United American Bosch 855L

[H2s04]

Its a really, really looooong story, but I've had this set since last october, and still havent found any information on it at all, other than two schematics. I've posted on many forums about this radio, asking if people know anything about it, and so far nothing has come up. I'm hoping someone will either know somthing about it, or atleast share my zeal about it.

After spending ~10 months with it, checking it out, poking around, and just staring at it, I've deduced many things. I'm guessing it was made around 1938. The cabinet is in deplorable condition, and needs a professional restoration like no other. It barely stands by itself right now; even the base is missing except for two pieces of the trim that were discarded along with it (I found it in a dumpster, if you can believe it). The HQ of UAB was in Spingfield, MA. I live rather near there, so the posibility of it being a test or prototype set is rather high, but there arent any markings inside the cabinet like one would expect. The chassis is in terrible qondition as well, and pleanty of rust to boot! I dont know how I'm going to fix this thing, but its a really big goal, and I plan to hold on to it as long as I can until I do get it running. Its missing both RF transformers, all of its tubes, the tuning condensor, the dial cord (so I have no stringing reference), and all of its power capacitors. I've done some considderable looking for parts, and so far, I believe I can use a tuning condensor, along with the IF transformers, from a Westinghouse table set that Ive seen on eBay twice(im not sure of the model #, but I know what it looks like), but didnt get a chance to buy. I'm really not sure If I can use these parts, but judging from the high similarity of the chassis, and the fact that it uses all the same tubes, it seems like a pretty good bet, eh?

By now, you must think I'm insane for being so obsessed with some old AB tombstone set, but listen to this.

The first thing I noticed about the radio's chassis was that it had an open electric motor mounted in line with where the dial string should be, and that on the plastic dial, that there were settings for "OFF" "MANUAL" and "ELECTRIC". This confused me even further; why would there be a motor built in? I also noticed, when looking at the tuning mech. that it was very, very complex. Its an inclosed drum like object, with several wires attached to different portions of the "system". It gets alot more complicated, so long story short, It actually uses an electric drive tuning system. This means that when a station on the front of the set is selected via large metal push buttons, the motor will engage, and drive the needle across the dial spectrum until it clicks on the correct button. I'm assuming the head that clicks down on the station is powered; when the powered head strikes the negitive push button, the circuit completes, and that circuit will shut off the motor.

I can't imagine how cool this thing will be when its finished, and I have no idea where I'll get time to work on it, being such an extencive project.

I'll post a photo of the chassis and cabinet soon, so you can see what im really talking about