[morzh]

I clearly remember the small knob, the type used in 70 or 90, the lower middle one that turns the power on, used on my 16B. It was glued and I had to take it off, and obviosly mangled it and bought a new one. Now I question why I needed it, I don't think it is used in 16B cathedral.


What was it?

[Ron Ramirez]

Lower middle is the band switch in the 16 sets. Some have a medium rosette, but most I have seen have a large rosette (same size as the tuning knob).

The first Philco advertisements as well as dealer catalogs show a small rosette knob used for the band switch, but I doubt that any production models actually used such a small knob as the band switch is a bit difficult to turn with that mechanical dial lamp apparatus attached to it...so it really needs a large knob.

[morzh]

That was my point. The band switch is too difficult to turn if it were the small knob as you could only turn it with your fingertips and the mechanical advantage is small. With a regular rosette knob you could turn it with your middle falanx of the index finger so you have plenty of pressure plus more mechanical advantage, so switching bands is comfortable.

[Allen in SB]

The link below shows two early Philco ads (November and December 1933) for the 16B cathedral. As Ron stated, both ads show a small knob used for the band switch. A third and later ad (April 1934) shows a larger rosette knob for the band switch.

http://www.tuberadioland.com/philco16_ca..._main.html

[morzh]

Allen, yes I saw those.

I am sure though there wasn't one the way it is shown with the smaller knob in the two mentioned ads as it shows the switch raised in the middle, which it is not (it is in line with the volume and tone knobs), and then it also shows a wrong escutcheon (it seems to be from one of the Philco 17B or 18B). The 1934 ad shows both the correct escutcheon and correct knob.

I think it might be because they did not have the actual chassis in their hands when writing the ad and combined the Philco 17 and Philco 90 to get the image.

[Ron Ramirez]

Actually they based their early cathedral illustrations on drawings of Model 91B cathedrals (the previous year's largest cathedral); hence the knob pattern and style of escutcheon on the illustrations which match the 91.