Scott radios on E-Bay

[Thomas Day]

Several Scott radios are on E-Bay, including an Allwave 23 that is only 69 serial #'s,K555, from mine, K486. Based on available data, does this mean that these would have been built within a couple of days or weeks apart? It has the same Scott Super Antenna adaptor that mine has. 

Thom 

[David C. Poland]

Hi Thom, ............ Perhaps several weeks or months apart.

Scott was using many alpha letter prefixes simultaneously. There has been speculation on the significance of the various letter prefixes. Were they different craftsman? or just an attempt to keep secret his actual production? Buyer location? Phase of the moon? Or what?

Kent King has been collecting serial numbers for years. He has over 1500 serial numbers in his data base. For the AW-23, alpha prefixes collected include: A, B, C, D,E,F, G, H, J, K, L M, ..... an so on. Those with a firm, documented sale date indicate many prefixes in use at the same time. The range of numbers collected for each prefix suggests upwards of 200 model AW-23's built for many alpha prefixes during the 2 plus years production from March 1935 to late 1937, some months after Philharmonic sales began in April 1937.

-Dave

[David C. Poland]

Thom,
As for the outboard antenna coupler usually attached to one of the tube shields, it was part of the optional Scott Super Antenna System first offered sometime in 1934 for the AW-15 and continuing during the production of the AW-23. (Very early couplers had a toggle switch instead of the more common knob.) In addition to the switch, there is a coil inside the coupler.

The Scott Super Antenna was a doublet (double dipole) design with twin lead in. The coupler was necessary for this antenna during the time Scotts had a single antenna post. Per the instructions, the outboard antenna coupler changed the resonance of the antenna and such that the switch should be in the "broadcast" position for broadcast and the lower Blue SW band, and in the SW position for higher the short wave Green and Red bands. Scott redesigned the antenna coil circuit (Supershield Coupler) for reduced noise at which time (late 1936?) later 7 knob AW-23's and subsequent models had two antenna posts and, so, the outboard coupler was no longer needed.

Now, there is a little project. The Super Antenna Instructions give the dimensions and arrangement of the wires. A reproduction is suitable for any of the mid to late 1930's Scotts. Check the Scott Documents site. I used mine for several years.

-Dave

[Thomas Day]

David:

Thanks for the reply. I have the info on the Scott Super antenna, but don't have the space to put one up. The radio is currently working with a 53 foot long wire antenna mounted on our roof, in a V formation. The ends are about 12 feet apart with the point of the V at the peak of the roof, about 26 feet back. Open end of the V faces West. The antenna is coupled to a coax lead in, which is directly connected to the antenna and ground posts. Seems to work reasonably well.

Other than doing a recap on the radio chassis, I haven't done any other work, but it probably would benefit from a complete check over and alignment. 200 radios doesn't seem like a lot by today's standards, but considering the times and hand production methods, that would be one every 3 days. I spent 2 days just doing the recap. 

Thanks

Thom

[Y2K Bruce]

Scott made about 2500 radios per year so figure 50 per week, 10 per week day. Your set would have been within 2 weeks of the other, depending on the alpha letters used.

[Thomas Day]

Thanks Bruce:

Both serial #'s start with K. This is all good information to know. The condition mine is in, both chassis and cabinet would seem to indicate that it didn't really get too far from Chicago, and it is now back 'home' on the South side.

Thom

[John T. Meredith]

David C. Poland said:

Hi Thom, ............ Perhaps several weeks or months apart.

Scott was using many alpha letter prefixes simultaneously. There has been speculation on the significance of the various letter prefixes. Were they different craftsman? or just an attempt to keep secret his actual production? Buyer location? Phase of the moon? Or what?

Kent King has been collecting serial numbers for years. He has over 1500 serial numbers in his data base. For the AW-23, alpha prefixes collected include: A, B, C, D,E,F, G, H, J, K, L M, ..... an so on. Those with a firm, documented sale date indicate many prefixes in use at the same time. The range of numbers collected for each prefix suggests upwards of 200 model AW-23's built for many alpha prefixes during the 2 plus years production from March 1935 to late 1937, some months after Philharmonic sales began in April 1937.

