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Murphy Radio 1932

The model A3 had been launched in 1931 and was Murphy’s first AC receiver. It was still on sale in 1932, though the position of the tuning window had moved slightly. The set cost £17.17.0 and was replaced towards the end of 1932 by the model A3A. The same cabinet was retained throughout, though the tuning window for the A3A was returned to the position used in the original A3 receiver from 1931. About 15000 A3 receivers were sold. The image below right shows a view of the inside of the receiver. It can be noted that this particular set has yet to be restored, and sports decades of dust. A dust-laden chassis is usually a good sign for a collector, as it indicates that the receiver has not been "messed around" by other collectors, reducing the risk of unwelcome surprises during restoration (eg mains transformer smoking). It can be the case that receivers are sold by other collectors either because a fault was too hard to repair or that the required components could not be located. However, in the example shown above it does appear that the valves are not original. The cabinet is made of solid Walnut. After this receiver Murphy adopted the Superhet circuit design in all models bar the cheapest battery sets in the range, hence this was the last "straight" mains receiver. From the table below it can be noted that the price of the A3A and A8 dropped substantially during the course of the year. Frank Murphy had concluded that sales of his receivers were dropping because the price was too high. He therefore held meetings with dealers around the country where an agreement was struck that would reduce the profit margin on receivers sold. Frank Murphy reasoned that the lost profit would be recovered through increased receiver sales. Unfortunately those dealers who already had receivers in stock bought at the old trade price were not compensated for the reduced sale price.

Shown here is the later version of the B4 radio. This transportable model features the semi-concentric circles in the loudspeaker grille as opposed to the mirrored “M” of the very first Murphy radio. The area to the base of the cabinet would be where the H.T. high voltage battery and accumulator would have been situated. At the moment a smaller rechargeable battery is in position to supply L.T current and 14 9v PP3 (“D”) cells have been linked together to provide approximately 126v H.T. for demonstration purposes.

At the top right of the images above the following text is visible "Courtesy BVWTM". This insert appears on a few of the pictures in the Murphy section to acknowledge that the British Vintage Wireless And Television Museum in Dulwich has kindly provided access to their collection to enable some receivers I do not (or have not) personally own to appear on these pages in addition to the line drawings at the end of each year page.

Continue to view the groundbreaking A8