[NJARC] Mystery 1920 TRF radio with Montclair, NJ connection

[Al Schapira]

I am a Montclair NJ resident, and I was amazed to find that some of the 
parts in an antique radio that I am working on were manufactured in 
Montclair!  The parts were made around 1920 by 

  Adams Morgan Company 
  Alvin Place 
  Montclair, NJ 

In addition, a vacuum tube in this radio was provided by a Montclair 
shop on April 15, 1921. 

  "The Home Electrical Shop" 
  393 Bloomfield Avenue, 
  Montclair, NJ 

If you happen to have any information about either of these companies,
please let me know. 

The radio in question appears to be home made.  It is a three tube
battery set having two UV-201A's and one UX-200.  The UV-201A's are
brass-based and tipped!  There are two Adams-Morgan "PARAGON" variable
inductors, and one unidentified variable coupling tapped coil.  There is
one variable capacitor which is connected so that a knife switch shorts
it out! The first stage uses grid-leak bias, but the glass tube grid
resistor is open.  The 2nd and 3rd stages are transformer coupled, but
both of the ACME A-2 transformer secondaries are open. 

I do not have a schematic and would appreciate any references to similar
radios using the same three tube TRF's from the early 1920's. 

For pictures of this radio at various stages of cleaning, please take a
look at http://home.att.net/~a.schapira/ChucksRadio 

One final question:  The front panel appears to be made of a material
that is intermediate between bakelite and masonite.  It was originally
black (still is black under where the knobs are) but the rest of the
front panel has turned mottled brown.  Does black bakelite turn brown
with age or sunlight?  The front panel has also become warped with age,
not characteristic of 1/4" thick bakelite as far as I know. 

Thank you for any info you can provide about this type of set. 

  -Al 

a.schapira at worldnet.att.net 
http://home.att.net/~a.schapira