JohnA Posted October 25, 2004 Share Posted October 25, 2004 For some reason my company, a large southern power company, is pulling their antiques out of the warehouses and displaying them in our buildings. The attached pic is an early Atwater-Kent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Mandaville Posted October 25, 2004 Share Posted October 25, 2004 Really neat, John! I have a very similar working setup in our listening room, but with a restored wooden chassis, and bakelite Radiola horn. I took the entire radio apart and rebuilt it from an online source of 20's and 30's receiving radio schematics. I listen to the 'Oldies' AM station with it all the time! Tons of fun! Thanks for sharing this, the horn is in particularly nice shape. Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfogg Posted October 25, 2004 Share Posted October 25, 2004 Attached is my '39 Philco. Works great. Shawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 25, 2004 Share Posted October 25, 2004 here a fave of mine, grebe synchrophase tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 John, it's nice to see your company is bringing out their antiques to display...so much better than sitting hidden in their warehouse. Wonder if it still operates? I've got a very small working collection of antique tube radios displayed throughout the house that my dad has restored for me, my favorite being this lil' 1933 Emerson-Ingraham Model 25A mantle radio: It's smaller than a mantle clock, and except for all the caps and power cord, is still in original condition! It's not a superhetrodyne, but with a 10' wire antenna can still pick up an awful lot of stations with ease. We only have one oldies station in our immediate area, but late at night when the atmospheric conditions are just right, I've picked up a Gainsville station (about 175 miles north of Lakeland)...not bad for a 71 year old! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 I swear, with radios as beautiful as those, I'd have no trouble doing without TV. Can't you imagine the family gathered 'round that Emmerson, looking at the wild grain pattern in the wood, or the architecture of the box, and seeing in their minds images right out of the stories they're hearing? Wow, very cool. Thanks for posting. BTW, Jim, I was watching "Antiques Roadshow" last night (speaking of TV), the show was from Oklahoma City. A lady brought a beautiful Eastlake-style parlour pump-organ (I believe it was a Moore, made in Chicago). I was very surprised when they told her it was only worth around $400. The thing looked like a shrine to late-1800's home entertainment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 Some really nice radios, guys! I've got a really nice 1936 Sears Silvertone Console model in my home office that I enjoy ballgames on. I bought it from the original owner about 15 years ago. I also have a good-condition 1948 RCA table radio in our dining room. I'll have to snap a photo of both and post them here tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 this is the atwater kent I would like to find...a model 10 "breadboard" model tony btw there is one on ebay right now http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2279148289&fromMakeTrack=true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Favog Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 How come whenever I see one of those I expect to turn it on and hear Bobby Thompson' s "Shot Heard Around the World", Little Orphan Annie or the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 As promised! MY 1948 RCA Table Radio (still plays): And, my 1936 Sears Silvertone Console that I listen to Detroit Tigers games on: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted October 26, 2004 Share Posted October 26, 2004 ---------------- On 10/26/2004 7:45:54 AM fini wrote: I swear, with radios as beautiful as those, I'd have no trouble doing without TV. Can't you imagine the family gathered 'round that Emmerson, looking at the wild grain pattern in the wood, or the architecture of the box, and seeing in their minds images right out of the stories they're hearing? Wow, very cool. Thanks for posting. ---------------- That is cool that you mention that. Because on XM Radio, they have a channel that plays a lot of those old classic shows. XM-164 Radio Classics. XM Radio also has Sonic Theater (XM-163)", which has more modern stuff, including readings of best-seller novels as well as live radio "drama". You can still listen to those old stories to this day. I've went and listened to those stations, as I have XM Radio, and I can easily imagine how it must've been like, with the family gathered around the radio, usually after dinner (much like how we gathered around the TV after dinner when I was a kid), and listening to those stories. Some of those stories are truly engrossing, and better quality entertainment than most of the crap we see on TV now-a-days. Would be neat to build a big console radio like that, with the beautiful wood-grain cabinet with the nice architectural features, but put inside a very modern, but good quality, and good sounding, satellite radio reciever. Don't know if anybody would go for something like that in this day-in-age of "tiny cube" systems. Something like one of those old radios was truly a very nice, quality piece of furniture that was the center point in the parlor/living room. Look at how beautiful those things are, that are still working to this day! I wonder how much of this modern stuff will still look that good and work that good 50+ years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted October 27, 2004 Share Posted October 27, 2004 Both fini & skonopa: Touch on some great points. But, listening to an old tube set was even more than that. Listening to radio was also the hum of the tube-driven amplifier, the warm sound and the dim glow of the tubes on the wall behind the radio and of course, the glow of the dial. I can remember countless nights in the 1950s as a young boy, falling to sleep with a small RCA bakelight table radio (that I wish I still had) glowing at my side on the night stand. It provided the only light in the room. It played the Mickey Shore Show, which he had dubbed "Night Train". And, the song 'Night Train' by Tommy Dorsey was his theme song. The show would play all sorts of big band hits from the 1940s and 50s, which together with the warm hum of the tubes, would lull me to sleep in no time. That radio instilled a warm feeling of security and calmness in me and opened up my imagination, whenever there was a story being told. I haven;t slept like that in years. skonopa has indeed touched upon an interesting concept of listening to the old radio shows over satelitte radio. However, I don't know if sticking an XM Radio in a wooden cigar box is going to bring back all of the nuances of playing an antique radio. They'd probably have to outfit it with amber-colored LEDs on its back to simulate the glow of the tubes on the wall. And then, there's that hum..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted October 27, 2004 Share Posted October 27, 2004 ---------------- On 10/27/2004 6:17:13 AM picky wrote: skonopa has indeed touched upon an interesting concept of listening to the old radio shows over satelitte radio. However, I don't know if sticking an XM Radio in a wooden cigar box is going to bring back all of the nuances of playing an antique radio. They'd probably have to outfit it with amber-colored LEDs on its back to simulate the glow of the tubes on the wall. And then, there's that hum..... ---------------- You do have a point, as plenty of those tube-based radios where still in service even when I was a kid (even our old Zenith TV was tube-based). Transistor radios where just coming out. So I know exactly what you are talking about. Still would be an interesting concept, though. It seems that Tivoli Audio (makes the Henry Kloss Model 1 radio) is pretty much doing exactly that, but with Sirius radio. I have the Model Two in my office, which I find has a very nice, warm sound to it, but without the hum and the glow of the tubes, though. So I have confidence that there could be a market for such a concept, if done right, which I feel Tivoli Audio will be able to pull-off with success. Also to add: Found an interesting website on Antique Radio, as I've always had a fascination with this (although I don't own any old radio sets myself, though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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