This radio is almost unique in the way it can be powered. It deserves to be conserved and restored.
The Delco RA-3 (table model) and RB-3 (floor model)
This is the first series of radios designed and built by Delco in Rochester, NY. I believe the model year is 1932. (There is a Delco-Light Service News Vol. IV #3 Dated September 1931 showing the floor model RB-3.)
This radio is designed to run off their 32 Volt DC light plants. At the time, there were not any tubes that could deliver sufficient audio power with only about 30 Volts on the plate circuits. You needed voltages of 90 volts or better..... In this particular set the high voltage was to be provided by three large 45 Volt dry batteries wired in series.
But if you wanted to run the radio completely from the Delco light plant, they had a far more interesting (and I think - unique) solution. That was a motor/generator set known as the Electrifier.
While motor/generator sets were being developed for automotive, commercial and military use, I know of no other HOME BROADCAST radio to use an M/G set until the 1935 Grunow model 6HB.
The radio and the Electrifier are fully documented in the United Motors service manuals. I have a copy of that. What I do not have is any advertising or users manual for this series.
Scans of any info not contained in the United Motors manuals would be greatly appreciated.
I would greatly appreciate scans (or even photos of the pages if you don't have a scanner) of the Delco-Light Service News mentioned above.
I'm told that the console model of this set had the Electrifier mounted under the chassis. It did not have the wood dome cover.
My thanks to Geoff Bourne and Fred Crews for their interest over the years in finding this interesting set and the matching motor/generator.
Fred had brought the Electrifier to my attention some years ago... I was happy to find this one at the AWA auction back in 2006.
This year Geoff spotted the radio at Lansing and was kind enough to buy it for me....
With any luck I'll have enough info to bring it back to Rochester next year for exhibition.
My Delco RA-3 with the matching accessory motor/generator set called the Electrifier.
The Electrifier ran off 32 VDC and produced 140 & 70 VDC to replace the otherwise necessary external 45 Volt 'B' batteries. (Three of them - each about the size of three standard bricks. With 2 hours listening a day, they would last 9 to 12 months.)
Here is the datasheet for the Electrifier
