Brass wall plate connectors

[Dave A]

Has anyone ever seen these before? They have been kicking around in my stuff for years. I have never seen anything similar. Some chemical cleaning brassed them up but good. "A/G" is easy. "Radio" appears to be a remote speaker connection. I am not likely to be digging in to the plaster walls here to mount them.

Somewhere around here I have a 4-tube AM that also fits in a wall plate. Somewhere.

[Electronic M]

There were various radio wall plates in the 20's-40's One I got to see connected to its original radio was a single power outlet plate with A/G terminals on it.

[Tim R.]

I saw one of these recently in an elderly lady’s living room. It was next to the fireplace and had several coats of paint on it. Would’ve been interesting to see if the A/G terminals were still hooked up, and where those wires went.

[MadMan]

Pretty damn cool. Never seen the like before. They look like they were real luxury items back in their day. Solid brass plates AND the house was wired for radio antenna? Hi tech expensive stuff.

Is the radio one a 1/4" headphone jack? If the family was listening to the radio in the living room and you were being antisocial, you could plug in your headphones in your bedroom or whatever, I'm assuming.

[dtvmcdonald]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Pretty damn cool. Never seen the like before. They look like they were real luxury items back in their day. Solid brass plates AND the house was wired for radio antenna? Hi tech expensive stuff.

Is the radio one a 1/4" headphone jack? If the family was listening to the radio in the living room and you were being antisocial, you could plug in your headphones in your bedroom or whatever, I'm assuming.

They look British, the big jack especially. I think the original
plug of a certain Marconi 702 might have plugged into that one. Gutta-percra coax
insulation!

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by MadMan

Is the radio one a 1/4" headphone jack? If the family was listening to the radio in the living room and you were being antisocial, you could plug in your headphones in your bedroom or whatever, I'm assuming.

Close, but not quite. While it is a 1/4” jack, it’s not intended for audio. The sleeve connector is grounded and the tip wired to an antenna. The radio’s antenna and ground would interface with it via a phone plug.

If you look at the back of the plate you’ll see that the tip shorts itself to the sleeve when there’s no plug inserted. No doubt this was for protection of the house against lightning strikes.

[MadMan]

Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald

They look British

Eh.... they look like standard North American wall plates. Like the distance between the mounting screws, etc, etc.

[Dave A]

Back from med stuff. Both connection plates are insulated from the frame. No ground to the house. They are mounted insulating discs. The "Radio" is a TS 1/4" standard connector.

I can see this radio panel as a series connector going from the radio speaker output from room to room and ending at the original speaker to be interrupted at any chosen room...if you were rich enough.

Apparently my grandparents did not have the glory of these plates in their mansion. Just a Radiola IV (which I have minus a few parts). Attached is a scan of a newspaper article my brother found in the Rockford archives (low res). Barney Thompson, the writer was a friend of the family. And when I was delivering the same paper on my paper route Barney was still writing his column 40 years later. I am officially old.

[Reece]

I suspect that the 1/4" phone plug version is just another version for an antenna/ground outlet, where the other one pictured takes pin plugs.

[DavGoodlin]

Dave - Great story, That infernal "A" battery dilemma - A is for Auto and Attached in your G-pops case. A 6-volt auto battery probably was a bit higher, would have required that Radiola IV to have its rheostats cranked back..

Here is another radio antenna outlet circa mid-30's https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-e...outlet-is-this