9 hours ago
Greetings;
I think that it's possible that the assortment of components was the result of post war parts shortages, as for the rough quality of assembly it could be due to the sets being built by small (what they would now call) start up companies. I've seen such things in North American radios from the post war period as well, sets that used filed coil speakers in some examples, and permanent magnet dynamic speakers in others, tubes that were substituted, pre war DOT coded resistors, military surplus tube types. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but there were also a number of AC/DC, and farm battery sets that were NOT portables, that were produced with cloth covered cabinets in this period rather then Bakelite or finer woods, some were made out of cheaper woods and covered with a dark finish or faux wood grain.
However there were also a lot of small newer brands, or manufacturers, that appeared during this time, produced one or two models for a few years or so, then disappeared. One Canadian company was called Brand and Millen, another was an American company called "Telesonic", another was called "Minerva". The Telesonic set is interesting, it's a six tube, hot chassis, AC/DC set, with an untuned RF amplifier stage, using all loctal type tubes, even the rectifier, and power output tubes, even Philco moved away from doing this by 1947. One unusual detail of the Telesonic is that it used a fixed bias supply for the audio output section, so it has power resistors in series with the B- side to supply this much like a set from the 1930s.
Regards
Arran
I think that it's possible that the assortment of components was the result of post war parts shortages, as for the rough quality of assembly it could be due to the sets being built by small (what they would now call) start up companies. I've seen such things in North American radios from the post war period as well, sets that used filed coil speakers in some examples, and permanent magnet dynamic speakers in others, tubes that were substituted, pre war DOT coded resistors, military surplus tube types. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but there were also a number of AC/DC, and farm battery sets that were NOT portables, that were produced with cloth covered cabinets in this period rather then Bakelite or finer woods, some were made out of cheaper woods and covered with a dark finish or faux wood grain.
However there were also a lot of small newer brands, or manufacturers, that appeared during this time, produced one or two models for a few years or so, then disappeared. One Canadian company was called Brand and Millen, another was an American company called "Telesonic", another was called "Minerva". The Telesonic set is interesting, it's a six tube, hot chassis, AC/DC set, with an untuned RF amplifier stage, using all loctal type tubes, even the rectifier, and power output tubes, even Philco moved away from doing this by 1947. One unusual detail of the Telesonic is that it used a fixed bias supply for the audio output section, so it has power resistors in series with the B- side to supply this much like a set from the 1930s.
Regards
Arran