Can you identify this 1929 Sonora radio?
 

Well, it's not exactly a radio. It seems to be a Sonora radio body with a phonograph top (the top lifts up) spliced to it. It's a hobbyist built mechanical television, built in Saginaw, MI (where Sonora had an assembly plant), circa 1929-30. I'd be happy if someone could just tell me that this is actually a radio case or at least consistent with radios of the period. Thanks! Oh, and it's also in the Henry Ford Museum, but not on display. Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/3202154...7622275317859/

The cabinet appears to be greatly oversized compared to a radio cabinet and purpose-built just for this one-off application. Typical console radios of 1929-30 were on highboy or lowboy legs, not ball feet right on the floor. I'd say that there was so much equipment to be housed in this unit that a stock radio cabinet would not do, so this was built. Comparing the AC receptacle at the bottom rear of the unit with the actual size of one, and working a ratio, the unit would appear to be about 24" wide by 63" high, rather ungainly for a commercial unit and not typical of the style of the age, anyway.

Reece