![]() ![]() The Philadelphia Storage Battery Company decided that prices of radios could be scaled for a mass market by incorporating assembly line techniques then only used by the automobile industry. Atwater Kent, the leading radio seller, coincidentally was also located in Philadelphia. Up to that time most radios were handmade and priced for relatively wealthy consumers. The first Philco radios were introduced in mid-1928, and 96,000 were produced that year, making Philco radios 26th in the nation in production volume. In 1926, Philco decided to begin making radios. By 1927, over a million of these units had been sold, but the invention of the vacuum tube rectifier (incorporated into the coming 1928 line of radio sets) made this technology obsolete. ![]() Philco Socket Power A & B Battery Eliminators - 1925 August brochure Philco Model B-60 "B" Socket Power Battery Eliminator - August 1925Ī very successful August 1925 consumer product, called the "Socket Power Battery Eliminator", was a rectifier unit which enabled users to operate their battery-powered radios from standard light or wall sockets. Model A-60 "A" Socket Power Battery Eliminator shown. Radios Philco produced Socket Power "A", "B", and "AB" Battery Eliminators, starting in August of 1925. From 1920 to 1927, all radios were powered by storage batteries which were fairly expensive and often messy in the home. They later supplied home charging batteries to the infant radio industry. As the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, in 1906 it began making batteries for electric vehicles. ![]() As this line of business slowly foundered over the last decade of the 19th century, the firm experienced increasingly difficult times. From its inception until 1904, the company manufactured carbon-arc lamps. Philco was founded in 1892 as Helios Electric Company. Philo Farnsworth, credited for inventing the first fully functional all electronic vacuum tube television system ( U.S. Philco built many iconic radios and television sets, including the classic cathedral-shaped wooden radio of the 1930s (aka the "Baby Grand"), and the Predicta series of television receiver sets of the 1950s. By the end of 1930, they were selling more radios than any other maker, a position they held for more than 20 years. D'Andrea Radio), and AH Grebe into the battery-powered radio business. ![]() They followed other radio makers such as RCA, Atwater-Kent, Zenith Electronics, Freshman Masterpiece, FADA Radio (Frank A. With the invention of the rectifier tube, which made it practical to power radios by electrical outlets, in 1928, Philco entered the radio business. In the early 1920s, Philco made storage batteries, "socket power" battery eliminator units (plug-in transformers), and battery chargers. In other markets, the Philco International brand is owned by Electrolux. In North America, the Philco brand is owned by Philips. Ford sold the company to GTE in 1974, and it was purchased by Philips in 1981. In 1961, the company was purchased by Ford and, from 1966, renamed "Philco-Ford". Philco was a pioneer in battery, radio, and television production. Philco (an acronym for Philadelphia Battery Company) is an American electronics manufacturer headquartered in Philadelphia. ![]()
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