mediator: M165A Mediator, Erres and Philips

"NVHR-member and ex-Van der Heem employee Ger Fust has sufficient proof that the Philips 974A, the Mediator M165A and the Erres KY418 were manufactured by Van der Heem.

In the NVHR archive a CD-ROM is filed with 71 photos of the Van der Heem production in 1942. This picture, made at the Maanweg in 1942, shows a Van der Heem employee adjusting a M165A chassis. Did you noticed that the M165A has square holes in its back carton? For Philips sets this indicates Van der Heem production."

 

One has to know that Philips has built a factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds when the Swiss authorities began to introduce a duty on imported radios to give a Swiss radio industry a chance. This was in 1931. It was just high enough to get a company like Philips to manufacture here. They branded the models either Philips, Médiator or Jura - with some differences on the cabinet but not on the chassis.

 

Since the chassis are the same for KY418, M165A and 974A, we would have to get better proof that the whole chassis or even the whole sets were made in Holland.Could well be that chassis were imported or parts for assembly. We might find the truth on an other day ...

A schematic from 10-7-42 from Van Der Heem N.V., Den Haag, Holland proves the identity of Erres KY418 with Philips 974A. Under the brand Erres you find also many models built by Philips owned NSF. It is about 32 different models. This starts with models T, U Z, Z2 and Zcab from 1925.

 

 

Picture by courtesy of John Hupse.

It shows the testing of chassis at Erres - Van der Heem.