CANADIAN MARCONI - HOME ENTERTAINMENT - RADIO

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RADIOS

Featured here are various vacuum tube home entertainment radios starting from the 1920's. Your webmaster  * does not * have any manuals or schematics for any of the devices featured in this section. Manuals and schematics for many Canadian Marconi radios are available free from the Pacific TV web site. Schematics not found at either of the above sites can be purchased from Antique Radio Schematics for a nominal charge,  Just Radios is another site providing Canadian Marconi schematics for a small fee. .

In addition, more schematics and technical information about Canadian Marconi radios can be found at this summary listing at the Radiomuseum.org web site.  There, you will find a copy of the Canadian Marconi Service Manual Volume 2.

The 1974 Master Inex publlished by the Radio College of Canada has Marconi home entertaimnet equipment listed from 1957 to 1974. If you can find the model of radio that you are looking for, the listing will tell you which RCC supplement will have the schematic. Click on either the left or right image to enlarge. (Courtesy Northern Institue of Technology).  For those who are local to Toronto. the Toronto Reference Library has a complete collection of RCC manuals.

A photo montage of Marconi entertainment receivers can be found at the Radio Attic Archives web site.

This extrsact from  “The Early Development of Radio in Canada 1901-1930 by Robert Murray” is likley in the context of the mid 1920s era.

"Production of broadcast receivers, which at that time tended to be produced only from about the beginning of July until around Christmas time. Then there was a complete lull and absolute cessation of production from about the beginning of the year  through until early Summer. This period, although an  idle one from the factory point of view was a very busy one from the design point of view. It was during the early months of the year that the sales people  provided the design engineers and the factory with their ideas as to what the market would require and then there were the usual processes of technical  design, the preparation of drawings, the preparation of models, certain kinds of field testing and finally an  authorization for production. In those days, the quantities manufactured were relatively small and as I  recall our output was limited to 50 or 100 sets a day  at the peak”.    (Unpublished recollections of   S.M. Finlayson, CMC President from 1951 to 1964).

This is the cover page only of the 1927-1928 Marconi radio catalogue. Click on image to enlarge. The rest of it is not available at this time. (E-bay image)

Arabic and Roman numeral model designators are sometimes used interchangeably when refereicing the earliest of Canadian Marconi radios.As one goes back in time, information on the oldest Marconi receivers becomes scarcer. It looks like the Sales Department at Marconi began referring to a "Table" model radio as a Mantel  radio starting in 1931. They probably wanted to give customers the impression that  the radio was small enough that it didn't need a table.

The Marconi brand name of Citation was used for both stereo radio consoles and television sets. Marconiphone was also a  marketing name used by The British Radio Corporation for their model 4342 home entertainment receiver.  The cover of the manual also shows the term Radiogram. This was a commonly used term for a combined radio/gramophone in the UK.,  Later on, it was changed to Stereogram..

This extract from the 4342 manual cover  indicates the use of the term Radiogram (via E-bay)

Catalogue en langue française uniquement, publié par la Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada Limited (Canadian Marconi Ltd) à Montréal en 1924. Le catalogue en lui-même n’est pas daté mais il présente le Marconiphone III,  dernier modèle de la compagnie du temps, qui fut produit à partir de 1924. Cliquer sur l’onglet pour lancer la copie PDF du catalogue. (La copie numérisée du catalogue original est une courtoisie de Jacques Hamel VE2DJQ, président de l’ex-Musée québécois de la radio à Sorel-Tracy, Qc) This is a French only radio catalog produced by Canadian Marconi in 1924. The catalog itself is undated however, it features the Marconiphone III receiver which was released in 1924. Click on the thumbnail to launch the catalogue. (Catalog courtesy Jacques Hamel VE2DJQ, President of the former Quebec Radio Museum in Sorel-Tracy, Qc)

BATTERY OPERATED SETS

So why were battery operated radios still being produced in the mid 1930s, even after AC operated sets made their appearance around 1930?  The answer is simple. An  ad from Radio Trade Builder Magazine ,Sept. 1935 indicates that at least 100,000 homes in Northern and Eastern Ontario were still not wired for electricity. So there was still a demand for  battery operated sets.  Prior to 1930 all sets were battery operated because the AC power supply had yet to be invented. For many receivers, battery purchase was optional, thus giving the listener the opportunity to source their own  ( and maybe cheaper) batteries.

