Request for help in identification

Good evening radio friends,

who can help me identifying this small (american) radio?

It has 4 tubes (36; 38; 39 and a tube 1-V)

It could be a EMERSON, but I am not sure.

Thank You

• Emersonx [800x600] (68 KB)
• Emersonx (3) [800x600] (58 KB)

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Georges,

Although your radio looks like some models that Emerson produced, yours is actually a Kadette, produced by International Radio Corp.

Best regards,

Tom

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Thank you, Tom.

It is indeed this set.

Do you know the purpose of the octal cable connector you can see at the right top in the picture of the rear view?

Best regards

Georges

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While the schematic gives no evidence that the Kadette has such a socket, the fact that both your pictures and the existing pictures here in RMorg clearly show such a socket suggest that it is original.

I found some discussion about this socket here, which is some cached information from an old eBay auction of a Kadette.  Part of the information there is as follows:

...you can see a cable and socket on the rear shot on the right - believe it or not, this was so you could use this radio in your car! Yep, t were no "car radios" in 1931, this and a couple other sets had a plug that could connect to a large B battery and to your car's battery and the intent was to lay on the floor of your Model A Ford and have a radio in your car!

The assertion that the socket was intended for using the Kadette in a car is perhaps plausible in light of the fact that International Radio made a dedicated car radio, the K-6, in 1934.

The same information cited above also makes the claim that the Kadette was the very first bakelite radio produced, which is also mentioned in the RMorg company history for International Radio.

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Dear Tom
Thank you for mentioning the company history. I should have stated that this is only (perhaps) true for the USA. And it is for the AC/DC-sets mentioned only. We should try to find out the truth. This can be done by using the "Fully detailed Model Search" by selecting the material and to limit for instance the "to year" as 1930.

With "Bakelite, tubes visible" and "1930" (or before) I get 42 results. Some may be wrong, but there are some from 1924 and an USA set from round about 1930.

Same with "Bakelite case" is resulting 333 models, but if I limit also to "Radio or Tuner", then it is 108. Four of them from the USA, otherwise mainly from Germany. I think the "Billow" (a very interesting audion with the Myers tube RAC3) has not a bekelite body. I will have to check in the museum. The same applies most probably for the Monodyne GT1 and the Remler Control Panel 330 and the Dariola one. The latter has no picture - still, I will change these.

In general:
Bakelite was first used only for very small cases and the technique of moulding had first to advance. In Germany you find big sets already in 1930. I see errors on different models likeMinerva M5 from Austria, which is a metal case - but who will change those errors? This type of search could reveal quite some errors ...
But for sure, the Blaupunkt model VIII from 1928 was in Bakelite. It measures 250 x 170 x 120 mm. Telefunken 40G (old) from 1928 was even 520 x 280 x 220 mm. See also Pye 232 in the UK from 1929 or others from around that time. "Brownie" could even be of 1927. And see Philips 2499 from 1927 or Orion (small) Echo from 1926 - where I'm not certain that it is Bakelite.

Surely there is some literature about early Bakelite peaces or even radios, we could learn of.

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Dear Ernst,

I also had some doubts as to whether the "first bakelite" claim would hold up, so I tried to be somewhat careful in how I stated it above.

Hopefully we can sort this out and give proper credit for "first bakelite," both worldwide and for the U.S.  I've already learned quite a bit from the cases you've cited above.

Tom

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