COLOR PICTURE TUBE HAVING SHADOW MASK WITH IMPROVED TIE BAR GRADING

An improved color picture tube includes a shadow mask which has a rectangular periphery with two long sides and two short sides. The mask has a major axis, which passes through the center of the mask and parallels the long sides, and a minor axis, which passes through the center of the mask and parallels the short sides. The mask includes slit-shaped apertures aligned in columns that essentially parallel the minor axis. Adjacent apertures in each column are separated by tie bars in the mask. The widths of the tie bars are graded in dimension. The grading is at least partially related to the amount of tie bar stretch occurring in a similar size mask having different tie bar widths.