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The second Canadian General Electric KM-51 AM Radio I aquired, made in 1939 from brown mottled Beetle Plaskon, this time in Mint Condition
In a Nutshell
One more of these very rare beetle-plaskon radios (see ref.1), this time looking like it was bought yesterday from Beck's Electric in Yorktown, Saskatoon
Introduction:
Was I lucky to find another KM51, made by Canadian General Electric in 1939 (see ref.1), and this time in pristine condition!
Of the five prewar plastics catalin, beetle, urea, plaskon and bakelite, catalin is the "gem of plastics", followed by beetle, a beautiful special type of plaskon, where the (mostly white) base material is mixed with swirls of (mostly brown) color. Radios made from these plastics except bakelite, are subject to material shrinking, causing many of their cabinets developing cracks, especially if (non-shrinking) chassis' have been screwed too tightly to the cabinets. In fact, almost all plaskon cabinets exhibit small cracks and hairlines. But there are a few exceptions, as the radio for sale here shows.
This radio is made by Canadian General Electric, but has some relatives at its US mother company (see pict.21 in ref.1). I did not find any record for the dial of my radio (pict.25), which looks prettier than the others. I meanwhile found a schematics for a CGE JK51, that seems to have the identical chassis, in the Radio College of Canada library (pict.29).
Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.greenhillsgf.com/IndexOwn_GE_KM51.htm
About my radio:
I bought the radio as "not working". It turned out that the on/off-volume knob was frozen due to sticky grease. After cleaning the potentiometer parts with alcocol, and treating it with contact spray, the radio works like a charm. This enforced deep beauty sleep probably is the reason, the radio looks and works like new, with all five original General Electric tubes still there (pict.27) and still being strong. The radio comes with its original cardboard back plane (picts.22,26), and two knobs, that are the original ones, but look less attractive than the golden bright knobs of ref.1. A nice bonus is an elaborate seller's tag on the back plane, saying "Sold and Serviced by Beck's Electric, Yorktown, Sask." with the 3-digit phone number 645. Beck was an old-established name in Yorkton, Saskatchewan; why does the tag spell this small town differently? The radio works with excellent sensitivity, selectivity and volume. Please
e-mail
me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.
Here are the specifications:
| Technical Description of Item |
| Manufacturer |
Canadian General Electric Co. Ltd. |
| Model |
KM-51 |
| Type |
5-tube AM/BC tabletop radio |
| Production Year |
1939 |
| Serial Number |
02422 |
| Cabinet |
Brown swirled beetle plaskon |
| Dials and knobs |
Printed paper dial, flat dial lens, two mottled plastic knobs |
| Frequency Range |
AM 540-1600 kc |
| Controls |
On/off - volume, tuning |
| Tube line-up |
35Z5 (Rect.), 12SA7 (RF), 12SK7 (IF), 12SQ7 (Det.), 35L6 (Audio), all GE |
| Size (WxDxH) |
10½ " x 7¼ " x 7½ " |
| Weight |
7 lbs, 3.2 kg |
| Comment |
Unique and very rare Canadian beetle radio, in mint condition |
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