First real pocket radio 1947 Belmont Boulevard not transistor - collectornet.net
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Radio has been around about 100 years now. In the early days it was stationary. You had to be connected to a long antenna, and to a ground--which meant a pipe that went into the ground like, for example, plumbing. So you weren't going anywhere. From the earliest days people wished radio could be mobile. But early radio was about as mobile as a washing machine. One pioneer a little bit later had an emphasis on making radios that would be mobile. Not in your pocket, but in a car. They named their brand after that concept, Motorola. You've heard of it. And when they put a radio in your car, they put this decal on your window to let the world know.
But there was a dream in radio that was not fulfilled until 1947. The dream was to have a radio that you could listen to while walking around--that you could carry IN YOUR POCKET and not be attached to antenna or ground or anything.
To be sure, many radios were made that CALLED themselves "pocket radios"--and they were small. But they had to be attached to antennas and grounds in order to work. So you wouldn't be walking around listening to these. They left that fact out in naming their product a "pocket radio" or in marketing it. Can you believe it? Companies lying to consumers 100 years ago? Well, fellow consumer, the snake oil has been pouring even longer than that.
Here's the Spencer Pocket Radio from the late 1920s. Pretty primitive. Not much here you could recognize as a radio, but it WAS a radio. You tuned it by raising and lowering the coil. But though it fit in your pocket, it wasn't mobile. It required an external antenna, and ground, and of course, headphones.
In 1947, the Belmont folks introduced this: The Belmont Boulevard 5P113. Obviously this is a very stylish device. What is not so obvious today is how hi-tech it was in its day.
It did not have transistors in it. The transistor hadn't been invented until that same year and wasn't ready for radio applications until the Regency TR-1 transistor radio in 1954. No, the Belmont Boulevard had tubes in it. FIVE subminiature tubes made by Raytheon. Unfortunately, speaker technology was lagging so this radio played only through an earphone. But with five tubes, it had the power to pull in radio stations without external antenna or ground. And so the "walking around" radio was born. A REAL radio, that fit in your pocket.
A closer look at a couple of those tiny Raytheon tubes.
The Belmont Boulevard--the first real pocket radio.
Now Shango066 needs to repair one.
Deserves thousands of views. So well done.
Thanks!
This is the closest I've come to seeing on IRL, first read about the Boulevard in the book The Portable Radio in American Life (1991). Its still a great one for the bookshelf. Thank you for posting this video.
Fascinating documentary. I didn't know they had pocket radios with miniaturised tubes until now. Thank you.
Interesting.
I’ve heard about those “ sub- mini.” Tubes. First time I have seen them.
That’s a very cool radio.
📻🙂
I’ve heard of this but never had seen one in person. Interesting product and neat video.
It should be noted that by 1938 low-drain tubes became available and radios, although not pocket-sized yet, were finally portable requiring no external wiring. Some were large and some, and although they could not be put in a pocket, were very small and light. Even after WWII radios like the Belmont were mere novelties and necessitated using earphones only. One was better off getting the slightly larger portables with a speaker and having surprisingly good performance
Thanks 😊 I learned a lot. Great to see the original radio 📻
Lots of early hearing aids also used these tubes. And the Emerson 838(?) radio, Crosley book radios and a few others, used these tubes in the radio portion of the set, and a couple-3 transistors for the audio/speaker portion. Have a few of these, fun to be on the split between tube and solid state. Thanks for the videos! I've been collecting and repairing early transistor/battery tube radios for decades. Many of them still perform excellent, as behooves something that sold for several weeks wages back in the '50s.. Stubat
You know your radios! I'm working on a video involving the 1957 Radio Shack catalog and I saw that they sell the Raytheon mini tubes in there for hobbyists. I believe they were originally developed by Raytheon around WW2 for use in an early form of guided missile.
