The PHILCO Phorum
First Transitone radio - Printable Version

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First Transitone radio - fmlondon - 08-28-2021

Does anyone have an idea of how many Transitone car radios from the 1920s survive?  I think I read somewhere that the first one was installed in a 1927 Chevrolet.

Thank you.

RE: First Transitone radio - mikethedruid - 08-28-2021

My great grandfather, the man I am named after, was the head civil engineer for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In the early 1930s he bought a Buick limousine. In it was one of the first car radios in South Carolina. I don't know if it was a Transitone, but I suspect it was. My great grandfather taught my father to drive in it, and my father was the only person besides himself that he would let drive the car. My dad told me about the car and the radio.

RE: First Transitone radio - klondike98 - 08-30-2021

Doubt its possible to know how many survived, there always seems to be one more cropping up someplace.

RE: First Transitone radio - fmlondon - 08-30-2021

Do you mean one more Transitone popping up, or one more Transitone from the 1920s popping up!  I think they must have been quite rare in the 1920s.

RE: First Transitone radio - NostalgiaRadioTime - 08-31-2021

Have a look at this pamphlet I posted a number of years ago. Believe it dates to 1930

https://philcoradio.com/phorum/showthread.php?tid=10763

RE: First Transitone radio - fmlondon - 08-31-2021

Thanks for the info!

RE: First Transitone radio - klondike98 - 09-01-2021

I was thinking Transitones in general not just from the 20's, yep, pretty rare I would think.

RE: First Transitone radio - Ron Ramirez - 09-01-2021

https://philcoradio.com/library/index.php/philco-history/philco-auto-radios/

RE: First Transitone radio - streetmechanic - 12-05-2022

There doesn't seem to be much info on pre-Philco Transitones. I posted this on ARF some time ago hoping somebody
had some advertising or a service manual and maybe an idea what the cover looked like (it's missing on mine) but no dice.
  I also mentioned a 78 rpm advertising record apparently meant to be played through the radio at the dealers'. I always
thought that was surprising since the primitive single-ended audio can't have been very impressive. Later I discovered a
later iteration of the Transitone (maybe the single dial version) had push-pull output-  maybe a Prohibition-era precursor of
the extreme car stereos of the 1980's.
-Dave