Unofficial CRT Implosion Testing 

this isn't the slowmoguys, this is the slow motion picture gentlemen

1. I know of (in UK) of someone killed by CRT glass. He was working alone late Friday night and his body wasn't discovered until Monday morning, in the zone where CRTs were thrown. 2. CRT glass is so sharp that you don't feel it cut through you. I lost part of thumb just brushing against a shard, I didn't feel it and the first knew was feeling something dangling on my hand. Then a few seconds later was blood. 3. CRTs are easily rendered safe by pulling off the plastic connector to expose the nipple which you then tap with a screwdriver handle to slowly release the vacuum.

I didn't even know that high speed recording was a thing in the 60s! Pretty awesome stuff!

It hurts watching these tubes be destroyed, especially the 564 because I have one of those, but they look like they were factory rejects or were already subjected to previous testing judging by the burn-in on some of them.

The only scope CRTs I ever replaced were burnt out from constant use over many decades! I still use old analog scopes for repair of many electronic devises, as the digital scopes don't show the proper display when aligning certain circuits. As old as the analog scopes are, they hold their calibration very well! And I don't worry about the CRTs imploding, as they are inside their cabinet and well protected!

Damn, SloMoGuys really got better with age

I serviced, repaired and calibrated about every Tektronix O-Scope ever made with a CRT. The instruments were used by techs and engineers in the field and on test benches. I never saw a broken CRT but had there been, the scope would have gone to the next highest standards lab for disposal of broken glass, replacement of the CRT then back to our shop for calibration. The good ole days!

Fairly recently, 2016 I believe, we had to perform implosion testing on our CRT for UL certification. CRT's are AWESOME! Last generation of CRT engineers still making tubes. 42yrs of service.

The description in the video makes it sound like something done for fun, but the reasonably elaborate setup, very similar to how UL performed CRT tests, and the very expensive high frame rate film, makes me quite confident this was done for some kind of research or legal purposes. For example, studying the failure modes in order to make future tubes safer.

When I was a teenager my friends and I came across a large discarded TV in a dump. I hit the front of the screen several times with a tire tool, but, luckily, I did not break the tube. One of us got the bright idea to make a competition of it and stand back about 20 feet, taking turns to throw the tire iron at the tube. I was the first to throw, and hit the CRT dead center. I could not believe the shock wave we felt from the explosion following the implosion. I don’t think there was a piece of glass larger than one-have inch across remaining. We were just outside the blast radius but could see the cloud of glass shrapnel. I’ve been careful around CRTs ever since. Later in life, as a SEM field technician, I learned the proper way to dispose of a CRT. We would use a jeweler’s file to cut through the glass on the nipple at the back of the tube to safely release the vacuum. For anyone who is skeptical about this see: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Qv-Ub7kgm0Y.html

It's surprising to see just how fast the screen is sucked in by the vacuum / pushed in by the atmosphere.

looks like they had a smashing day :)

Friday afternoon at the Tek office, 1963: Hank: "Hey Bob, remember that pile of junk CRT's we have lying around? Want to have some fun and smash them?" Bob: "Sure, great idea, but we're on company time, we really need a good excuse." Hank: "Hold my beer, Bob."

There is something so satisfying about observing a vacuum collapse upon itself.

Back in the day, we had a console TV CRT implode due to thermal shock. Luckily, there was plate glass cover in front of the tube. It was a youthful experience not forgotten.

As a kid learning about electronics in the 60s I had always heard that a CRT would implode then explode. Interesting to actually see the effect in action. I'm surprised to see how thick the glass is.

To give you an idea of how dangerous CRTs can be, if handled improperly, a friend, who is a retired television station technician, told me how a co-worker was carrying a removed CRT, with the faceplate against his chest, and he'd forgotten to don his leather apron. He tripped over a box, and fell forward. The neck of the tube hit the floor first, and was then broken, and shot through the faceplate, into the technician's heart by the force of the vacuum being released, and the surrounding atmosphere ramming the neck of the tube inward. I am so relieved to know I've finally gotten rid of the glass bombs that once surrounded me in my edit suite.

