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Old 15th Jul 2019, 11:21 am   #12
Mike. Watterson
Heptode
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Limerick, Ireland.
Posts: 901
Default Re: Vidor CN359 Magic Eye Anomaly

Excellent. Also doesn't have a "cost reduced" look as some of the battery sets in 1950s had.
Maybe designed by their Burndept Radio people who changed to producing commercial and military radios. Only the Vidor name and battery division was sold to Crompton when Cole retired. Curiously Ever Ready owned Burndept for a short while after Crompton bought Vidor.
Cole had been founder and owner and MD of Lissen and control bought by Ever Ready in 1928. In 1934 he setup Vidor to make batteries, buying Burndept Radio to do radios. Ever Ready wasn't amused and sacked him. It was to go to court but settled just before the case. Thus in mid 1930s the "new" Ever Ready models also often sold as Lissen too, and there were Vidor and Burndept models with the same chassis.
Ever Ready wound up the Lissen Brand/Company in 1945, though it's unlikely any were made after 1941 as both the Ever Ready / Lissen main radio factories were destroyed in the Blitz.
Vidor models are from 1934 to at least 1958. Some models may have been produced in 1959 which seems to be when radio production ended.
https://www.radiomuseum.org/m/vidor_gb_en_1~year.html

This got good reviews, both as a radio and for case design, though amazingly there is a valve version too.
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/vidor_gem_cn440cn_44.html

Maybe the last model and no evidence it reached retail sales:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/vidor_viscount_cn443.html
or
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/vidor_stowaway_cn447.html

I've always fancied the CN359 or a related model.

Last edited by Mike. Watterson; 15th Jul 2019 at 11:35 am.
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