed adjusting on a regular basis it was time to call out the television repairman. I guess you wouldn't know about those either.
(I can't believe I'm having to explain this. I'm obviously a remnant of a bygone age!
Yes Im too young to remember those controls, but I had already picked up on what they did.
I was kind of thinking you had a story about playing with these as a kid!
I do have a rather technical mind so I get it technically!
And TV repairmen always carried a stock of replacement valves in their estate car, to effect a repair at home. Otherwise, they would take the set back to their shop to repair it there (usually involving a soldering iron).
I used to get a bit worried by presenters who said ''See you tomorrow'' until I realised they actually couldn't see me (which was fortunate on some occasions:D)
Exactly. And calling it a television set would have been a logical extension from calling a radio a "radio set", or even a "wireless set", which would have been the military term for a transceiver used by the army. Ultimately this could be an example of our language being adapted to suit the times, with men returning from national service with a new vocabulary.
The other weird one is that many people of my parents' generation didn't refer to television channels, they called them programmes. So my dad would ask, "what programme is this?", and expect the answer to be BBC One, ITV, etc rather than Panorama or the Sooty Show. Again, I think it was a logical expression derived from the old names for the BBC radio networks such as Light Programme and Third Programme.
We found some old newspapers from the early '60's a few years ago. Mostly the London Evening News (broadsheet). The TV listings had two columns: Channel 1 and Channel 9 - not BBC and ITV (as it would have been the local ITV company). They didn't even bother naming the broadcasters.
Though, looking: even then the programmes were mostly crap, too.
Plus ca change.