Radio Adapted Radio Adaptable 210

[Lenoirstreetguy]

Here it is the image from the T Eaton Co Radio Catalogue from mid 1925. Pretty cool eh? Two acoustic Victrolas ( pre-Orthophonic that is to say) with a radio installed in the Victor Factory. Note that Victor was introducing their own line of radios, the Victor-Northern Electric in September of 1925. Northern Electric was the Canadian branch of Western Electric. This was a marriage which wouldn't last. By 1928 the Victor radios were being made by Bosch. These machines must be unbelieveably rare. They were obsolete by fall of that year and they didn't come on the market until spring of 1925. I have never seen one in many long years of collecting.
Jim

[bbphonoguy]

Thanks for posting that great ad! Now I know that if I see one out in the wild I should snap it up and not think it's some home cobbled together thing!

[NashTwin8]

Wow! That's pretty amazing! I've certainly never seen, nor even heard of, any such things. Notice at the bottom of the catalog page it says "Victor Northern Electric radio sets will be available in September" or words to that effect.

I wonder how many of these were sold? Not many, I'll bet. Thanks for sharing.

Jerry K

[Lenoirstreetguy]

I've never seen one of these phonographs, but I have seen and operated the three tube Northern Electric radio that these machines featured. This was courtesy of my radio collecting cousin. I may say that if one had purchased one of these machines in the summer of 1925 one would have been doubly miffed: the phono was obsolete by December and the radio chassis, even by 1925 standards, was barely adequate. They weren't selective enough, so if you happened to be close to a broadcasting station you would not be very happy as you tried to tune through it in order to get more distant stations.
Jim