-Dave

[John T. Meredith]

John T. Meredith said: 

 

Hi Dave,

 

The serial numbers used by Scott were not used to keep his production numbers secret nor to identify the individual assembler.  They were just serial numbers stamped on id plates keep in a box with 24 spaces.  Murray Clay related to me that he thought there were a total of 2500 AW 23s produced.  This number of produced sets was supported by two other people who worked at Scout at that time, both were assemblers.

 

There is much speculation on the serial numbers.  Kent has tabulated a large number of these serial numbers.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers,

 

J. Meredith

David C. Poland said:

Hi Thom, ............ Perhaps several weeks or months apart.

Scott was using many alpha letter prefixes simultaneously. There has been speculation on the significance of the various letter prefixes. Were they different craftsman? or just an attempt to keep secret his actual production? Buyer location? Phase of the moon? Or what?

Kent King has been collecting serial numbers for years. He has over 1500 serial numbers in his data base. For the AW-23, alpha prefixes collected include: A, B, C, D,E,F, G, H, J, K, L M, ..... an so on. Those with a firm, documented sale date indicate many prefixes in use at the same time. The range of numbers collected for each prefix suggests upwards of 200 model AW-23's built for many alpha prefixes during the 2 plus years production from March 1935 to late 1937, some months after Philharmonic sales began in April 1937.

-Dave

[Thomas Day]

John:

Thanks for the information. 2500 radios over a 2 or so year period would seem like a good figure, especially considering the cost, the fact that they were built to order and the time period. Would production of the Allwave 15 have stopped when the 23 was introduced or would there be some overlap in models?

Thom 

 

[Norman S Braithwaite]

There was no overlap in production.  Chassis were built according to orders.  Once a model was replaced by a new model, except for fulfilling the remaining orders of the prior model, the old model was not offered or manufactured (cost to do so and manufacturing errors would have been high).  However, EH Scott Radio Laboratories would refurbish and resell chassis that were turned in on new models therefore a few obsolete models were available for customers that could not afford the current model.  After WWII, chassis production was not dictated by orders.  Scott Radio Laboratories manufactured approximately 10,000 Model 800B chassis between February 1946 and approximately July 1947 and was still offering the model as late as 1951 well after the assembly line had been used for the Metropolitan 16B and other models.

Norman

[John T. Meredith]

Hi Thom,

This is a great question.  What I have learned from interviewing a few of the people that worked at Scout was that the 23 AW was already developed and ready to go at the end of the 15 AW.  There was no over lap and it was a simple transition. (Source is Murray Clay on this. He was the principle engineer at Scott at that time. Prior to Murray there was not a "chief" engineer. Clay was brought on while the 15 AW was still in production to develop the next model.) 

But, not all the radios were built to order.  There was a "supply" of 15 AWs. And the assembly line (4 to 7 workers) kept building sets.  The main chassis were then tested and "baked" with a set of tubes.   What was often built to order were the cabinets from Peerless Furniture.  Scott had dealers established often with floor models that could be sold directly off the floor.  

Hope this helps answer the question.

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

[John T. Meredith]

Hi Norm,

 

Not all the production was driven by custom orders.  There was a production line that was on-going with limited inventory maintained.  Interestingly, Scott did maintain a limited inventory of the more common cabinets, such as Tasman.  I heard a story of a fire actually at the Ravenswood address when one of the workers responsible for polishing the cabinets was smoking and caused the fire.  The worker was badly burned.  E H Scott took care of all the medical bills.  This was the second story of E H taking care of the medical bills for a particular worker. 

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

[Thomas Day]

John, Norman:

Thanks to both for this information. We took a drive past the 4450 Ravenswood building a year ago. It was, at the time, being rehabbed for a new use, possibly condos. The 'L' tracks run down the center of Ravenswood. It would be great to live there and bring in a radio, back to its starting point. Plenty of room on the roof for the antenna. It would also interest me to be able to find out the history of the radio I have. The person I bought it from didn't have much information. Radio is an Allwave 23, serial # K486 in the Waverly cabinet. It originally had the tweeter option but they were gone when I bought it.

Thom