[Sandy G]

I've got one of those old battery "mystery" sets, & back B4 AK, I wrote off to the Antique Wireless Ass'n about it. They wrote back that during the early-mid '20s, there were literally HUNDREDS of companies that went into the business of making radios. A lot of 'em had some sort of furniture/cabinet making connection, hence the beautiful cabinets you sometimes encounter these sets in. Most of them made no more than a handful of sets, if they ever made any at all, & more than likely were little more than "assemblers" of commercially available components. The introduction of AC powered radios in the late '20s, & the introduction of the superhet circuit a little later, & its jealous guarding by RCA's patent attorneys, pretty much did 'em in.