Most Awesome 1940's home entertainment system ever?

[Cousin Hepcat]

Most Awesome 1940's home entertainment system ever?

The 1941 Philco "Beam of Light" Radio-Phonograph-Recorder with the first wireless remote ever, the "Mystery Control" , which itself was a battery-operated radio signal transmitter, transmitting radio instructions to the entertainment system:

The "Beam of Light" pickup didn't use the ordinary record-gouging steel-needle heavy pickups of the era, but a feather-weight sapphire attached to a small mirror, which deflected a beam of light to play the record: "This Close" to being a CD player:

And of course, it cut records too (cutting arm on left), for home recording:

Demo #1 of beam-of-light phono playing Jo Stafford, "The Best Things In Life Are Free":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMYYGWmTw1c

Demo #2 of the Mystery Control remote being used to change stations, etc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDWNGrm9Gk

Niiice...
- CH

 

[dhermann1]

That is completely and utterly amazing. I've never seen one of these before. And of course the woodwork is gorgeous.

 

[Talbot]

Fantastic!

 

[Hamilton_Honey]

Holy light beams!

Solid, brother! Now if only someone would get busy re-producing these beauties!!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My jaw literally dropped as I was reading how this works. I never knew these existed and I bet they set you back a pretty penny then and now!

 

[ScionPI2005]

That truly is awesome! I have heard about such phonographs that played records via a beam of light, but had never seen one before.

I can only imagine what one of these models in good condition must go for these days.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When they turn up nowadays they're usually in pretty rough shape -- Philco had switched to rubber-covered wire for internal circuitry, and usually they're found with the insulation cracking and flaking off. Pretty much the whole set has to be rewired to make it safe for use. There's also a lot of rubber in the phono head, which has to be completely replaced, and usually the photoelectric cell has also gone bad. Some people have had luck replacing the photocell with the cell from a laundromat coin-changing machine, but the rubber bits have to be fabricated from scratch.

If that wasn't enough, the plastic parts -- push buttons, knobs, and trim -- were made from an unstable material that decays and warps, so usually all of that also has to be replaced.

You can actually find these for a reasonable price in basement-find condition, but you'll put a *lot* of money and work into getting it working again.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Right you are Lizzie! Take it from the lady who knows radios!

Philco started to (maybe Lizzie can help me if I'm wrong) use rubber insulated wires in their 1940 models, before that they were cloth covered. The early Philco's I have are 1934-1937 and they are cloth covered.

This model is so rare to find in operational condition! You can find this set in non working condition in many places, and once in a while you'll find the remote.

I too have never seen the beam of light reproducer operate, that's pretty neat I must say!

Thanks for sharing Hepcat!

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

I can only imagine what one of these models in good condition must go for these days.

Me too.

I bumped into this guy in an antique audio gear restoration forum & we talked about it some.

Everything Lizzie & Forgotten Man said is spot-on. But add to that, not only the plastic parts are made of an unstable material, but also some of the working metal parts of this particular model record changer are made of another unstable material (pot metal). This guy said he got lucky and found one well-preserved & didn't have to rebuild those parts. (Yet.)

As for current value: a true unknown. Never seen anyone put in all the effort required to restore one to 100% working & great-sounding condition, and then be willing to sell it.

There's a big market for home-made cast metal wind-up phonograph reproduction parts. Maybe someday, there will be for the later 1930s-40s electric players, too.

- CH

 

[Dr Doran]

Astonishing. Thank you for showing us that marvelous thing.

 

[Chas]

Doubtlessly it would have cost big $$ back in the day. It's hard to imagine that there would be very many of those around, as I would think that very few were produced and sold. Folks would have had to be very wealthy/well off to even consider it, as the general public was hanging on to their money. The memory of the great depression hung on for quite some time after that, and very much affected attitudes around buying and consumption.

That, and probably six months after this thing was in the Philco shop the country was at war and all production was geared up for the military.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Now, I found that the 41-609P came with the "Beam of Light" reproducer and changer, and it cost $150. And there was a total of 6,607 made.

This is the model 609P:

Now, the model 41-610P was priced at $225. and the number made comes in at: 4,272.

Now, the model 41-616P (which this thread is about) cost originally $395. and the number of sets made is unavailable. However, I would say since it was $170 more then the model 41-610P the number made would be just under 4,000. I would guess.

There were families who could afford MORE than the Philco model 41-616P that were made by Zenith and Scott. There was money, and people LOVED radio in that era, and some people would save up for a good radio.

I did see the tele-remote for the model 41-616P at the Long Beach swapmeet a few weeks ago... the guy only wanted like $40 or so bucks for it. It was in good shape too, not sure if it worked but it was not in bad shape. The trick is to just find the 41-616P to go with it!

 

[dhermann1]

I just saw a very nice Philco set on Ebay, (I'll post it after it's ended) that has a couple of interesting features. It's an all purpose (meaning 78 rpm turntable as well as radio), but no remote. However it's a 1947 model with the post war FM band. The FCC changed the band from the pre war period, making the few ones that existed obsolete. I'd love to hear the sound quality on one of the very earliest FM radios in existence. BTW, Lizzie, I noticed on a pre war FM dial the the high end number was about 93. Does that mean that an old one would be able to pull in the low end of the modern FM spectrum?

