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.
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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    (Unpublished recollections of   S.M. Finlayson, CMC President from 1951 to 1964).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. A chart showing the production of Marconi receivers (1921-1931) was prepared by Roger Hart and published in the 1999 Vol 7 edition of the Ottawa Vintage Radio Club Newsletter.. For model 26C, the tube count is in error. It should probably read as 7 instead of 27.

A chart showing original radio prices can be found here. It was compiled by Roger Hart and covers the years 1921 to 1950. 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.
 

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)

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.

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.

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.

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Credits:

1) Jacques Hamel <hamja(at)videotron.ca>
2)  Lewis Bodkin  <05bodkin555(at)gmail.com>