November 19, 200718 yr The wooden box that's a TV repeat from the Fifties By DUNCAN ROBERTSON - More by this author » Last updated at 23:23pm on 18th November 2007 Comments Back in the Fifties they took pride of place in the living rooms of those wealthy enough to afford them. In those days they might feature a V-shaped aerial on the top and Muffin the Mule on the screen. Well, the aerials gone and so has Muffin but theres no mistaking the return of the wooden television box. Designed to appeal to the Ikea generations love of natural products and retro design, a Swedish manufacturer has given the flatscreen TV a makeover in wood. Scroll down for more The wooden television is back from the dead, (above) albeit in a sleeker guise than the giant boxes that confronted viewers in the 1950s (below) Retailers hope the model - called a Tree-V - will appeal to the growing band of armchair environmentalists. They say it is sourced from sustainable forest and can be largely recycled. Its manufacturer, Swedx, hope the combination of a hi-definition flat screen and "natural" design will easily find a niche in the market. The 19-inch widescreen, priced at around £350, will be stocked in Currys and is available at Dixons online, in either ash, sapele or beech finishes. The Tree-Vs have in-built Freeview tuners and feature high definition connections like other conventional flat screens. But despite the use of sustainable materials it is not carbon neutral. Scroll down for more Bygone times: Life around the box in the Fifties It still carries the standard standby feature which wastes electricity when the television is not in use. DeVere Forster, eCommerce director for Dixons.co.uk, said: "Owning a Tree-V is a great way of making a small contribution to planet Earth while watching it on the telly at the same time." "They are high specification televisions, with the added advantage of being constructed within frames from all-natural, renewable, sustainable, recyclable resources." The race is on to produce the next generation of environmentally friendly televisions and computers. PC World is developing a zero carbon computer made from wood and aluminium. It plans to remove the computers fans - which use up most of the power - and install an aluminium casing that has large ventilation slats to allow heat to escape. PC World says its machine, which will retail at £599, will cut annual energy bills from around £40 to £12. The keyboard and screen will be encased in wood. The computers carbon footprint is reduced by 85 per cent. To reduce it to zero, the company will undertake offsetting schemes in the Third World, such as installing solar panels to help power wells.
Create an account or sign in to comment