{"product_id":"radio-bluetooth-philips-vintage-de-1931","title":"Vintage Philips Bluetooth Radio from 1931","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePhilips 930A, 1931\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe French nicknamed it the ham box\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDecember 1931: Philips advertises in \u003cem\u003eLe Journal\u003c\/em\u003e. The new set costs 1,500 francs and rises in the pointed arch silhouette of a cathedral. The public, however, sees a ham. The nickname stuck, and it crossed borders: in German-speaking Switzerland, they say \"Schinken\". At the Philips Museum in Eindhoven, they more politely speak of the \"chapel radio\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Philips logo is in the grille\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook at the speaker. Three waves, four stars, in a circle. Philips was already drawing them in 1925 on the boxes of its radio tubes: the waves represented the air that sound travels through. In 1930, the brand enclosed them in a circle for the first time, around the opening of a speaker. Eight years later, this circle entered a shield with the name PHILIPS, the one the brand still bears today. On this radio, the logo is not stuck onto the front. It is the grille itself, in Bakelite.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAn architect who found Philips advertising old-fashioned\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLouis Kalff, an architect trained in Delft, was designing posters when he wrote to Anton Philips that his ads smacked of folklore. Philips hired him on 5 January 1925, at the age of 27. He drew the word PHILIPS in capital letters, then the brand's first sets: the Philips Museum counts the 930A among them. At Philips, a product did not leave the factory until it had been \"kalffed\". In 1958, it was he who would bring in Le Corbusier for the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIt is not wood\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dark red graining you see in the photos is printed. The cabinet is made of Arbolite, one of Philips' first plastics: paper, cellulose and phenolic resin fused under high pressure, then printed to look like rosewood. In 1931, disguising paper as precious wood was high technology. This finish is 95 years old and still shines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIt made the neighbors' radios whistle\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginally, it had four tubes and a \"reaction\" knob. Turned too far, it made the set whistle at every station and could jam the radio next door. Switzerland did not allow this circuit for that reason. Yet it can be found in the Swiss catalog, at 295 francs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat we kept, what we changed\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Arbolite cabinet and the Bakelite grille are those of 1931. The original electronics are gone, whistle included. In their place: a Focal Flax flax-fiber speaker, Focal B.A.M. acoustic insulation, a 50 W amplifier, Bluetooth and jack and RCA connections. It used to pick up three wavebands. Today, it plays Spotify.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe tracked it down in Tours. It is the only ham box in our stock. Lifetime warranty on everything we have installed in it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"A.bsolument","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55612971581767,"sku":"2478","price":3990.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0760\/1835\/2455\/files\/2478-pepite-vintage-bluetooth-absolument-1.jpg?v=1793199938","url":"https:\/\/www.a-bsolument.fr\/en\/products\/radio-bluetooth-philips-vintage-de-1931","provider":"A.bsolument - Radios Vintage Bluetooth | Fabrication française","version":"1.0","type":"link"}