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Philco prototypes? - Doug Houston - 11-20-2005

I'd almost forgotten about this, but here is something for Chuck and Ron to chew on.

Possibly in the early eighties, I found a chassis that is glaringly Philco, but hand made. It appears at first to be a 116, or perhaps even a 16 chassis. It has only a single end 42 output stage, but the full-serving receiver that a 16 or 116 would be. It is a 5 band set. I put a 116 dial scale on it that I had laying around at the time I got the set. It seems to be the correct one. There had been no scale on it when I got it. The dial drive is not a 16 design, but the 1936 style.

Holes in the chassis are drilled; not punched as in a production build. It has two additional controls on the front of the chassis other than what the regular Philcos had. I haven't traced the schematic, but they appear to be possibly a second tone control or perhaps a sensitivity control and something else. The tube shields are not the regular square Philco style, but ordinary cylindrical generic types.

In addition to the above, I found ANOTHER similar Philco at AWA a few years ago, in a cabinet like a 16 shouldered tombstone, again with two extra controls on the panel. The dial bezel is hand-made, but looks possibly like the factory prototype shop could have done it. I haven't dug into it, mainly because I've forgotten about it. This one looks like anoher prototype, possibly in the same general era. It could be possibly about 1934, if they were prototyping the 116. The dial is the "shadow box" style, as on a 16, 1935 model. (I have one to compare it to)

Indeed, I can photograph the daylights out of the two sets, and I should do some research on them. I wonder if there is any other stuff out in the world that would tie into these two Philcos. I wonder if Ron or Chuck would have heard of anything like these sets.

Mystery of the week!

- Ron Ramirez - 11-20-2005

Doug

The only time I had ever heard of any such sets was in a phone conversation you and I had some years ago, when you mentioned these to me. Thank you for jogging my memory, I had forgotten about them.

Photos would be great, not only for here, but for this new Philco book I have completed, but still unpublished (LONG story).

Those could be prototype 116 sets? But the single-ended 42 output doesn't fit in with their high-end model. Strange.

- Chuck Schwark - 11-21-2005

Great! Pictures...pictures.... Icon_biggrin

If they are Engr. Dept. prototypes, they have lived a charmed life to be intact this long and not trashed or re-used/dismantled.

The single-ended 42 stage does sound (no pun) strange.

Philco prototype(s) - Doug Houston - 11-21-2005

The single ended 42 is on the uncased chassis, and I will have to look at the one in the cabinet. I suspect that the reason for the simple single end output in a prototype would be that the set was for evaluation of performance and that the audio in the final model would be the "satandard" setup, using the three 42s. We know that Philco's driver and class AB triode output was a standard thing in those days. They didn't push the 42s as hard in the table sets (lower voltages) than in the consoles or the Lazy-X with the big U-2 speaker. Those tubes could blow a "S" speaker through the front of the cabinet, were the listener not cautious.

I took a look at the uncased chassis last night, and it's pretty full. I'd like to trace the schematic, and it will be a real job for that reason.