When I was a teenager I made a game of the old TV tubes my dad left out for the garbage collector. The trick was to hit the rear of the tube(around the top of the neck) with the handle of a big screwdriver in just the right way as to make as small of a hole as possible. So that the sucking in air sound would be as long as possible. Taking out the whole neck with one hit at the side of the neck was also fun. The whole neck would immediately dislodge and be sucked inside

These are the most scientist looking scientists

In the 1970's I used to take apart TVs for the parts. Having a left over 27" tube and being a teen, we of course sat it out in a field and started chucking rocks at it. Took a while but we were eventually rewarded with a good "Thump!" as a rock hit and it imploded. Yeah, kids, don't be too near if you do that!

This is a beautiful video! Thank you for posting this.

Imagine having the freedom to do something this complicated at work.

In the late 70's I went through a class on how to "safe" "Picture Tubes" for disposal. It could be just as tedious as defusing a bomb.

This has almost photoinductionish vibe...

A family back in the 50s came close to death when the CRT in their TV imploded, sending shrapnel into the couch and through the wall into the kitchen behind it. That family was lucky they weren't there watching TV when it happened. There would be a seperate panel of saftey glass in front of the tube if it wasn't bonded directly to it and/or an implosion band. For some reason either of these features failed or were not present.

Always something going down in test 13.

Dang the Slow-Mo guys RU-vid channel is older than I thought

Weird how stuff smashed at 4000fps looks like zero gravity 😎❤️👍

Boss says" Find something to do!" Hey I know lets break stuff!

my first computer tech, i say that instead of PC tech b/c was working on a mid-range computer system as a civilian for the Army. Whenever we got a bad CRT. Me and the other tech would through it in the dumpster then climb up on the side of the dumpster and throw stuff at the CRT till it exploded. This was in 1985

On some of the implosions, the face would break away cleanly enough as to then rip right through the ass of the tube.

I never thought it was really possible to a CRT to implode, even if I already knew it had vacuum inside it...

This video is awesome, everything from the results to the fact it's three guys hiding behind a partition wall in the corner of their office. 👌 ps. you can't release a vacuum 😉

seems to be more damage from the implosion than the impact, interesting, bet they had fun doing this, wonder who drew short stick and had to clean up all the shards of glass?

So that's why parents told us not to sit close to the screen

Wonderful!

May I use part of this video in my upcoming Star Wars prop video? I will be using a CRT tv, and felt it was important to cover the safety aspect visually (but not exploding one myself) Of course I would credit and link your channel and video. Thank you for your consideration

"Ok guys, fun's over now, we got some cleaning up to do..."

Someone forgot to turn on the digital image stabilization on the high-speed cameras! ;)

Back in the day CRT's were essentially bombs waiting to go off. Thankfully through research and development, they were eventually made safer to where the implosion wasn't nearly as bad as it originally was.

Super interesting.

You see how the vacuum in the crt just sucks the glass in when the tube breaks

Tubular dude!! 😁 Seriously, though, how expensive was 4000 fps _in film??_ 💸

I have broken many of these before in my life and all the time I would always see the same thing. No gas release only air intake. Although some of the inert gas inside of that vacuum tube is released after the implosion

Thermonic implosions, would of liked to have seen some bigger ones destroyed. I have imploded some 22 and above CRT's but didn't get them on record, pity i guess.

This is just amazing!!!

Que buen video !

Very interesting.

Wow, that was cool

Around 30 years ago we found a long neck 19" TV tube without the metal safety band. We threw a rock at it and it went like a bomb. The furthest piece landed in a car park around 150 feet away and was over a pound heavy. We were very very very lucky not to be hurt!

I don't think the "releases the vacuum" term in the clip intro it's correct, I would say "suck the air" is a more accurate description.

Huh, that's extra interesting. And not because my birthday is on 9. october like the testing date.

My house makes strange noises at night

kinda creepy ngl, well, more or less disturbing.

Ill start to use facemask in front of my screens from now on!

Id like to see this stuff filmed by slowmoguys

Doesn't look as bad as I expected

Isn't there a whole bunch of lead in those things?

but muh game perfect pixels

now repeat the test on a working state :D

🕯

As a 90s kid and now a retro gamer, I find this video offensive and depressing.

999

Thats funny. I thought this video was going to be about Critical Race Theory imploding. I hope these tubes last longer than that.

Very cool. Unofficial or not, good tests