The Mississippi Historical Radio and Broadcasting Society
| Vol 2 #7 | December 30, 1992 |
News Letter
Our regular monthly meeting was held December 13th, 1992 at the usual place and time.
Our next regular meeting will be Sunday, January 10th - 2PM at 2412 C St. Meridian. The Zenith console that has been the topic of our last several workshops was undergoing final finish -- it has since been delivered to it's new owner: in time for Christmas. It has been a large project, but turned out to be a very pretty radio -- very rewarding for those involved. Other topics covered included continued planning for our February show. The show is February 27th, 1993 9AM to 6PM at the J. C.'s building on highway 39 north (same location as last year). We still need a LOT of advertising and publicity -- all help greatfully accepted!
Radio Collecting Today
This column will be a continuing feature here. It will cover various aspects of collecting, restoration techniques, repairs, and other related topics. This issue's topic is the second part of "Dating a find". It covers some easy to remember "mile stones" to help you put a date on a radio or similar item. While there are always exceptions, these general guidelines can help you date items within reasonable time frames.
Wow!, neat! What is it? How old is it???
Last issue we discovered that tubes can give us some excellent clues to the age of a radio. This time we'll look at some additional items that can be determined strictly from memory.
Radios have undergone several distinct generations: From crude to sublime (and unfortunately, many times back to crude!). Changes were gradual, some manufacturers would make a change, others might or might not copy the change -- or take the change even further. However, for the most part, radios can be placed into several "generations", each with a fairly distinctive range of dates. The earliest radios were breadboards. Parts were mounted to a large piece of wood, with wiring run from connection to connection. Because of the exposed wiring and parts, these radios weren't welcome in the social areas of the house. They were usually relegated to a work or hobby area. Examples of this type of radio are the Atwater Kent early models from #1 to 12. It is probably not known what date the first breadboard was built, but it was surely in the 1910's. They lasted thru the mid '20's
To be successfully marketed as home sets, the parts needed to be inside some sort of enclosure, with the controls protruding on the outside so adjustments, tuning etc. could be done without danger of touching live parts, (nor damaging fragile parts). Since wood isn't very strong when cut very thin (1/4 inch or so), a synthetic was used to mount the various parts to (on the back side) while control shafts and switches protruded through to the "front" or operator side. These "panels" were most often made of polished bakelite, and were the face or "control panel" of many radios. The front panel was mounted to a wooden box to complete the enclosure of the working parts. These radios started showing up around 1920 and were still being made by some into the late '20's. Generally, though, the dates are 1922-1924.
Turning to the technical side for a moment, all of the radios from the beginning to around 1925 had another thing in common: multiple tuning dials; usually three. Starting around 1926 most manufacturers had started using "ganged - capacitors" for tuning -- resulting in the "1 dial sets". Also common in the multi-dial sets were the dial markings -- usually 0 - 100. The early one dialers had both the 0 - 100 markings as well as kilo-cycle or meter markings. Later the 0 -100 markings were dropped.
Eventually, the bakelite panels were mounted inside of the boxes, allowing the more attractive wood to be seen on all sides. These generally ran from 1925 to 1929 - gradually being replaced by steel chassis.
Now that we have one-dialers, the dials themselves start becoming more interesting. Up till now, they have either been over-sized knobs with markings on their skirt (1920 - 1926), or a "barrel dial" visible through a "peep-hole" (1927-1935). However, some manufacturers started making larger quarter or half-round dials (like Atwater Kent in 1933), or even full "airplane" dials with dual pointers (like Zenith in 1934). The first linear dials started showing up around 1935.
Cabinets, as noted above, started out as simple boxes. The early ones were bread-box shaped, usually with a lid that opened (1922 - 1929). 1927 saw some of the first consoles, though most were just bread boxes set on a table (which held either the speaker, batteries, or both!). 1927 saw custom radio cabinets, consoles, tables etc. being manufactured by such companies as Red Lion, Pooley, Watsontown Table and Furniture. The true consoles would really start in 1929. 1927 also saw the first cathedral shape -- but as a speaker, not a radio -- and interestingly enough from two different sources - Farrand of Long Island City, the the other from Neutrowound. 1928 and 1929 saw the "boxes" grow legs, and become consoles. The crash of '29 brought about the next major change in cabinets -- and for that matter, in the radios in general. 1930: The Philco Baby Grand that started the cathedral craze -- and tons of oversized -- overpriced consoles. By 1931 EVERYBODY had cathedrals, and the average radio prices had fallen from around $150-$200 to around $75-$80. 1932 is the year that saw a great many "new" things: CHEAP radios - the $20 dollar barrier is broken by Crosley's "Fiver" $19.99 with tubes and taxes paid. That was topped by Emerson -- with a $16.75 model. 1934 was some early plastics ("Durez" from Colonial Radio). 1937 saw automatic tuning in several forms from "Telephone dials" to push-buttons. 1937 also saw some "Deco" stuff. Deco really came into it's own by 1939 (Catalin, of course, was also big-time by now). Bakelite, Catalin, Regular Plastics, chrome, glass, mirrors and all manor of materials now house radios -- which have become fairly unidentifiable, date-wise, by now.
Here is a quickie table:
Remember this is a ROUGH listing: there are exceptions everywhere -- but it can be a guide to the general dates a set is from.
Next time we'll look at the next clue: hints from the innards: dates ready for the reading!
Until next time: Happy Collecting!
The Mississippi Historical Radio and Broadcasting Society Newsletter is published monthly by:
The Mississippi Historical Radio and Broadcasting Society
2412 C Street
Meridian, MS 39301
601 693-5958
© 1992, The Mississippi Historical Radio and Broadcasting Society.
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