Mystery 1920s mahogany box 3 valve radio.

[boater sam]

Latest acquisition, a mahogany box with the remains of a 3 valve battery radio.


Looks to be a pro built item but no name anywhere.
3 valve, twin tuners with nice slow motion drives and rotating scales. TRF with reaction.
Coil packs (2) are Lotus brand. 3 B5 valve sockets

Seems to be all there apart from the valves and the phone socket on the right hand side
The hinge has "AD     1612" stamped in it.

Who made it? Which valves? Age? Why 2 tuners and 2 coil packs? Worth restoring?

I thought the fascia was very Gecophone with its marbled oval insert, but Radio Radio and Radiomuseum turned up nothing.

Sam.

[pwdrive]

Two tuned circuits isn't unusual, one for the RF stage input the other for the detector grid input.

Lawrence.

[Crackle]

Hi Sam
It looks very much like this one. http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/lotus_all_e...valve.html .
Very much worth restoring, although I dont find these type of sets are special performance wise, give me a Superhet any day.
But for their age these sets were marvellous, with a decent speaker the whole family could listen in and enjoy the marvel of radio.

I think there is a mistake in the example in the radio museum as it is showing the radio with an Ekco battery eliminator.
I think it needs amending so I am going to propose that it be changed to battery operation not "All mains" which is another model according to Radio Radio.

Mike

[boater sam]

The all mains version would seem to be known as "SGP" for some reason.
There is also an upright model mains All Mains 3 valve. The naming centres around " All Electric" though how else a radio would work is another question.

The wave change knob and shaft are missing, I presume that the switch is inside the right hand coil.

Still trying to find the valve line up, the upright all mains uses AC/SGVM, 904V & MPT4.
4v heaters, this set must be 2v battery valves, all B5 based. Wiring is mostly solid and sleeved, so with valves it should be fairly straight forward.

[pwdrive]

B5 base...?.....B4

Lotus battery model: S22...HL2...PT240

Lotus all electric: MS4...MH4...PT25

Above taken from make and model listings in this data book that's believed to be circa 1932:

http://www.shinjo.info/frank/sheets/027/...Valves.pdf

All Marconi valves as it's a Marconi data book but plenty of other equivalents.

Lawrence.

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Sam, I may have a similar on in my roundtuit pile, I'll see if it is named.
Easy restoration, many different valves will work with it. Biggest problem may well be a rewind needed on the AF transformer.

Something to use with your "Atlas"

Ed

[boater sam]

Good call Lawrence, thank you.
I knew the answer would appear. Will see what I have.

Its definitely a battery set. Not too far from its original makers now, I've moved it a bit nearer this week.

Valve holders have 5 holes of course, I've not dug down to see how many are wired.

[pwdrive]

"Valve holders have 5 holes of course, I've not dug down to see how many are wired."

I can only see 4 holes....confused.

Lawrence.

[boater sam]

Hi Ed.
So suddenly they are becoming common!
If you find yours one day, could you see if the valves are S22...HL2...PT240 or if not which equivalents are used please?

I'll have to explore the missing wave change control.
Sam.

[Crackle]

Ah ha, we are back on here now!
The Marconi valve catalogue 1931 lists a SINGLE battery 3 valve Lotus S.G. kit
S22, HL2, LP2

Mike