Teeny 1938 metal "Mighty-Mite" radio

[decojoe67]

Between 1938 and 1949, Arvin produced a slew of little rugged metal radios. This is the earliest and toughest to find model 40. It's also the only one that sans the Arvin name for "Mighty-Mite" on the escutcheon. It has only two tubes that do the job of 4. When I saw the opportunity to acquire this excellent original ivory example, I went for it.
I put a typical 1960 transistor radio next to it for comparison, so you see just how small this cute set is!:

[Electronic M]

Back in the fall I grabbed it's IIRC 4 tube cousin for $20...they are cute little sets.

I'd imagine a collector with a squaw at war with their collection probably has a few hidden in the couch cushions to get their radio fix.

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Back in the fall I grabbed it's IIRC 4 tube cousin for $20...they are cute little sets.

I'd imagine a collector with a squaw at war with their collection probably has a few hidden in the couch cushions to get their radio fix.

LOL - They do have a lot more charm in person than in a photo. The original ivory paint they used back then is so appealing with that almost porcelain finish.
I had gotten my favorite model a while back. The 1940 5-tuber model 502 with the bump-up on the right side top. That was has a great little deco dial with a dial lamp. It's a very good performer too.

[jr_tech]

Beautiful example! I never have seen the 2 tube model... is the 25B8 ok?

jr

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Beautiful example! I never have seen the 2 tube model... is the 25B8 ok?

jr

Thanks. The condition is what drew me to this one. It seems the 25B8 is good. I would hate to search for a replacement. It's probably easier to just buy a rough radio that has it.
It's strange only have two tubes and so far is proving to only play adequate. I have a bit of garble in the audio (it's had a full chassis resto) and other than using my AM transmitter, I don't hear much of anything across the dial. The later 4 and 5 tubers, in comparison, are surprisingly good players.

[Jeffhs]

About 40-45+ years ago, I had an Arvin model 540T 4-tube metal cabinet radio. The radio worked amazingly well in my area at the time, a suburb of Cleveland, using only the supplied wire antenna. Unfortunately, the set got lost in a move in 1972, IIRC; the photo of the 1938 Arvin Mighty-Mite attached to your post, however, reminded me of my green metal-cabinet 540T. These sets worked well in very strong to strong (read suburban) signal areas, but due to the simplified circuit (I think mine was the 4-tube model) they wouldn't have worked well or even at all in areas some distance from the nearest local AM stations, such as the village in which I live today (there is only one local AM station here, and that is a 1kW 24-hour talk station in the next town south of me; the local AM stations serving Cleveland are 30+ miles away). The 540T (and probably also your Arvin Tiny-Mite) does have an external antenna terminal, so it would be usable in an AM radio fringe area; however, due to the simplified RF signal circuits in both the 2- and 4-tube versions, I wouldn't expect super DX performance from either. I would also suggest that a lightning arrestor be used with any external AM antenna connected to this or any AC-DC tube radio, for safety reasons.

One thing I did not care for with this radio (the Arvin 540T, although this applies to any AC-DC hot-chassis radio), though, was the hot-chassis design. Depending entirely on which way the AC plug was inserted in the wall socket, the chassis and even the cabinet (the latter depending on the condition of the grommets insulating it from the cabinet), not to mention the external AM antenna terminal, would carry the entire AC line voltage, needless to say causing a shock hazard. Anyone who would put a radio such as this in a kitchen, bathroom or other wet area is, of course, asking for trouble.

IMHO, he best thing to happen to the All-American Five radio (which followed these two-and four-tube Arvins), IMHO, was when these sets were replaced by full-transformer powered AC tube sets and/or battery powered solid-state radios.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that a kitchen, bathroom or any other place having wet areas is no place whatsoever for an AC-DC tube-powered radio. Too many lives were lost when these sets accidentally fell into or were pulled into sinks, bathtubs, etc. full of water. The home's line fuse for the bathroom, etc. circuit would have (or should have) blown at once as soon as the radio hit the water, but in many cases (such as overrated fuses in the basement fuse box) these fuses blew too late, or if the homeowner replaced the fuse with a copper penny. The latter was a dodge often used in the '20s-'50s when the correct fuse was not available; the circuit was restored, but the circuit was now very dangerous. When the fuse was replaced with the penny, large amounts of electric current would then enter the wiring, causing a fire, since there was now no fuse or breaker to open the circuit. This practice was stopped dead in its tracks when new homes were constructed and wired with circuit breakers, which cannot be bypassed; the only way to restore the circuit is to flip the breaker back to "on". If the breaker trips again, there is a dangerous overload on that circuit which must be corrected.

BTW, I seriously doubt that Arvin, or any other radio manufacturer, was making radios for civilian use between 1941 and 1946, as all civilian production of radios and just about everything else came to a screeching halt starting in '41, at the beginning of World War II; civilian production of these sets, and everything else, would not resume until the war's end in 1946-'47.

[Electronic M]

AC disrupts nerve signals making it harder to let go, and also scrambles the heart signal effectively stopping pulse while current is flowing....DC resets the heart beat (like a one shot sync pulse) but doesn't stop heart function (unless you have a heart condition or you have such rediculous current flowing through that it is cooking you alive). Defibrillators basically are a single pulse DC source intended to resync an unstable pulmonary oscillator...