1930's domestic British radio

[kayeprops]

Hi, can you advise on what type of domestic radio might have been around in a fairly mid-affluent farming household in the mid-30's please? Not my area of expertise, looking for something smallish - to buy. Any help/guidance would be appreciated. Thanks

[Station X]

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Did this farming household have a mains electricity supply, or would the radio have been powered from batteries?

[Mike. Watterson]

Most farms didn't have electricity in the 1930s.
Even in 1948 a 1/5th of the UK had none. Most of those would have been rural.
So a battery version of mains set. Many had the same cabinet and features. LT via a 2V lead Acid charged in the nearest town, or sometimes village. Often cycle shop or garage. Well off folks would have had two cells as charging was likely no sooner than next day.

None of these battery radios were small. Loudspeakers 6" to 10". Large 120V HT packs using 90 off B cells. Large 2V lead acid cells. Some used tapped 9V grid packs, but by 1937 most used automatic bias via a resistor in the HT- lead, or a combo pack with taps for bias and screen grids.

Even expensive portable battery sets of 1930s are quite large. Mostly they were 2nd sets for rich people on picnics and boat trips. A regular 1930s battery set in the UK is just like any large table model.

Even 1945 to 1958, the Battery Valve sets only get smaller than regular mains table modes after 1952, apart from the expensive niche market 1946 to 1949 "personal" sets that failed in the UK market.

You'll find many examples on the Radiomuseum from Pye, Ever Ready, EMI (HMV/Marconiphone) and other well known UK brands.

Even in 1936 Belfast many houses had no mains electricity. Yet rich people had home electric lighting in the Victorian Era. Even one Sherlock Holmes story has Holmes adjust the electric table lamp to examine scratches.

Farms tended to be some distance outside villages. Still true. A USA Battery Valve table model is actually called a Farm Radio.

[Mike. Watterson]

Only budget Bakelite mains sets copied from US designs were compact. I'd not call them small. In the USA those were marketed as second sets, but from 1936 to late 1950s such models would have been the main set for households that couldn't afford the better sounding larger wooden cabinet sets.

[Top Cap]

More than likely a battery powered set as already stated. Typical radios at the time were Cossor and Ever Ready to name just a couple.

[crackle]

KB had a battery version of almost all of their mains models throughout the 30's.

See this page on the KB museum website, where you can browse through several KB catalogues from 1929 to 1965 and beyond into ITT-KB models.
http://www.kbmuseum.org.uk/catalogues.htm

Mike

[Mike. Watterson]

I'd stupidly forgotten Cossor and need kicked for forgetting KB.

Anyway, battery table models, not the transportable or portable models with handles.

Most needed an external aerial and earth. As did almost all the mains radio sets of the 1930s to early 1950s, except USA inspired or imported Bakelite models.
Only the transportable and portable models with handles, often not superhets and sold as second sets, had built in loop / frame aerials.

[ajgriff]

Does the radio have to be in working condition? Also, is absolute historical accuracy important or does it just have to look the part? It would be much easier to source a slightly later small mains radio, working or otherwise, which would fool most people (excluding forum members here though!).

Alan

[Mike. Watterson]

I've a few late 1940s sets that are nearly identical to later 1930s. A few 1946 models even use the same case as 1938 & 1939 models, though those are quite different to a mid 1930s typical farm battery set.

No battery valve set is really for everyday listening even with a mains adaptor, nothing like the valve life of late 1930s to early 1960s mains valves.

There aren't any 1950s sets I can think of that look like 1934 to 1936 models.

[Paul_RK]

If money wasn't much of an object, I'd add McMichael as another likely choice - mainly quite conservative designs of above average quality and pricing. As Mike has said, though, typical sets of the time are substantial: I've a McMichael table model from around 1937 still with deep cabinet gloss and excellent sound, but it's around 26" long and weighs I'd guess at least 30 lbs. without the batteries.

Paul

[toshiba tony]

The village I lived in had a bike shop that you took batteries to for recharging. I can remember two houses that were pre-electric. Whether it was coincidence or not the kids were shall we say slow. If tv was educational in those days I don't know but there was also a lack of books around. There was a few transistor table models around but they were rare, 60-61.

[Tractionist]

The battery version of the Philco 444?

[G6Tanuki]

A 1930s mid-affluent farm would probably have had electricity - supplied by its own oil-engine-powered generator (the engine also serving to power a pump for lifting water from a well/borehole, and other stuff like threshers by way of a series of belts as needed).
Some relatives of mine in Kent had such an arrangement dating back to not-long-after-World-War-1 - with a big lead-acid battery-stack [open-topped glass tanks] in a shed next to the engine-shed to provide power when the engine wasn't running. They didn't get mains electricity until the 60s.

(they also had a washing-machine powered by a little two-stroke engine!)


110VDC was the traditional supply in such situations, both for radios and lighting.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

110VDC was the traditional supply in such situations, both for radios and lighting.

Offhand, I can't think of one standard domestic British table or console radio produced to work from 110V DC, whether of AC/DC design or for DC only: did they exist?

Paul

[PJL]

It will be large to be the correct pre-1935 date. I would have expected a farmer to be quite conservative and not an enthusiast so a wood cased self-contained set with inbuilt speaker. Battery would be best but you may struggle to find one in good condition.

When do you need it by? What is the budget?

[emeritus]

Re #14, I don't have any info on pre-war radios, but a quick dip in my collection of early 1950's leaflets produced three post-war AC/DC sets that could operate on 110V DC, namely:

Alba C114 "All-wave superhet" (miniature table model) , AC/DC, 100/120V or 200/250V, AC or DC;

Ambassador Coronet series (console and table models), 110/125V and 200/250V, AC or DC (the Coronet radiogram model was AC only); and

Pam 955U (4 band superhet table model) , AC 200/250V, 40-100 cycles, DC 110/120V, 200/250V (100/120V operation only specified for DC).

[Cobaltblue]

The Battery version of the Philco 444 is the 333

But it raises a good point many manufacturers battery sets of the mid 1930s were identical in appearance to the mains versions.

There are a couple of 1935 Cossor sets on Ebay at the moment.

I can't think of any 30s cossor sets designed to work on 110v DC.

Cheers

Mike T

[Heatercathodeshort]

Mike describes the 'Farm Radio' precisely. Here are a couple of examples that were available in the mid 30's. They had a similar performance to mains models, a useful bonus as large numbers of farm houses had large living rooms.

Both these models run from 2V accumulator, a 120V HT battery and usually a 9V grid bias battery.

The 2V accumulator could be charged from the 'house lighting set' usually a Lister engine and dynamo housed in a small brick shed remote from the house. [You can still see one of these on the A21 Hastings Road complete with wall brackets for the insulators etc.]

The Cossor on the left was passed to me many years ago by a customer who bought it new.They had no electricity connected to their London flat at the time. The Bush was discovered on the rubbish tip in a remote country area. Both are now working extremely well and give a very good account of themselves.

The vintage speaker on top of the Bush has nothing to do with it and has been plonked there to free up space..., the same applies to the DC mains converter between the two. Regards, John.

[Station X]

The OP's username suggests that this radio is needed as a film or TV prop.

[ajgriff]

Let's hope that the OP returns and finds the quality information provided here helpful. It would be interesting to know the context in which this 'prop' is sought.

Alan