Pierce Airo

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Reece

Formica came into being around 1913. There were many many industrial uses besides the familiar countertops which came about later. Westinghouse used it for fan blades in the 20's: I have one of those fans.

That radio is definitely from the 1920's, as has been previously stated. The history of radio communications would tell you that: the form of the set, the tubes it uses, the fact that those tubes weren't available until the early 1920's, and that broadcast radio didn't come around in force until the early 1920's. Having a 3-gang condensor is different and advanced for the day: most TRF consumer sets of the day were "three-dialers." In the mid twenties and later Atwater Kent and others chained or belted together three single condensors in attempts more or less successful to make single dialers. The problem was making the three tuned circuits track together. Since RCA had a stranglehold on the superhetrodyne patents, not many wanted to pay them the royalties to make the superhets which largely solve the tracking problems along with other advantages, so the TRF's persisted until the early 1930's.

Reece

General Electric had a four-tube clock radio, circa late 1940s-1950, that I think was a TRF design. My grandmother had one in her summer cottage; it worked well for all the local stations, but one 50kW station about five miles away came in on at least two spots on the dial. The station's assigned carrier frequency is 1220 kHz; the little GE radio also tuned it in on, IIRC, 620-640 kHz or thereabouts. Was this a common problem with these four-tube sets (or TRF radios in general) in very strong signal areas?

BTW, I agree 100 percent with Reece; there is no way the radio Ryan (AUdubon5425) found could have been from 1901. Radio as we know it today hadn't been invented yet, as KDKA in Pittsburgh did not sign on as a commercial station until 1920--nineteen years later. However, KDKA was on the air as an experimental station prior to 1920 (but, I'm sure, well after 1901). Its callsign in those days was 8XK.

BTW (2): This is OT, I'm aware, but I'm curious. Ryan's AK member name looks like a very early telephone number, after four-number dialing but before seven-digit dialing. Was this member name modeled after such a number, say in the New Orleans area circa 1930? AU.5425 translates to 28.5425; the only difference between this and an actual telephone number is the absence of the third digit in the exchange. Was there an AUdubon exchange in the New Orleans area (or anywhere else in the United States, for that matter) at any time, before seven-digit dialing became the standard for US telephone service? As I said, I'm curious, as I had never seen a member name on AK like Ryan's until now, and I've seen some pretty wild and creative ones in my six years here.