Canadian RCA Victor A-20 Globe Trotter 1939 John Vassos Radio
Very Rare 5-tube SW Radio Model A-20 "Globe Trotter", made by Canadian RCA Victor in 1939, in cabinet attributed to John Vassos, near mint condition
In a Nutshell
This is the second A-20 Globetrotter radio I restored, the other one being documented in ref.1
Introduction:
The Canadian General Electric Co., Ltd., and the RCA Victor Co., Montreal were important centers of radio development and production during the 1930's. Up for sale is the second instance of this prominent and rare example for this period, a Canadian RCA Victor A-20. An enthusiastic account of the radio has been written by John Rose (ref.2), who found his at the Bayhead Radio Museum in Bayhead, Nova Scotia, Canada. John as well as Mark Stein in his book "Machine Age To Jet Age I" attribute the cabinet to John Vassos (see below under Vassos). The radio as many of Vassos' designs (pict.36), features chrome parts, here two vertical bars across an arched speaker cloth. The slanted dial scale, and the intricately interleaved round and sharp edges give the radio a unique and rarely seen look. The set features a wide frequency range, with expanded broadcast-band including police band, and two shortwave bands continuously covering the whole SW range from 2.3 to 22 MHz.
About my Radio:
The radio is all-original, except the grill cloth, which however is authentic (ref.2). There is only one source left for new old stock of this arched pattern. The radio still has separate antenna and ground connections, needing extension by a long wire or an external loop to receive optimally. The radio has been partly recapped (there is no hum and all voltages are within specifications). It has been serviced and aligned. A youtube video had been published for the first restored radio (ref.3). Please
e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.
For the techies only: Transformers were used in all radios until the 1930's, when the so-called AA5 designs came up. Transformers decouple the 110V power outlet from the radio, and provide separate voltages for the heaters and the plates of the tubes. Transformerless AA5 designs use tubes, which have heater voltages adding up to 110Volt, and their plate voltages are provided by directly rectifying the 110V from the plug. Saving the transformer makes the radio cheaper and lighter. Often one of the two poles of the plug is connected to the chassis, potentially generating hazards, when touching the chassis, especially when the original unpolarized plugs are used. Transformer radios like this one are intrinsically safe. John Rose's radio (see Introduction above) has an odd utility plug on its back, which is polarized, whereas the main plug is unpolarized. My first restored radio had the same receptacle. The radio for sale here differs, in that it first is designed for 25/60Hz instead of 60Hz (pict.28), and therefore has this huge mains transformer, and secondly has no polarized plug anymore (pict.30). So, sometimes between serial numbers 2697 and 3801, the design was changed, but the puzzle still remains, as how it comes that a 1939 radio has a polarized receptacle, which is supposed to have been introduced in 1957?
John Vassos [1898-1985]: Detailed biographies can be found on the net. John Vassos, FIDSA (Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) was a noted US industrial and graphical designer. Born in Romania to Greek parents, he designed everything from hip flasks, subway turnstiles, paring knives, Hohner mouth organs, computers, an electron microscope, corporate logos, and illustrated books (including works by Oscar Wilde and graphic books cowritten with his wife) and magazines. In 1933 he established the first internal design department for RCA and remained as its consultant until 1964. In 1939 he designed the first consumer television sets for RCA that were introduced at the New York World's Fair. His RCA consoles (pict.36) are among the highest priced radios, like most radios by famous industrial designers.
