A street vendor and his radio-equipped cart circa 1928 in Washington, D.C. View full size. 4x5 glass negative from the National Photo Company Collection.
Submitted by Gary Tayman on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 8:07pm.
That radio looks very familiar, as I personally own an Atwarer Kent 60. The 55 and 60 were identical, except the 60 has an additional tuning stage for fringe reception. These models were introduced in 1929, and continued into 1930 and 31. By the knobs it appears to be a later version, so I would guess the photo was taken around 1930.
One more note: the standard 55 and 60 models were AC sets, but there were indeed variations available that used batteries. This may have indeed been one of the variations.
Submitted by Pondering Pig on Sun, 11/25/2007 - 9:47pm.
It appears from the crank that this is a hurdy gurdy man who has updated his presentation with a battery powered radio. He was clearly a very with it gent. As Brent points out, batteries were the most common way and perhaps the only way to power a radio in 1925. But where is the antenna?
On another subject, this negative has suffered some decay. Can anyone identify the cause of the efflorescence?
I don't mean to contradict you Earl but if the date of the photo is 1925 then it can't be the Atwater Kent 55 or 60 since as far as I can tell neither was manufactured in 1925. The 1925 date makes it extremely likely that it was a battery operated radio from whatever company since Ted Rogers Sr. didn't invent the first AC radio tube until 1925 and presumable they were pretty expensive in that first year of manufacture.
[The caption says circa 1925. Circa means approximately. It's a guess. It could easily be a few years after that. - Dave]
This is an Atwater Kent model 55 or 60 Radio. These were AC powered sets, so where is the power coming from? These sets sold for about $100 without tubes. The speaker sold for about $34. They were quite popular and modern for their time (1929).
