Silvertone 101.854

[Zenith26kc20]

Here it is in all of it's strangeness. It has octals, loctals and miniature tubes. The flyback looks early RCA. The CRT is good according to the Beltron (original CRT).
The chassis comes out later today. It's missing two knobs but is as clean as can be. It has the original back (perforated metal with original line cord).
Anyone familiar? Looks like RCA circuitry according to the schematic on the side of the cabinet.
The owner worked for Sears and said they never made their products but I've never seen a chassis like this one.

[miniman82]

Philco used Loctals quite a bit, see any resemblence to them?

[jr_tech]

I'm thinking Philco also...the Push button tuner is similar to the one used on the early Philco projection sets.

jr

[holmesuser01]

I have a Silvertone radio. It's model number starts with '101.' I thought Philco, too, but was told that Colonial used this number with Sears.

I used to work at Sears. I used to have a list of the codes to identify the manufacturers.

I always thought Loktals were bizarre. I've got a very few of them, and a very few things that use them.

[Eric H]

The CRT mounting doesn't look at all like Philco, other than the Loktals I don't see any chassis resemblance either.

I wonder if it was made by Wells Gardner?

Does the CRT surround protrude forward or is that an optical illusion?

[tubesrule]

The first three digits of Silvertone numbers denote the manufacturer. 101 shows as Colonial Radio Corp (formerly King Quality Products) of Buffalo NY.

Darryl

Edit: I just checked and 126 was Silvertone's code for RCA and this does check out on some RCA built Silvertone televisions I've seen.

[Don Lindsly]

Not Philco. Colonial or Wells-Gardner is more likely. Sylvania was a major supplier to Colonial, explaining use of Loctal tubes.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Don Lindsly

Not Philco. Colonial or Wells-Gardner is more likely. Sylvania was a major supplier to Colonial, explaining use of Loctal tubes.

That makes sense...I have noticed some Sylvania/Silvertone similarities before.
jr

[Phil Nelson]

I hope they fired the guy who designed that cabinet. One of the most awkward things I've ever seen!

Phil

[AUdubon5425]

That's odd enough to hold on to. I love unique and oddball sets.

[bgadow]

Yep, this would be Colonial, maybe before Sylvania took over or right around that time? (I guess I've read the date but don't remember) I used to have a Colonial-built Silvertone from about '51. Even in Sylvania sets from the 70s you can look inside and there will be a sticker saying "Colonial" with a logo of a tree. Recently I spotted a Colonial radio at the flea market, it was an early AC set from the late 20s, and it used that same tree logo. Sears was apparently part owner of the company for a time; they were probably the biggest supplier of radios for the company in the 30s-40s.

[pearsonk]

I have the exact set, missing some push=buttons. Very unusual tuner, similar to SW mirror-in-lid set I have, except for the push-buttons. The push-buttons seem never to align at the same spot.
There was a console version of this model also.
Very nice visual design.

[holmesuser01]

OK now that we know who made it, tell me this:

What manufacturer came out with Loktals? Was it Sylvania or Philco? I've seen a vast number of Philco radios with loktals, and very few Sylvania anythings, other than their replacement tube line.

(please dont hex me for hijacking the thread.. I'm on topic, somewhat. )

[tubesrule]

Loktals were a Sylvania development. The first one, the 1231 (7V7) was released in May 1938.

From Tube Lore

[peverett]

What I heard about Loktals was that Sylvania and Philco developed these to compete with the RCA all-metal tubes that had just came out. I have quite a few Philco radios from the late 1930s to around 1950, and they all have at least some loktals in them. Most of the Philcos of this era are completely loktal tube based. I have seen loktals in Zenith and other radios also(but not in RCA radios).

Around 1950, Philco went to the small tubes in their radios, especially the AM/FM sets. Philco also had some non-loktal tubes in radios built just after WWII. I think tube supply dictated this.