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Old 15th Jul 2022, 4:14 am   #10
Catkins
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Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Chepstow, Monmouthshire, UK.
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Unhappy Re: Help to Identify Marconi 3 valve set "EtherPlus"

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_RK View Post
The licence plate appeared on just about every manufactured radio and referred to a royalty payment made to the Marconi company in order to make use of the basic patents for radio reception - the patent holders just sat back and gathered in the royalties, it doesn't suggest any design input. I'm not sure, but I've a feeling the plate wasn't used on home constructor sets - someone may be able to confirm this one way or the other - which would point to the radio being marketed as a complete and finished item by M. and A. Wolfe.
I have checked up on this in "Radio! Radio!", which has a fair amount of details on the royalty payments and changes to the licence.

The short answer is the royalty payment (and hence licence) was only due on complete receivers manufactured by a company, and not on kits or home constructor sets.

The changes in the licence are quite interesting, and worth describing.

January 1923, large increases in purchase price of valve receivers due to introduction of Marconi A1 and A2 patent royalty licences. A member of the "Big Six" companies had to pay an A2 licence, where 7/6 (7s 6d) was charged per valve holder. All other companies had to pay an A1 licence, where 12/6 (12s 6d) was charged per valve holder.

During 1928, the Brownie Wireless company began a legal fight challenging the validity of the Marconi patents under which the licence was required. Brownie was granted a compulsory licence to manufacture valve sets at a lower royalty cost. But Marconi appealed the decision.

June 1929 Marconi successfully won their appeal, leaving the fixing of Marconi royalties in Marconi's hands.

Shortly afterwards negotiations entered between the company and the RMA (Radio Manufacturers Association) to determine the future situation.

Negotiations ended in November 1929, and a "three-power pact" was announced between Marconi's, The Gramophone company and Standard Telephones which enabled a single combined manufacturing licence to be issued. Known as the A3 licence it came into effect in November 1930, with a reduced charge of 5 shilling per valve holder.

Given the above information I wondered if it might be possible to more precisely date the EtherPlus+ box based on the style and text of the licence plate.

I therefore had a look at the licence information present on a number of radios in my collection from 1924 - 1933.

Radios from 1924 - 1927 tend to only have brief licencing text and it is ad-hoc without any standardised form between manufacturers. Photo 1 is the typical licence information from a Sterling "Anodion" radio of 1924.

Photo 2 is from a Pye radio from 1929, it is now very similar in style and text to that of the EtherPlus+ licence plate.

Photo 3 is the licence plate from a 1931 Lotus Bud 2. This differs in that it has a serial number, and it is now a combined licence mentioning Marconi's, the Gramophone Co and STC.

Photo 4 is a later plate from 1933, showing the Gramophone Co has been replaced with EMI, which was formed from the merger of the Gramophone Co and Columbia on 31st March 1931.

So for what is worth, the set was a complete and finished item, and must have been manufactured before November 1930, because it is using the original A1 licence. But, from the style it is unlikely to have been made before 1929.
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