Post by Steve on Jul 17, 2023 12:15:46 GMT 12
I discovered a new Radio Corp brand!
Well, I didn't discover it - it was always there... but thanks to a collector who had it in his collection and showed me the other day (I'll let him remain nameless unless he wants to be named) I now have one more piece of the puzzle, and I wanted to share it in case anyone else happened to have one.
And, it might not actually be a Radio Corp brand either...
But, this is a really interesting one, because Sandison was the middle name of the owner, Keith Sandison Irvine - who later became the factory manager at Radio Corp, and who developed the (in)famous spiral dial for them. He sadly died of a medical issue in hospital in 1939.
The set appears to be a model 108... almost. It doesn't use the baking-pan chassis, and in fact the chassis looks nothing like a Radio Corp one I have seen - it has 'wings' (is it the Libra Fleur chassis?). The tags look right for the era (1935) of Radio Corp production, and the main layout difference seems to be the speaker plug atop the chassis instead of on the rear.
Also, interestingly the valve shield caps are embossed with Keith's initials - they look Australian to me - Radiokes or RCS or something?
And, something I have never seen on a Radio Corp set - the dial has what looks to be a signal strength meter in the top of it.
So - was this a Radio Corp set? It looks it, but then it could be a collection of parts assembled (beautifully), following a Radio Corp design. Most of the visible parts could have come from Turnbull & Jones under their Exelrad brand - and T&J did publish circuits that closely resembled Radio Corp models around this time... so is it that?
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers?items_per_page=100&query=%22sandison+radio%22~5&snippet=true&sort_by=byDA
Sandison radios were advertised by R. B. Fowler's and Epsom Bros in Wellington, from around 1933 (there are some images in papers past that use the same arc dial that Radio Corp was using on Pacific sets in 33, and Courtenay in 34)... I'll follow this up a little closer and see what I can find. Keith himself is listed in the electoral rolls in Wellington as a salesman around this time, so he might have designed the radios, and sold them - he might have also worked for one of these two companies but I'm not sure how, or if, I could confirm that.
And does anyone else have one?
Well, I didn't discover it - it was always there... but thanks to a collector who had it in his collection and showed me the other day (I'll let him remain nameless unless he wants to be named) I now have one more piece of the puzzle, and I wanted to share it in case anyone else happened to have one.
And, it might not actually be a Radio Corp brand either...
But, this is a really interesting one, because Sandison was the middle name of the owner, Keith Sandison Irvine - who later became the factory manager at Radio Corp, and who developed the (in)famous spiral dial for them. He sadly died of a medical issue in hospital in 1939.
The set appears to be a model 108... almost. It doesn't use the baking-pan chassis, and in fact the chassis looks nothing like a Radio Corp one I have seen - it has 'wings' (is it the Libra Fleur chassis?). The tags look right for the era (1935) of Radio Corp production, and the main layout difference seems to be the speaker plug atop the chassis instead of on the rear.
Also, interestingly the valve shield caps are embossed with Keith's initials - they look Australian to me - Radiokes or RCS or something?
And, something I have never seen on a Radio Corp set - the dial has what looks to be a signal strength meter in the top of it.
So - was this a Radio Corp set? It looks it, but then it could be a collection of parts assembled (beautifully), following a Radio Corp design. Most of the visible parts could have come from Turnbull & Jones under their Exelrad brand - and T&J did publish circuits that closely resembled Radio Corp models around this time... so is it that?
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers?items_per_page=100&query=%22sandison+radio%22~5&snippet=true&sort_by=byDA
Sandison radios were advertised by R. B. Fowler's and Epsom Bros in Wellington, from around 1933 (there are some images in papers past that use the same arc dial that Radio Corp was using on Pacific sets in 33, and Courtenay in 34)... I'll follow this up a little closer and see what I can find. Keith himself is listed in the electoral rolls in Wellington as a salesman around this time, so he might have designed the radios, and sold them - he might have also worked for one of these two companies but I'm not sure how, or if, I could confirm that.
And does anyone else have one?