Marconi 272 skip find

[mojojojo]

Rescued this Marconi 272 radio from a skip and and am going to try to get it working again !

Am very much a 'newbie' when it comes to vintage radios, but looking forward to reading previous posts around this topic and asking for advice from all you good people here !!

I've noticed the serial number is 060001, did they really make another 60000 of these back in the day ?

[stevehertz]

Nice find. Apart from the fact that the cabinet will need stripping and re-lacquering, it all seems in reasonably good condition. Someone should have those missing knobs (I may have them myself) and you can even buy similar gold speaker cloth. Best of luck with the restoration and it would be nice to see interim photos.

[Tractionist]

A very lucky find! Are the veneers O.K. ..... any signs of worm? It looks to be all there - except perhaps the back on the knobs?

In any event - that one's going to be a cracker!!

Well done ......

[mojojojo]

Was thinking over which way to bring the radio back to life, that is do I go for a full restoration of the cabinet or just clean it up.

Obviously the speaker cloth needs replacing and it also had two of the original 4 knobs

But Its appeal to me is that its not new and I like that the fact thats its shows its age !

The veneers at the side are have lifted a bit, and no woodworm that I can see

but also the fact that is has no back is leading me to think that I might have license to 'personlise' it

[Al (astral highway)]

Nice find! I love Marconis and have a Marconi 219, pre-war, among my favourite sets.

It's well worth taking time with this one. They are beautifully engineered to an incredibly high quality and the cabinets are wonderful!

Sure you'll find lots of willing helpers here!

[dave walsh]

Yes a "lucky dip". You had your "Mojo working" there. Couldn't find too many direct examples of the 272 being restored but they are certainly a "classic" as Al says Just found, though, an HMV 438 that has the same back story as your set in the older "Recent Repair and Restoration Section" [2006 not a current Forum Thread]. The author says that the set uses the same chassis as the Marconi 262/272 and the HMV 440/441 Radios. Also that it seems like an earlier version of the Marconi 29 and HMV 44 series.

This equivalence re chassis usage is not unknown and might explain an apparent high number of sets being sold-different models, same chassis. Apart from that, "Wireless" became extremely popular from the twenties onwards. It was a huge industry and had the universal appeal of computers and hand held entertainment/communication devices today re being able to "listen in" from a distance. There is a very good description of the 438 repair which should be a great help to you.

Cheers,
Dave W

[electrogram]

I think this chassis was used in the HMV 540 radiogram, it's marconi equivalent, possibly Columbia rg and table radio too

[ukcol]

The Marconi 272 is a very interesting set indeed. It is a very early set in the evolution of superhet design. It uses a tetrode as a self oscillating mixer and a triode for the detector (second detector) which the Trader sheet describes as a "power detector".

The volume control is interesting, a dual ganged control; one section attenuates the signal from the aerial and the other section varies the cathode bias on the IF amplifier valve. This is similar to standard TRF technique at the time except it was more usual to use a single control with the slider connected to chassis. There is no IF amplifier in a TRF of course, the bias being adjusted on the cathode of an RF amplifier valve.

A nice Art Deco cabinet too.

[paulsherwin]

Tremendous find and not in particularly bad condition, but a challenging first restoration. You'll find plenty of help here though.

[McMurdo]

Very lucky find, well done. How anyone could ill-treat this sort of beauty is beyond me! Glad you've saved (rescued) it.

[Al (astral highway)]

Originally Posted by mojojojo

I've noticed the serial number is 060001, did they really make another 60000 of these back in the day ?

The British population was around 46 million in 1933, when the set was built.

It may be difficult to imagine a time, so long before the internet, and before the television era, when radio was absolutely the way in which people entertained themselves and crucially, found out what was happening in the world. Commercial radio was in its heyday!

If UK radio ownership scaled up as US ownership, there were easily 18 million radio sets in the country. Marconiphone was the leading brand, a byword for quality. I have no figures but I'd be surprised, from its market leading position, if it didn't manufacture radios in the millions.

It seems to me that sets built before the war by Marconi were of a far higher standard and greater sophistication than many models by other manufacturers, knocked out in the 1950s...

[G6Tanuki]

Don't assume the serial numbers started at 1 and incremented by 1 for each radio made!

A smart manufacturer surely wouldn't want to give his competitors free insight into his production-numbers by adopting such a simple and transparent numbering scheme?

[Nuvistor]

According to Wireless World April 1932 there were around 3.5 million radio licences in use but has G6Tanuki states set makers would not start serial numbers at number 1.

[Neutrino]

There's an article on Restoring a Marconi 262 (same chassis) in The Bulletin Vol. 29 no.3 Autumn 2004. There is also an article on the HMV 540 radiogram in The Bulletin Vol. 29 no. 1. And in Volume 20, number 6 in an article titled 'A set for All Seasons' Gerry Wells talks to Carl Glover about HMV's foolproof plan to stop the inexperienced amateur from interfering with their range of sets.

These can be downloaded from the BVWS website.

David

[GeoffK]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Nice find. Apart from the fact that the cabinet will need stripping and re-lacquering, it all seems in reasonably good condition.

If the original cabinet is sound with no woodworm then isn't it better to keep the original finish and just clean it up, keeping the original patina. Brand new wood stain can make a radio look very good but can never capture the original finish or years of its history. Before any rework it should be assessed to find out just how much restoration should be carried out.

[Herald1360]

Maybe Marconi started those serials at 60000. In which case.......

Anyone got a lower serial number set?

[The Philpott]

Well done. I thought the days of significant skip finds had gone, but perhaps not. Someone really wasn't thinking when they threw this away.

[HamishBoxer]

Why cannot I have a skip near by like that??

[greenstar]

These are lovely sets. I guess the golden rule about 'personalisation' is not to make any changes that cannot be easily reversed. You may have found the radiomuseum website - there is a photo of the back there:

photohttps://www.radiomuseum.org/r/marconi_272.html

[dave walsh]

Well... no shortage of info and comment there Not sure if I've got a Marconi but I've just realised that I do have an HMV 483 in the North!

Dave