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

[Robert Carroll]

Adams Morgan was a premiere name in components and equipment in the early
wireless days and into the mid twenties.  The Morgan of Adams Morgan was
Alfred Morgan, one of the most prolific authors ever.  He wrote many books
such as the Boy Electrician, The Boy's First Book of Radio, etc, and his
subjects ranged through pets, chemistry and tools. Although many of his
books were aimed at young people he wrote a number of classics including an
excellent early one on wireless.  The Adams Morgan Company had an excellent
wireless catalog, and I was fortunate enough to find one on Ebay--where you
can regularly find his books.  He continued to publish into at least the
early 70's and (watch out for this if you bid on a book on EBay) a number of
his books have been reissued in paperback pretty recently.  Paragon is an
interesting moniker, and it is linked to Paragon Paul Godley of ARRL fame
who made a number of early record setting contacts using Adams Morgan parts.

Though I am now in Georgia, I had moved to the Morristown, NJ area in 1972
and began my search there for old radio equipment.  A friend of mine, Bob
Youhas, now deceased, was a Montclair native and told me he had gotten wind
of an estate sale by Alfred Morgan's widow.  An antique shop in Montclair
had bought several pieces from the sale which were found in the attic.  Bob
and I went to the store the Saturday after the sale, and Bob got one of the
much sought and highly valued Adams Morgan longwave sets and a separate
amplifier unit--both in sealed boxes.  They were beautiful.  I came away
with a spotless Paragon regen of a type I have never seen in any of the
various antique radio books or at any collector's event.  I can only imagine
what other rare and wonderful sets and parts were sold at that sale.

There is an excellent article on Alfred Morgan with a description of the
Adams Morgan company on Wikepedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Morgan

73
Bob W2WG

And hello Joe Cro--I well remember the stampede at my house just before my
move out of NJ


-----Original Message-----
From: njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:njarc-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Al Schapira
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 4:33 PM
To: njarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [NJARC] Mystery 1920 TRF radio with Montclair, NJ connection

Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
_______________________________________________
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

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