'39 Motorola "Picnic" portable

[jr_tech]

Very nice... thanks for posting! Still scratching my head trying to figure out where the other plate goes.

jr

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Very nice... thanks for posting! Still scratching my head trying to figure out where the other plate goes.

jr

You're welcome. It's actually a bit complicated. The plate is on a center geared shaft with a zig-zagged tension wire attached to a notch on it's right side. On the on/off control shaft is bent metal wire that tugs a tab at the bottom of the plate when you turn the shaft, the plate pulls it away to the left. When you turn the set off that bent wire frees the plate to spring back.

The springing action isn't abrupt. I happens swiftly, but rather softy. I'm glad it's a tension wire rather than springs because I doubt it would be still working!

[decojoe67]

I saved this one from a likely bad end. It actually cleaned up nicely. The flash of the pic does not do it justice. The interior is very clean and no doubt I'll have this one working soon. It's a 1939 Trutone "Tiny Four". No model number which is common on these smaller brand sets. It's a darker tweed then typical. It also went under the Admiral name and likely a few others. It's slightly larger than it looks in the pics and needed a strong replacement handle.

[decojoe67]

Here's a '39 Stewart Warner "Companion Radio" model 02-41. I got the set with the original Burgess batteries in it dated 1942. I replaced them with modern batteries and cleaned all the sockets and controls and it came on playing well as-is! 75+ years dormant and it plays. If that's not a testament to the quality of products back then, nothing is!