I recently purchased this 1933 British radio-phonograph combination. Like American farm radios, it was runs on batteries. To conserve battery life, it uses a hand-wound spring motor even though it has an electronic pickup. It got me thinking. I know that fully acoutic/mechanical phonographs were marketed to American rural non-electrified customers well into the 1930s by stores like Sears, but I don't recall any hybrid units like this one.

Once the 1920s experimentation with electric heads for Victrolas was over (say by 1930), were there any American radio phongraphs with an electric pickup but a hand-cranked motor?

Steve

There were many farm console radio-phonograph combinations using electronic pickups and spring-driven motors. Philco made them, probably other manufacturers as well.

I've also seen a couple of portables but I think they are more rare.

-David

Hi, I have what is sometimes called a "School Player". Battery operated amp, and
crankable turntable. Can also be used on AC if I recall correctly. Suitcase style.

I had occasion to listen to one in grade school, outside on the lawn, with the rest of the
class. She cranked it up and played it. Good teacher! Too nice of a day to stay inside
all day.

Thanks! I figured there must be similar phonos here in the US. Those sound interesting. I'd enjoy seeing pictures if you have time to post them sometime.

Steve

That is a very interesting radio/phonograph. I can't say I've seen a battery operated one with a crank motor before, but I'm sure they are out there.

Just need to head west into the more rural states where electrification came much later.

-Steve

Thanks! One thing that confused me when I saw this radio was the motor and turntable hardware. It is Victor Talking Machine hardware as used in the mid-1920s. I knew that The Gramophone Company was Victor's counterpart in Great Britain, but this is a Columbia machine--Victor's arch rival. I then read that Britain's Columbia merged with The Gramophone Company in 1931--thus Victor/Gramophone hardware on a Columbia. It's sort of like seeing a Ford with a Chevy engine.

Steve

When I was in grade school they had a table-top phono with a crank motor and a power cord for the amplifier. Looked like a 1940's design, I couldn't figure why it did not have an electric motor. We had AC power, but maybe this was an AC/DC amplifier for a DC district. Just guessing.
Don

Actually RCA in the UK was badged as HMV, (His Masters Voice) where Nipper came from, in the UK they used the HMV badge and Nipper but as the story goes
RCA couldnt use HMV in the states so they just used the Nipper logo and RCA.
I did some reading being British the big American companies interest me we never had the radios or consoles in the UK like you guys have, our stuff was very boring to look at in most cases.

Well, as people were taxed as to the number of tubes their radio had, I can understand that British radios were often very basic. I wouldn't say boring, as I've seen many interesting sets. Maybe because their different?

-Steve

Actually there was one company in the UK called "Portadyne" my Aunt had a console that i used as a child, finished in polished walnut with a Collaro 54 changer and a chrome mesh speaker grill instead of cloth.
I loved that console, it became mine when she passed away but i had to sell it when i moved to Canada.
some good memorys and though ive searched ive never seen one like it on the internet.
Still i have the same Collaro 54 changer in my RCA console so its not all bad.

Oldmusicman mentions the differences between US and UK radios. One of the things that impressed me about this British Columbia/Marconiphone is its size. It is quite small for a console. I know today appliances and such in GB and Europe are typically smaller than American counterparts. Was that true as well in the early 1930s? Here is a picture of the 1933 Columbia scooted over next to a 1930 Victor console to give an idea of its size.

The BBC tax brings up another question I've wondered about. I understand (maybe incorrectly) that today only TVs are taxed in GB for the BBC. Radios are no longer taxed. If that is correct, do you know when they made the switch?

Thanks!

Steve

Yes its whats called a Television Licence it did cover radios at one time, but it doesnt apply now.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) make u pay for a licence because they do not make money from advertisements, there are none.
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1933 British Philco.
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1954 Defiant console radio, i owned one of these back in the UK.

Thanks!

Steve,

That's a great little Columbia you've found. Congratulations!
I've never seen one of these in a console model before. EMI probably only shipped very limited numbers of these consoles to Australia, due to tarrifs introduced that year on fully imported radios. Instead they used us as a dumping ground for obsolete acoustic machines, and spring powered & electric record players designed to plug into existing radios.
I would imagine this same radiogram was available as a Marconiphone, Columbia & HMV, with the only difference being the logo on the pick-up & the decal under the lid, and perhaps a slightly different grille design. This seems to have been what EMI did at least until the start of WWII.

Do you know the model number for it at all?

Those pick-ups are dead easy to restore, and they sound brilliant too. The pick-up itself is a Columbia no.26, and both the Marconiphone & HMV versions were a No.25. With new rubber components, these cause virtually no record wear with single play steel needles.
They're actually my favorite magnetic pick-up.. I use an HMV 25 exclusively with my Garrard 301, my Marconi 25 I use through the AUX input of a 4 in 1 system under the house, and my Columbia gets plugged into the DVD or video input occasionally, when I want to play 78s through my home theatre amp & 14 speakers lol.

Thanks Shane! Yes, I'm excited to have found this Columbia, although I was a bit afraid to buy it due to the lack of UK tubes in Texas. The previous owner bought tubes from a British collector, so I'm set for now. The Model is the Columbia 1003 "Radiograph Battery 4." It uses the same Marconiphone chassis as the Marconiphone models 260 and 285, as well as the Columbia 1001. I was able to find the Trader Service Sheet 670 and the "Service Engineer" pages that cover the chassis.

Here is a review for this radiograph from The Gramophone magazine from 1933 that has some specs:

http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...ice+20+guineas

Being an American, I'm still getting used to the term "radiograph."

The radio has a single stage screen grid tuned RF amplifier, a grid leak detector, and a push pull pentode power amplifier. It also has regeneration in the detector stage. The volume control performs three functions--adding resistance between the antenna and the set, varying the screen grid bias of the RF amplifier, and varying the regeneration.

Yes! I reworked that pickup with new silicone soft parts, and your are right! It is really a good pickup. Right now I've tested the pickup with some amplified computer speakers. I also verified the permanent magnet speaker works. Now I need to carefully checkout the chassis and also build a power supply.

That sounds like a fun setup you have! By the way, do you know where I might find more information about the Columbia No 26 pickup or other UK pickups of 20s or early 30s vintage? I am fascinated by the early horse-shoe magnet pickups.

Here are some more pictures of the set. I'll have to take a good picture of the label later.

Thanks again,

Steve

I think most of the British Commonwealth Valve (CV) tube types have US equivalents.

-David

Here is the label and model info. By the way, what is a B.V.A. valve referenced on the label--a battery valve?

No B.V.A (British Valve Association) was a trade name of a tube manufacturer in the UK like Mullard.
Just like RCA used to state for best performance use only RCA replacement tubes, same marketing blurb.

Spring drive motors found their way into some surprising equipment. I remember seeing one of these units on Ebay about ten years ago. It's the Magnemite 610VU on this page. http://reel2reeltexas.com/vinVideos.html

Many fine movie cameras used spring-drive motors as well, like Bolex, Bell&Howell, etc.
Don