'Ekcovision' TMB272 mains/battery portable television, 1956

'Ekcovision' mains/battery portable television model TMB 272, by E K Cole Limited, Southend-on-Sea, England, 1956.

The 'Ekcovision' TMB272 was a portable television capable of being powered by AC mains electricity or a 12V power supply, usually a battery. This may have been the first and hopefully the last television capable of being used legally in a motor vehicle in the UK for a brief period in 1956 and 1957.

Being a small set and the first to be able to run from a 12V supply led to this set being fitted as an option to some upmarket cars such as Daimler and Rolls Royce. This did not go un-noticed by the powers that be who, within two months, raised a proposal to amend the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations of 1955 to prohibit the use of television receivers in vehicles if the screen were visible, directly or by reflection, by the driver of a vehicle or indeed any other vehicle on the road. The regulations were thus amended (order 103A) in early 1957.

The set was previewed at the 1955 Olympia Radio Show and released in May 1956. It originally cost just over £69, £49 3s 4d plus £20 2s 8d purchase tax. In September 1948, E.K. Cole Limited (aka EKCO) announced that their Ekco televisions would be known as Ekcovision.