For anyone wishing to provide a battery eliminator for their battery operated Canadian  Marconi set, there are two solutions available. The first is the commercially available ARBE-III eliminator which can be found here. . Secondly, one can construct  a home brew battery eliminator using this schematic as a guide. It will provide 'A' and 'B' voltages only. The  negative 'C' bias voltage can be produced by wiring 1.5 cells in series to obtain the required voltage Bias cells usually last forever.

OPTIONS

Early radios were sold without tubes. Listeners had the option to supply new tubes from any vendor of their choice. This option was offered in an effort to reduce the cost of a radio. Alternately, the user could install used tubes. Recognizing an opportunity to make some profit, unscrupulous individuals would salvage used tubes from radios, clean them up and sell them as brand new. To thwart these dishonest individuals , tube manufacturers started marking tubes with water soluble ink. If an attempt was made to clean the envelope,, the marking would disappear. To view an illegible tube marking, simply blow your hot breath on the tube. Moisture from your breath will condense on the glass and possibly make the marking readable.

In many AC/DC receivers, the failure of the pilot light will impose a serious overload on the parallel section of the rectifier filament. It is important therefore, that the users of these AC/DC radios not operate them unless the pilor light is illuminated.

Many of these radios were made in both tabletop and console models hence they would share the same chassis and schematic.

A few Echophone radios are shown in the Table Of Contents in the Canadian Marconi service manual Volume 1 as being made by the Echophone Radio Company of Canada .  Per the book  "Radios in Canada by  Lloyd Swackhammer" , Echophone  made radios for the Canadian Marconi  Company in Montreal. Specifically, these were the models 40,  50, and 60 . Things can become confusing since the Echophone 40 and 60 models overlap  with Canadian Marconi models 40 and 60. Echophone model 50 has no overlap. with  Marconi.  Echophone was  eventually bought out by the Hallicrafters company.

Does anyone know about the Canadian Marconi plant  which was located at 110 North Mohawk St., Cohoes NY? ContactLjerry.proc@sympatico.ca
Does anyone know why Canadian Marconi did not produce radios in the 500 series be it vacuum tube or transistor?  Mmodel 588 is known to be a transistor radio.

TYPE APPROVAL

Many Marconi radios bear the  Canadian Electrical Standards Association (CESA)  approval sticker on the rear apron of the chassis. CESA began in 1919, initially creating standards for aircraft parts, bridges, building construction, electrical work and wire rope. The first standards issued by CESA were for steel railway bridges in 1920. In 1927, CESA published the Canadian Electrical Code. Enforcing the code called for product testing and in 1933, the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario became the sole source for testing nationwide. That is why the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power name appears on the sticker. This agreement ended in 1940 when CESA assumed direct responsibility for testing and certifying electrical products intended for sale and installation in Canada.  CESA was later renamed to the Canadian Standards Association. (CSA)  in 1944. In 2004, the name changed again, to be the CSA Group.
 

Here are several versions of approval stickers for Marconi radios.   Click on image to enlarge.
	Later on, when CESA became CSA, the sticker was revised into this format.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN  A GRAMOPHONE and a RECORD PLAYER?

The terms gramophone and record player are often used interchangeably, but there are some key differences mainly related to technology, era, and design. Here's a breakdown:

GRAMOPHONE

Era: Late 1800s to early 1900s.
Power Source: Entirely mechanical (no electricity needed).
Sound Output: Uses a large horn to amplify sound acoustically.
Playback Medium: Shellac records (typically 78 RPM).
Mechanism: Hand-cranked spring motor turns the turntable. A needle tracks the grooves and vibrates a diaphragm to produce sound through the horn.

RECORD PLAYER

Era: Became common in the mid-20th century (1950s onward).
Power Source: Electric motor (plug-in).
Sound Output: Uses electronic amplification and speakers.
Playback Medium: Vinyl records (typically 33? or 45 RPM).
Mechanism: A stylus (needle) converts groove vibrations into an electrical signal, which is amplified and played through speakers.
 
 
 

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Credits:

1) Jacques Hamel <hamja(at)videotron.ca>
2)  Lewis Bodkin <05bodkin555(at)gmail.com>
3) CSA Web site
4) CSA label  Kevin Christopher [kevinivc(At)gmail.com]
5) CHATgpt for gramophone vs record player

 
Apr 4/25