In a Nutshell
Very unconventional design of an early tombstone radio, more like a portable console radio

Introduction:
On March 15, 1929 the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) bought the Victor Talking Machine Co. for $154M. Up to then RCA had been a selling agency for radio makers General Electric and Westinghouse. RCA owned the patent of Edwin Howard Armstrong's heterodyne receiver and used it to monopolize the market for this type of receiver until 1930. There were three ways to get a superhet: buy it from RCA (or one of their partners Westinghouse, AT&T and GE), buy a "kit" from the competitors or build one yourself. In the early 1930's, the superhet receiver had ousted the Tuned RadioFrequency receiver (TRF). Armstrong, who also was the inventor of FM in 1933, in grief and despair after being abandoned by his wife of 31 years, Marion (she was the secretary of RCA president David Sarnoff) and tired from his life-long legal patent battles jumped from the window of his 13th-floor apartment in New York on Jan.31, 1954. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1980. The early superhets were large and expensive consoles. The big depression asked for smaller, more compact and lower cost radios. Canadian Westinghouse built a compact version of the "Columaire" grandfather clock radio in 1931 (also on CL), RCA introduced the "Superette" line in 1931 with the R7 table radio (and R9 console, ref.2). General Electric with this "compact" 37-pounder "Junior" S-22 tombstone radio joined the club.
Some of these early sets used filter condensors beautifully made by Ralph Mershon, and some exposed them even very prominently at the radio's back edge (like the Philco 70 and 90, ref.3). Restorers try to keep the beautyful copper shells and hide new components in them, which is not a trivial task (pict.s 37,38, youtube video in preparation).

Additional information:
ref.1: http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/general_el_ge_junior_m_s22.html
ref.2: http://www.hupse.eu/radio/frameset.htm?ge_s22v.htm&ContentFrame
ref.3: http://mcclellans.com/Philco90Restoration.htm
ref.4: http://www.

About my Radio:
My radio is all-original (including the floral pattern grille cloth) and in excellent condition, both cosmetically and technically. It has a full set of 8 globe type tubes and works perfevtly. A switchable RCA connector has been installed by screwing it onto the corresponding original factory terminal (pict.41), to connect to cell phones, mp3 players and alike. A youtube video showing the radio playing is in preparation, meanwhile the raw 30 MB Quicktime .mov file can be downloaded here. Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

For the historians only:
Ralph Davenport Mershon [1868-1952] was an electrical engineer and inventor. He invented the (wet) electrolytic condensor (old word for capacitor), produced by AMRAD, which was bought in 1925 by Crosley, who used the condensors in his own radio sets and sold them also to Zenith, Sparton, GE, Westinghouse and many smaller companies. He sold the Mershon division to Magnavox in 1930 when also Philco and RCA started to use these condensors. Mershon condensors used conventional aluminum anodes insulated by paper inbetween, which was saturated with an electrolytic liquid (borax) instead of wax. They were not sealed, had to be kept in a vertical position, and were prone to dry out. Today they are very collectible and the beautiful copper shells are excavated and filled with modern compact electrolytic caps.

Here are the specifications:

Please have a look at prices and more radios, phonographs and gramophones  here