Radios in the 30s and 40s

St Germain | 22:09 Thu 04th Jan 2007 | History

6 Answers

How were home radios powered during the war years. Were they powered by electricity through the mains or were they battery powered?

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Ethel

Many homes still used accumulators - huge heavy 'batteries' filled with acid.

They had to be recharged, but you couldn't do it at home - the local bicycle shop or garage used to do it, for a fee. Most homes had two, one to charge and one to use.

-- answer removed --

Mikeyd2

A potted history here...

http://www.portabletubes.co.uk/sitefiles/pthis tory.htm

heathfield

I well remember as a nipper having to trudge round to the local garage to have the 'accumulator' re-charged. It was a lead-acid battery in a glass housing measuring about 4in x 4in x 9in, and for me, heavy. As Tonyted says, this was for the valve tube filaments. The high voltage was produced by a dry battery pack about the size of a small laptop and about 4in high that produced, I think, about 90 volts.
Radios were also owned that used d.c. mains power, common then in some localities. I also remember when the mains in our house was changed over to a.c. The electricity suppliers converted all the d.c. radios for free so's they'd work on a.c. (No problem for TV sets - there was just no TV in those days!).

St Germain

Question Author

Thank you very much, all of you, for your very helpful answers