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Emerson 330 |
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| A
1939 Emerson model
330 tube radio. |
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| Sold to someone in 1939,
this radio may have announced the news of Germany invading
Poland, and that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. 40
years later, no longer working and covered in white paint,
it was thrown in the trash. It was taken out
of the trash can by somebody walking down the street that day. |
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The radio is called the "Apartment
radio" because it was in
my apartment from 2004 to 2008. The weird things on top of
it are "sticky balls" from a tree - souvenirs from a sticky
ball fight I was in with my 6 year old grandson. I still
have them.
I don't remember where the radio came from, but I've had it
since the early 1980s. It was trash picked, but I don't know
if I trash picked it or if somebody else did and gave it to
me. It was
covered with white brushed on oil paint and I was
never able to get all the paint off.
When the radio was in the apartment it stopped working one
day and I never looked into it. I had a large
Grundig Satellit 800 that I actually listened to. The
"Apartment radio" was just a decoration after it stopped
working.
Now it's time to fix it. |
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| To identify the
radio I did a Google search of "Emerson tube radio" and
found the above on ebay. I learned it was a model 330, the knobs on my radio were
the wrong type, and it once had a gold
cloth covered electric cord. |
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I needed those
knobs! Many of the 1930s Emerson radios had them, even if
they didn't "go" with the cabinet design. Maybe it was just
my luck, but there were only two pairs to be found on the
Internet. An ebay seller wanted $25 for a pair, and a
private seller on a radio site wanted $15. The radio above
was $20 with no bids, so I bid $20 and won the radio.
The $20 went to the "Vintage
Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut." |
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| The above pictures
narrowed down the year to 1939 based on the dial face. They
also verified I had the correct "airplane" dial pointer.
This is a nice one. |
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| Now what about the
plug? The plug on the gold cord looks like it came from a
hardware store. The center picture shows the plug on the
"Apartment radio," which has a design of oak leaves and
acorns molded into it. I think what the actual plug looked
like is on the right. This is the plug from an "all
original" 1939 Emerson "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
radio that sold for $1,250.00. Apparently, the plug in the center photo is not
original but is close to it, so it will stay. |
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| This is what I
found wrong with the outside and we haven't seen the inside
yet. I plugged it in and turned it on, and of course it
worked perfectly, even though it had stopped working 10
years ago. Before I started "repairing" it I ordered a new
dial cover, reproduction back (it doesn't have a back), a
gold cloth covered cord, and the radio from ebay to get the
knobs. |
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| November 14, 2016
I find this on the back porch. The guy sent it two day
delivery! Nice knobs! Look at all the packing, we don't have
room for that. I'm going to switch the knobs and put it back
up on ebay in the same box it came in. It looks good in the
pictures, but it was actually very dirty and the dial cover
had a crack in it. When I plugged it in, it worked! |
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| I
went back on ebay to see if the crack was mentioned. It was
not. It said, "See photos for details". This is a crop of a
larger photo from the auction. I put the arrows there. |
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| It's a 1940
"Silver Jubilee." What does that mean? In this case,
"Silver" means 25 and "Jubilee" means anniversary. Emerson
Radio was incorporated in 1915, so this was their 25th
anniversary. We don't say things like "Silver Jubilee"
anymore. If I told my kids I had a Silver Jubilee they'd
think I'd bought a new car. |
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The two cases. The Silver Jubilee on the
left has been cleaned. The Apartment radio on the right was
cleaned and polished. The Apartment radio case was worked on
for several hours, trying to get the last of the white paint
off it.
I contemplated swapping the cases, but the whole point of
continuing this project was to bring back to life something that had
been painted and then thrown in the trash. |
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After cleaning the case and swapping the
knobs, cracked dial cover, frayed electrical cord and plug, the Silver Jubilee was packed back up
and put back on ebay on November 17, 2016.
I asked $21.50.
Even though I had stolen the knobs, a new dial cover is $20.
If the new owner buys those $15 knobs he'll still be $3.50 ahead of the game, he just won't know it. I did spend
over an hour cleaning it,
too. |
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| Well I just don't know what to
say. After the postage and ebay and PayPal fees, I needed
$43.99 to break even, but didn't expect to get it. I
refunded the buyer $30.00 and sent him a link to those
$15.00 knobs! |
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