 

[Fletch]

As for current value: a true unknown. Never seen anyone put in all the effort required to restore one to 100% working & great-sounding condition, and then be willing to sell it.

You'd think someone who had done so might be forced to sell, every now and then, if only because he died and left it to family. But you don't see them coming up restored at all, which suggests no one has fully restored one.

There's a big market for home-made cast metal wind-up phonograph reproduction parts. Maybe someday, there will be for the later 1930s-40s electric players, too.

It would be great, but as it is, the hobby community is very fragmented. Phonograph fans go for acoustic; electronics fans focus on radio; record fans want modern pickup. Even a great-sounding early-electric phono wouldn't interest many of them.

Unless there are economic reasons for that stae of affairs, that's where people's interests naturally lead, and that's not likely to change any time soon.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Sad but true, the windup players are mostly collected by those who just like the players and there will always be parts made for those. The people who collect records mostly use modern players and then transfer them to CD via computer connection.

I have a nice GE radio record combo I've shared here before, it's a table top model, early 40s or late 30s vintage but, it plays great! I wouldn't want to play my 78s on anything else! Well, windup maybe if the record is early... No late 30s and 40s swing on acoustics!!!

There are people who do fix the cartridges or do make a good replacement for them for electric players... just waiting for someone to make'em heavy like the originals with the interchangeable needles.

 

[Ampico-kid]

Howdy

Most Awesome 1940's home entertainment system ever?

The 1941 Philco "Beam of Light" Radio-Phonograph-Recorder with the first wireless remote ever, the "Mystery Control" , which itself was a battery-operated radio signal transmitter, transmitting radio instructions to the entertainment system:

The "Beam of Light" pickup didn't use the ordinary record-gouging steel-needle heavy pickups of the era, but a feather-weight sapphire attached to a small mirror, which deflected a beam of light to play the record: "This Close" to being a CD player:

And of course, it cut records too (cutting arm on left), for home recording:

Niiice...
- CH

Hello everyone;
I'm new to this site and this is my first post.

Last week I was doing an Internet search looking for a photograph of a particular Philco Beam of Light (BOL) record changer. As I scoured the many listings, I came across this one in the Radio section of the Fedora Lounge. I was quite surprised to find that the discussion centered around my Philco 41-616. I was also interested to see that the discussion included a few of my pictures and my YouTube demonstrations of the BOL and Mystery Control Systems.

I'm happy to see the positive response to this incredible electronic marvel, and I'm always delighted to share my knowledge and experiences.


I'd always wanted to find a nice BOL unit to restore, and I was quite happy when this Philco 41-616 came along on Ebay just over 4 years ago from a radio reseller in Indiana. It not only had the BOL, but also the Webster Chicago self sorting record changer, Mystery Control, and Philco's Home Recording System. It was Philco's top on the line for 1941, and it this particular case, the cabinet was in excellent condition as well.

I spent the next several years working on it, off and on. I kept running into roadblocks and would then take a break from it for a while to formulate my plan of attack.

It seemed that each section (BOL, Mystery Control, Record changer) had it's own unique and quite perplexing set of problems to deal with.

The "electronics" did include the dreaded "rubber wire" mess, and as a result much of the radio chassis needed to be rewired since the original rubber insulation fell off, or would fall off soon.

As was mentioned elsewhere in this thread the pot metal parts on the changer were an issue, but in this case (unlike what was mentioned in this thread) I did have to hand make some replacement parts for it.

The Mystery Control System as ingenius and clever as it is....seems to be rather unstable and requires frequent realignment to keep it working in top form.

I think the biggest obstacle of all was the BOL, there's really very little information available about it. I spent several years looking and listening trying to glean whatever information I could. I even had an "expert" rebuild the arm for me, and found the results totally unsatisfactory, so at that point I decided that if it were going to be done right...I'd have to figure it out and do it myself.

At the suggestion of a very knowledgeable and helpful individual I obtained a photovoltaic (photo cell) from a dollar bill acceptor and that was the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place. As simple as the concept might be to use a beam of light to produce the sound, it's quite a complex system and all of the various elements in the arm and headshell have to be just right or it won't work. Thankfully...I was able to put it all together and as you can hear by the demo on YouTube....it does work and quite well at that.

I don't know what the monetary value on something like this might be since I've never seen a working restored example for sale. For that matter I've never seen a working one (other than mine).....for sale or not.

I'm happy to have the opportunity to work with and enjoy this truely unique piece of wizardry dreamt up by the creative engineers at Philco.

Thanks for reading this.....
Bob

 

[chrismak]

great videos too! wow..

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

As was mentioned elsewhere in this thread the pot metal parts on the changer were an issue, but in this case (unlike what was mentioned in this thread) I did have to hand make some replacement parts for it.

Hi Bob,

Don't know why I thought you didn't have to rebuild pot metal parts; guess I got my wires crossed talking with other folks about other changer / cutting-lathe restorations - Wow, that makes the job even more impressive.

I'm "blacknwhite" on the radio forum.

Glad you made it over to the lounge! I used to hang out here a lot - still read now & then - great place.

Have fun,

- CH

 

[zetwal]

Impressive! and welcome to the Lounge, Ampico!

 

[Mickey D]

The OP's entertainment system is the Cat's Meow!