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Rare Canadian General Electric KM-51 AM Radio, made in 1939 from brown mottled Beetle Plaskon, Serviced and Perfectly Working
In a Nutshell
This very rare beetle-plaskon radio made by Canadian General Electric is a real eye - and ear candy, especially at night when the case is glowing
Introduction:
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. Same thing for this radio, where some guardian angel took care that the (two) hairlines are at non-offending locations, one (the smaller one, in a corner of the speaker grille, pict.s 9,10), the other one (on top, pict.7,8) between two areas of swirls. Catalin, beetle and plaskon cabinets are often translucent, as is the case for this radio (pict.s19,20).
This radio is made by Canadian General Electric, but has some relatives at its US mother company (pict.21). I did not find any record for the dial of my radio (pict.14), which looks prettier than the others. There is also no sight of the schematics, which is a standard All American Five set with a small dropper resistor (pict.22).
Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.nostalgiaair.org
ref.2: http://radioatticarchives.com
ref.3: http://www.greenhillsgf.com/IndexOwn_CGE_KM51.htm
About my radio:
Both hairlines mentioned above, were sealed from both sides, by making a microscopic groove and filling it with properly tinted epoxy. They still can be located because of the translucency of the material, which leaves a light shadow of residual dark dust, that has accumulated deep inside the hairline. Such hairlines can be completely removed, if these grooves are made to go through the whole wall of the cabinet. I was thinking to use dental filler material made from acrylate or polyethylene fibers, not to compromise on mechanical stability, but leave that idea to the future owner of the radio. The radio's chassis was thoroughly cleaned and electronically serviced, all tubes tested and eventually exchanged with NOS ones, in case they were weak. The original field coil speaker had been replaced with a permanent magnet version, but the field coil was saved and still serves as part of the filter network, a solution to be preferred to replacing it too with a resistor. The radio comes with its original cardboard back plane (pict.11). It works with excellent sensitivity, selectivity and volume. Please
e-mail
me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français. I recently bought a second one, which has no cracks at all and looks like new (ref.3).
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 |
02286 |
| Cabinet |
Brown swirled beetle plaskon |
| Dials and knobs |
Printed paper dial, flat dial lens, two white plastic knobs with brass brights |
| Frequency Range |
AM 540-1600 kc |
| Controls |
On/off - volume, tuning |
| Tube line-up |
35Z5 (Rect.), 12SA7 (RF), 12SK7 (IF), 12SQ7 (Det.), 35L6 (Audio) |
| Size (WxDxH) |
10½ " x 7¼ " x 7½ " |
| Weight |
7 lbs, 3.3 kg |
| Comment |
Unique and very rare Canadian beetle radio, serviced and perfectly working |
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