Here is a brand ya probably never seen: Grinnell Model 116

[Electronic M]

Well my RCA KCS72M may be on hold, but it has not stopped me from getting work done on my Christmas break....I've recapped a Philco Bing Crosby set, a Silvertone table model Wire recorder/phono/AM radio (Man was that thing a cramped bear to work on), am almost done fixing my realistic TR-3000 RTR deck(yet again), and lastly I got my rare bird 1950 Grinnell model 116 working again.



I bought this one about two years back at the MARC extravaganza in Lansing and it has been awaiting it's turn on the bench ever since. I tested the CRT when I found it and it was rather weak. It still is but it is quite watchable with the lights off and I rarely use my monochrome sets so I'm just going to live with it as is. Also as found the chassis half of the interlock was destroyed, but it came with a spare so I was able to replace it. One thing I regret is that I damaged the back panel when transporting it home. I was able to get it to look decent, but it will never be perfect again...
A plus though is that with a Howard's treatment it looks like it will not need a refinish.



The under chassis was surprisingly dirty and smells strongly of cooking grease...That and the cigarette burns on the front top (which are staying as I feel they add character) make me think this set was either in a restaurant, bar, or that the person who's kitchen it was in died young of clogged arteries. I can't say I'm a fan of the work the previous tech who installed all those plastic caps. Just about all his work was done with J-hooks, and when he replaced the vertical socket he just ripped some of the terminals off the old one and soldered them to the terminals on the new one. He did leave the chassis screws...All 6 of them. I sort of wish he had not put the front two back as they were a pain to reach.




Build quality wise this set has a Muntz meets DuMont feel to it. The above chassis looks sort of like it needs more tubes and the IFs are under chassis with no cans (which strikes me as cheap), yet they did some things I really like such as screwing all the transformers to chassis instead of riveting them, using an actual wiring harness (never owned another TV with one), and putting a big rubber block under the vertical output transformer to keep it from vibrating the chassis and causing audible hum.
The knob layout makes me think it is an Olympic chassis, but I'm not familiar with their products so I can't really say who made it.



Above is a picture of a Majestic brand set I obtained from the same swapmeet meet a year or two before the Grinnell. Both Sets were made in the Lansing area IIRC, and the cabinet design and structure are nearly identical aside from the screen being much bigger on the Majestic, different knob layout, CRT mask, vent cutouts in the chassis shelf, and the addition of a bottom board (which REALLY strengthens the cabinet) and three wheels on the Grinnell. I have to wonder how two different sets can have such similar cabinets.
I happen to really like that cabinet style. Modern, but conservative enough that if folks were not biased against any electronics more than two years old I could see it blending in with someones living room today. Simple construction too; aside from the face wood, bottom, chassis shelf and a few braces it is all one continuous piece of plywood bent to form the top and sides.



Aside from two filter cans(which run cool) and a good testing domino (likely molded paper) cap on the H osc. coil, which I do not have a replacement for, it has been completely recapped. All else it needed were new audio out, H osc., and HV rect. tubes as well as a tuner cleaning. I'm proud of my self for getting it going good without having a schematic.

Here it is in action being fed analog video directly from Cable.



If anybody knows more about this set's lineage or why another brand uses the same cabinet I'm all ears.

Here is a link to a thread I started on it over on ARF. http://antiqueradios.com/forums/view...p?f=3&t=240096
One day I should try to get a picture of the two sets next to each other for comparison.

[Reece]

The Grinnell set may have been made by Majestic, or both made by a third party. Check this post:

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...ic.php?t=10764

[benman94]

That's a beautiful set, and probably a rebadged Olympic or Emerson. My great-grandmother worked at Grinnell Brothers in downtown Detroit from the 1920s until she died in 1947. My great-grandparents purchased their first set at Grinnell Brothers, and it's in my collection today. It's an Emerson build.

In case you didn't know, Grinnell Brothers was a Detroit area retailer that dealt primarily in musical instruments and household appliances. They were known for carrying only the best as far as their musical instruments went; I personally consider a Grinnell piano to have no superiors. Given the option of a Steinway, Blüthner, Bösendorfer, or Grinnell grand, and I've played very fine examples of each, I'd pick the Grinell every time...

Anyway, your television is lovely

-BL Moyer

[Electronic M]

Thanks for the complement and info.

Before I bought this set I'd never heard of Grinnell before. The person I bought it from told me they were a music store so I had the notion it was some small music store getting sets custom built for them...From what you say they must have been a really grand outfit.

[benman94]

At it's height, Grinnell Brothers had 14 stores, 13 in Michigan and one in the Toledo area. The main store in Detroit on Woodward was a five or six story Albert Kahn structure, pretty ritzy from the photos I've seen of it; reminds me a lot of Steinway Hall in New York. I'd say they were doing a decent business. Your set was probably owned buy upper-middle or upper class folk. They would have had to have been in order to afford a set from a place like that. I've heard from realitives that identical appliances, TVs, radios, phonographs, and the like would often sell for a whole C-note more at Grinnell Brothers when compared to J.L. Hudson's up the street, or Smith-Bridgeman's in Flint. Back in 1950 that would have been pretty substantial...

[Eric H]

The cabinet is similar to a Wilcox-Gay set I restored a couple years ago, it was made by Majestic, or vice versa but it has a different knob layout than your Grinnell. I would guess the basic cabinet was made by the same manufacturer and the area around the knobs could be changed to accommodate different chassis.

[Captain Video]

This is a 1953 Teleking whose cabinet also looks a lot like the cabinets seen here:

[Electronic M]

Eric: I've got the Majestic badge version of your Wilcox.

With the set Capt'n Video has that makes four different brands and possibly as many as three different makers that used that basic cabinet....Wow!

[Steve McVoy]

The one we have at the museum was made by Olympic:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/grinnell.html

[Captain Video]

Electronic M, that set is not mine, it is from a fellow collector.