Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

Page Forty-four RADIO DOINGS January, 1931 LOCKING BACrWACD With R. B. YALE THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE Onward, still onward Rode the six hundred. Midgets to right of them. Midgets to left of them Volleyed and thundered. So might that old poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" he brought down to date and applied to the radio industry. One might almost say that with extreme bravery Western manufacturers have led the country in developing the so-called midget set. Many articles have been written concerning the phenomenal growth of this small set business and what it has accomplished in the radio industry as a whole, but the one thing that is puzzling most of us is how did it all start and what brought it about. Looking backward five and one-half years ago or thereabouts, the Radio Communications Company, Ltd., in England saw the need of a small compact radio receiver that would operate a loud speaker. The company proceeded to develop a very small set approximately seven inches square in size, tuned with a single condenser, and using two one and one-half volt tubes. Tuning inductances were interchangeable, and part of the set equipment was an assortment of small coils similar to the old style honeycomb. With this set and loud speaker and batteries, or as they called them over there, "high and low tension accumulators," it was possible to pick up most of the European stations regardless of wave length and play them on a loud speaker. The set was known as the "Polar Twin." Here in America, you will remember, several manufacturers followed suit. Crosley, for example, brought out a small job called the "Crosley Pup," followed by the Radiola 3 A, and still later a host of so-called portable sets usmg loop antenna with self-contained batteries and speaker. It seems that this might be taken as the background or forerunners of the present day mantel type radio — manufacturers ever striving to reduce cost to satisfy a market that could not be reached with large expensive sets and to present a complete radio receiver as small in size as possible. Those in the West who were early in the midget game were building two and three tube compact sets of the Harkness variety, using a crystal detector and eliminating the usual batteries with one or two doorbell transformers. True they did hum and they were not very selective, and if a door slammed in the house the cat whisker had an annoying habit of losing the sensitive spot on the crystal detector and one's ears were assailed by a series of howls and squeals that would have done credit to a steam shovel. These early manufacturers came to be known among the trade as "bologna" manufacturer?. No doubt this appellation was swiped from the meat trade as in the packing business it is customary for -mall sausage manufacturers to buy from the packing house the needed meat, from another source cereal, from still other sources spice, sausage casing, and in a small store put the whole together — the result being bologna. After the advent of the so-called midget set a new name was given to the set and to the manufacturer. As radio along with practically all other industries has acquired a slang all its own, the sets were called "Jaloppes" and the manufacturer a "Jaloppc Manufacturer." To trace down the source of this new name one must go back to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925 or 1924. At that time W. C. Fields, the comedian, was putting on a Field act in the Follies of that year in which he drove a very dilapidated Ford out on the stage. During the progress of the comedy skit Henry's pride was made to fall apart, blow up, etc., and also the car was referred to by the comedian as a "Jaloppe." The use of this name spread among second-hand automobile dealers in referring to cars of the small type that, perhaps, were none too good in appearance. And some wag appropriated the name and in a joking way tacked it on to the midget set. This, to say the least, is rather unfair as many very fine midget or mantel type sets have beeen developed by the Western manufacturer. So much for background and history. While it is impossible to give with any degree of accuracy facts and figures, a recent estimate indicated that there are more than ninety-five concerns manufacturing midget sets; approximately two-thirds of them are located in California, and until recently Southern California produced for local and national consumption 90 per cent of all the midget sets being sold throughout the country. As many manufacturers make from one to four or five different brand sets, it is reasonable to assume that there are upwards of 125 different midgets sold under various names. Due to a better knowledge of the game as a whole, costs have come down, appearance has improved along with an added improvement in tone quality and performance. Sixteen national manufacturers have now added midget sets to their line, several of them are featuring it over and above even their large standard type consoles. A number of manufacturers here in Southern California intend to release midget model superheterodyne sets around the first of the year. The tendency on the part of these local manufacturers is to increase the number of tubes, but on the other hand the Eastern concerns are working in the other direction and endeavoring to obtain maximum performance and tone with a fewer number of tubes. Estimates vary as to the proportion of midget sets sold to the total number of radio sets now being sold. The most conservative place it at 50 per cent of the total volume, and some as high as 80 per cent of the total volume of sales. One can only say that the midget set has forced the radio industry to develop an entire new technique of production and merchandising. Whether the industry likes it or not, the midget has undoubtedly come to stay as it provides radio entertainment at the smallest possible cost and has opened a hitherto untouched market composed of thousands of purchasers who are simply financially unable to buy radio sets retailing for one hundred and twenty-five dollars and up. It will be interesting in a year or two to again look backward and see in retrospect just what eventually happens in the radio industry on account of the introduction of the socalled midget clock or mantel type radio. In the meantime, large radio manufacturers secure in their position a year or so ago, have, we will wager, lost a few sleepless nights because of a desire on the part of the public for radio entertainment in a compact form at a low price. C W. Bert Knight i