@@collectornet Oh, boy. Mentioning that catalog sent me down a major rabbit hole.. Fun, fun, fun. That website is scary. Anyway, I dug a bit more and dredged up memories from my early two-way radio days. Motorola used those tubes in the VHF band motorcycle two-ways, as well as a couple of lunchbox-like battery portables. A bit of Googling says that Raytheon's original focus was hearing aids, and they adapted and ruggedized them for military usage. (Considering what medical devices sell for now, I could see that as a good financial move. My Gram's digital 'aids were several $1,000s each, not long ago.) I've been buying pocket style 50's hearing aids as a way to get early submini tubes and germanium transistors cheaply for my radio stuff. (Gotta luv those tiny Raytheon transistors in that delightful blue color.) They sold the best transistors (gain/noise) for hearing aids, and the rejects to the hobbyists. (CK722 and so on...) Only capable of audio frequencies, but the best at the time. Still need to get one of these Emersons going. Hybrid tube/transistor pocket radios were only out there for a short while, taking the best of each technology and running with it! (Submini tubes, great RF/IF low level audio, pretty power efficient, but transistors were better at speaker-level audio and low drain, especially in push-pull class "B" mode.) And, even in those motorcycle radios, I don't remember having to swap out the couple tiny receiver tubes or even the low-level transmitter tubes, just the larger several-watt output tubes (2E24). These were actually hybrid sets as well, receivers transistors and tubes, transmitter mostly tubes, and a transistor power supply, IIRC. Some ran on NiCads or even 2V wet cells. Cool stuff. I'm rambling, time to bail! Keep on collecting! Stubat
...you're absolutely RIGHT-!!!
@@collectornet ...you're not far off- as I understand, those tiny vacuum tubes were developed for the WW2 proximity fuses!
I saw a two tube radio it had pair of "aa" cells for the a battery, and a pair of 9 volt for "b" power. The owner has a pair of head phones. And a length of wire. With a gator clip. It cliped on to the dial finger stop of then standard phone. And "IT WAS PARTY TIME. " scarry loud." It was. Also used on electric fense wire ect. This came truly before transtor radio.
I had no idea a pocket tubed radio ever existed.
They did a good job getting it that small with tubes. I bet it was expensive to buy.
...I'll bet it WAS an expensive radio- and the batteries weren't cheap EITHER-(!)
About $200 as I recall. For that you could have two Transoceaniacs!
That really looks like it was made today
Yes. Maybe because of the aluminum cabinet (clad in leather). Shortly after this radio was made, most small radios--and all the personal electronic items I can think of--had plastic cabinets. Plastic reigned supreme until well into the cellphone era. In all those years, plastic looked "modern." When the iPhone switched from plastic to more traditional materials (metal and glass), a new definition of "modern" emerged. And so the Belmont Boulevard radio, which in the plastic era may have looked dated, today looks fresh.
lovely, good information
...I understand that those tiny vacuum tubes were a product of the technology that went into the WW2 proximity fuses-!!
Its small for the time, surprised it could hold a b battery didn't know they were that small then
So these tubes are a lesser known competitor to Nuvistor tubes? Did the Ratheon tubes come first?
Wow what a radio, great video too!
My understanding is that the Nuvistor tubes appeared at the end of the 1950s. The Raytheon submini tubes were developed in the 1940s, around World War 2, for use in an early form of guided missile. Thanks!
Very very nice
Very nice!
That radio must have been a real pocket warmer with all those tubes. No mention of what sized battery it used. The battery would not have lasted long.
Not really! The direct-heated cathode of those tiny tubes consummed no more current than a tiny light bulb. So people still had to wear gloves or mittens :)
Estimado amigo, lo felicito por sus trabajos realmente muy profesionales si Ud. Me brinda una dirección de e mail le puedo enviar algunas imágenes de mí pequeña colección de radios, saludos cordiales
No mention of how it was powered?
Didn't I mention the batteries?
@@collectornet I don't know, did you? I don't recall?
I don't know either. I've never had the batteries for this radio. I can only say that as a tube radio it is going to have two battery voltages, an 'A' battery and a 'B' battery. One of those is likely going to be obsolete for this radio. An internet search may provide particulars. But yes, to answer your original question, it is a battery powered radio and is not powered by house (AC) current. It is meant to be used as a portable, after all.
A bit short this video.
Duh.
Battery?
EXPENSIVE!!
I have 3 of those!! Anyone wanna buy one!
I do! Write me at collectornet@icloud.com
I'd just like to know where you've found them...I've never seen one.