Portable Radios?

• Dec 30, 2006

• #1

Rosie

One Too Many

Messages

1,827

Location

Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NY

I watched I think Shadow of the Thin Man this morning, dated 1941. There is a scene where William Powell is speaking to an older lady and she is carrying a portable radio, quite a small thing, tucked in her arm, listening to radio programs. I didn't know such things were available at the time. Any portable radio I'd ever seen was big, like suitcase big. Does anyone have info on when portable radios became widely available and were they really available that small?


Thanks

 

• Dec 30, 2006

• #2

LizzieMaine

Bartender

Messages

33,052

Location

Where The Tourists Meet The Sea

"Midget portables" using miniature tubes started to appear on the market around 1940. Some of them had pretty dull designs -- smaller version of the suitcase portables that had become popular a couple years before -- but others could be rather elegant --

The midget-tube sets remained popular right up until the transistor era began in the late fifties, and they're quite easy to find even today. Only trouble with them is finding batteries!!

 

• Dec 30, 2006

• #3

H

happyfilmluvguy

Call Me a Cab

Messages

2,541

Here are a few

http://members.aol.com/djadamson3/tube40p.html

Battery Development: http://antiqueradio.org/bsupply.htm

and some history

http://www.portabletubes.co.uk/sitefiles/pthistory.htm

a nice little book: http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/books/BID402.htm

 

• Dec 30, 2006

• #4

Rosie

One Too Many

Messages

1,827

Location

Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NY

Wow thanks guys.

I hope I don't sound dumb (I don't know this at all). What type of batteries were used then? When did the batteries we use now come to be widely available.

You guys are amazing!

 

• Dec 30, 2006

• #5

Rosie

One Too Many

Messages

1,827

Location

Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, NY

happyfilmluvguy said:

Here are a few

http://members.aol.com/djadamson3/tube40p.html

Click to expand...

Ah, thanks HappyFilmGuy, the very first radio on this page is the radio I was referring to.


Oh, my battery question is also answered. Thanks!

 

• Dec 31, 2006

• #6

C

CharlieH.

One Too Many

Messages

1,169

Location

It used to be Detroit....

Speaking of miniature portable radios:

 

• Dec 31, 2006

• #7

missjo

Practically Family

Messages

509

Location

amsterdam

Heres a nice european one;

 

• Dec 31, 2006

• #8

LizzieMaine

Bartender

Messages

33,052

Location

Where The Tourists Meet The Sea

Portables usually required two different types of batteries -- an "A" battery, to power the tube filaments, which usually took 1 1/2 volts in sets of this sort, and a "B" battery, which provided the higher voltage required for the tube plates. B batteries for portables were usually 45 or 90 volts, and would usually be a big, blocky thing with a snap connector or possibly a plug-and-socket arrangement.

Some types of A and B batteries are still made, and can be adapted for vintage portables, but most of the vintage types went out of production in the '60s. There are ways to wire together common flashlight or transistor batteries to provide the necessary voltages, and there's even some radio collector types who take apart the old batteries and re-do the innards. Antique Electronic Supply, at http://www.tubesandmore.com sometimes features usable substitutes for vintage batteries, but they do tend to be pricey...

 

• Jan 24, 2007

• #9

M

matt1466

New in Town

Messages

5

Location

North Carolina

Ditto on Antique Electronic Supply. Good folks to deal with.


I've owned and restored several of the Zenith Trans-Oceanic models and love the look and durability of them. Not the small portables mentioned at the top but a good alternative. Now if I could just find one of the leather T/O's....