The original WAS an oscilloscope tube, a 3KP4. They are nearly impossible to find these days, many people use a 3KP1, but that gives a green picture. Even they aren’t easy to find. All the other tubes are very common.
It might be an interesting project to fit a semi-modern solid state portable TV into the old cabinet (and leave the original chassis intact). There are plenty of those TVs (from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc) around and they are cheap.
Another option would be a 7-inch TV using a 7JP4. There were many manufacturers and models of those, probably the best of them would be the Admiral 19A11, which had an actual power transformer (rather than an AC/DC set with series string filaments). Good 7JP4s are much easier to find than 3KP4s.
I perceive you are familiar with old designs too. :)
Yes, the low end stuff used filaments in a series and the better stuff used actual power transformers.
The original WAS an oscilloscope tube, a 3KP4. They are nearly impossible to find these days, many people use a 3KP1, but that gives a green picture. Even they aren’t easy to find. All the other tubes are very common.
This was the first thing that popped into my mind. The picture would be green unless I could find a white phosphor tube. Most people wouldn't know that isn't correct, so I figured as a working prop, it would still get people's attention.
It might be an interesting project to fit a semi-modern solid state portable TV into the old cabinet (and leave the original chassis intact). There are plenty of those TVs (from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc) around and they are cheap.
I was thinking it might be possible to find something like that with a tube that was close enough.
I've seen people make miniature Video Arcade systems (like Pac Man and such) with repurposed tubes and displays like that.