[Hallicrafters] Hallicrafters WW II advertising.

Thu May 9 08:21:58 EDT 2013

Just a quick note of thanks to Richard and Glen for some very interesting 
history.  You both always seem to post good "stuff".

73, Chas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
To: "Glen Zook" <gzook at yahoo.com>; "William Hawkins" <sgr4436 at yahoo.com>; 
<Hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Hallicrafters WW II advertising.

>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Glen Zook" <gzook at yahoo.com>
> To: "William Hawkins" <sgr4436 at yahoo.com>; <Hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 2:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Hallicrafters WW II advertising.
>
>
> Do you know why Bill Halligan bought the Echophone line?
>
> Answer:
>
> To get a license for the Hazeltine patents. RCA held the patents and, for 
> some reason, David Sarnoff would not allow Hallicrafters to get a license 
> for the patents. However, Echophone had a license and, by purchasing the 
> company, Halligan was able to get a license for them. Unfortunately, for 
> Sarnoff, he couldn't do anything about Halligan getting a license.
>
> Glen, K9STH
>
>     I think this is a confounding of two stories.  Halligan could not get 
> a license from RCA for patents it held. Hazeltine Labortories had their 
> own patents  and were not licensed through RCA. While RCA was formed 
> originally with the idea that it would be a clearing house for patents and 
> would license any one who was reasonably able to manufacture radios 
> successfuly it turned out to be a monopoly.  This was not Sarnoff alone 
> but the whole management of RCA who were pretty much hold overs from 
> American Marconi and had the same ideas of becoming a monopoly. The Navy 
> and others who had pushed for an American patent holder were not very 
> happy with this but could do nothing about it.  Or rather Owen D. Young, 
> the chairman of General Electric, who held controlling stock in RCA 
> evidently liked things the way they were.  RCA did not want too much 
> compition for its own products.  General Electric and Westinghouse were 
> members of the RCA club so had access to everything. AT&T and Western 
> Electric were cross licensed for vacuum tube patents but only for 
> industrial and telephone company use.  WE which was one of the companies 
> who was involved with forming RCA sold out its interests within a few 
> years of the founding.
>    RCA kept many entrapenuers from successfully starting radio 
> manufacturing companies.  Art Collins was among them. Early Collins 
> transmitters use Amperex tubes with external grids because RCA would not 
> grant them a license for conventional transmitting tubes for years.
>    Echophone had an early license and Halligan bought the company to get 
> it.  Before that he had to contract with other companies who did have RCA 
> licenses to have his products built.
>    I don't know too much about Hazeltine patent policies except that they 
> were not in the manufacturing business and did not need to control 
> competition.  Hazeltine had many valuable patents including many held by 
> Harold Wheeler who had prehaps a hundred patents in what we would now call 
> electronics.  Among Wheelers patents is automatic volume control.
>    Hallicrafters continued to build equipment under the Echophone name 
> until about 1946 (not sure of the exact date) when the products were 
> restyled slightly and became Hallicrafters and after a short time were 
> discontinued.  The Echophone EC series were AC/DC receivers with three 
> bands. The S38 increased this to four bands and used a different kind of 
> bandspread.  The S-38B and maybe one earlier version, got rid of the 
> additional tube used in the earlier receivers by using regeneration in the 
> IF to provide a BFO. Since the tube used in the earlier receivers as the 
> conventional BFO also had a diode suitable for a noise limiter the B and 
> later versions no longer had a noise limiter.
>    I've seen many Echophone receivers but never had one and have no idea 
> of their performance.  I did have an S-38B (may still have it if I can 
> find it) which is does surprizingly well for an essentially minimal short 
> wave receiver.
>    There are many books on the history of wireless and electronics, 
> particularly in the US. Since RCA was a vital part of the history it is 
> well covered.  A good starting place is the Linwood Howeth book on the 
> history of electronics and communication in the U.S. Navy.  this is 
> available on line in a scanned version.  I will find the link and post it. 
> Another excellent but earlier history is _Invention and Innovation in the 
> Radio Industry_ MacLauren. This one may be hard to find, I don't think it 
> was ever reprinted but could be wrong.  I have a half dozen or more fairly 
> recent books that cover much of the same history.
>     Bill Halligan and Art Collins interest me because both started 
> successful businesses in the midst of the depression but by appealing to 
> completely different markets.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
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