National Carbon Co. "Eveready" Radio Receiver With Speaker
date: label: Date made
content: 1928
name: label: early developer of radio receivers
content: Goldsmith, Alfred
label: maker
content: National Carbon Company
notes: label: Description
content: Radios, like this Eveready model 2, provided many families of the 1920s with a new form of home entertainment. Amateurs began making home radios to transmit and receive messages early in the 1900s. But using these radios called for engineering skills and a license. Early receivers, called "crystal detectors," while relatively easy to make, required some technical skill and were low in power.
label: Description
content: In 1916, David Sarnoff proposed that American Marconi Company sell broadcast transmitting equipment and "radio music boxes" that could receive the broadcast signals. After World War I, Sarnoff and his idea became part of the new Radio Corporation of America (RCA). A 1920 prototype radio designed by Alfred Goldsmith featured a few simple controls and needed no technical training to operate. RCA and other companies established AM (Amplitude Modulation) stations and began selling receivers. Stereo broadcasts were unknown, so radios needed only one speaker.
label: Description
content: Listeners were entranced by this new medium that delivered both local news and nationwide "network" programming. Since radios could operate on batteries, reception spread beyond cities. Unelectrified rural areas began tuning in, making farm life seem less isolated. Families began to gather around their radios in the evenings to hear music, sports, comedy, drama—and the commercials that paid for "free" programming. The voices of political leaders and entertainment celebrities reached millions of Americans.
label: Description
content: Elaborately styled cabinets, usually of wood, disguised technical components and allowed the radio to blend more easily with other home furnishings. This Eveready model is unusual. The cabinet is metal instead of wood, and can accept optional legs that permit the radio to be converted to a floor-standing model. Radio quickly became popular with Americans, so much so that statistics indicate only two electrical items sold well throughout the Great Depression: light bulbs and radios.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
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content: Popular Entertainment
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping. American Broadcasting
label: Related Publication
content: Lewis M. Hull. US Patent 1,672,811
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Charles Arndt
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2002.0149.01
label: catalog number
content: 2002.0149.01
label: accession number
content: 2002.0149
objectType: label: Object Name
content: radio receiver
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 23 cm x 57.8 cm x 28 cm; 9 1/16 in x 22 3/4 in x 11 in