Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 20 minutes ago
If I weren't, in my collecting habits, a "completist," .. I wouldn't have a radio like this. But I AM a completist and there's just nothing to be done about that now.
DuMont is an old name in the electronics business. And a big name. To help them sell the television sets they were pioneering in the 1930s, they formed--in 1940-- their own television network.
Yes, DuMont Presents the DuMont Television Network.. DuMont competed successfully with the likes of NBC and CBS in television broadcasting for sixteen years. What happened to the DuMont network in the mid-1950s is a long, convoluted story that ends, decades later, in a network we now know as Fox.
The DuMont company--that is to say DuMont Laboratories-- was founded in New Jersey in 1931. They are thought of these days only in terms of television--TV broadcasting, and the making of TV sets. For example as of this moment, Wikipedia doesn't even mention that DuMont made radios. Well, Wikipedia doesn't know everything.
Looking like the sort of radio that would appeal to a pipe-smoking guy with a moose head hanging in his den, this is the DuMont 1210. All these straps and snaps and rivets and brads give the thing a real luggage kind of feel. Its overall look is somewhere between a baseball glove and a steamer trunk. Boxy would be the word for it, I guess, if you wanted to use just one word.
The dial here is just about the most fashionable thing here. And practical too, since it's underpainted, the dial numbers won't wear off because, of course, they are literally painted on the underside. The rest of the decoration on the front is gold foil stamping which DOES wear off. It's not worn too badly here, but this style of applying lettering and logos was not terribly permanent. I think it may actually last longer on leather like this than it does on plastic. This radio might look better if the gold decoration on the front DID wear off. Here's the logo itself, just so you can fully appreciate what I'm saying. This logo, and in fact the entire design of the front of this radio, is what designers would typically characterize as..well.. hideous.
Inside, the label says "Du Mont model 1210 portable transistor radio, 9 volts, six 1-1/2 volt batteries, Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Bloomfield Avenue, Clifton, New Jersey." And here it shows the placement of the six transistors. This thing over the battery compartment says "To change batteries, remove this cover & replace six "C" size batteries--Eveready No. 935 or Burgess No. 1 or equivalent. Caution: Do not leave depleted batteries in case; [in case of what?] replace all six batteries at same time."
It looks like some of those batteries have leaked over the years. Haven't we all. It's not easy to see much in here. There's a circuit board. I see some General Electric transistors, in the top hat style. Those are the ones that look like Abraham Lincoln. Seen here wowing the audience in an Irving Berlin Revue. On stage, they're in fine form, but in the radio, they're in sockets, making them easy to replace. Although the promise of the transistor was that it would be a more-or-less permanent device, manufacturers weren't quite sure how permanent they would be in use, so many of the earliest transistor radios were made with the transistors in sockets for easy replacement.
From 1957, The DuMont 1210 portable transistor radio. In my collecting, I seek out things that are of interest to me in three different categories--things that interest me for their technology, for their historical significance, and for their beauty. Two out of three...
If I weren't, in my collecting habits, a "completist," .. I wouldn't have a radio like this. But I AM a completist and there's just nothing to be done about that now.
DuMont is an old name in the electronics business. And a big name. To help them sell the television sets they were pioneering in the 1930s, they formed--in 1940-- their own television network.
Yes, DuMont Presents the DuMont Television Network.. DuMont competed successfully with the likes of NBC and CBS in television broadcasting for sixteen years. What happened to the DuMont network in the mid-1950s is a long, convoluted story that ends, decades later, in a network we now know as Fox.
The DuMont company--that is to say DuMont Laboratories-- was founded in New Jersey in 1931. They are thought of these days only in terms of television--TV broadcasting, and the making of TV sets. For example as of this moment, Wikipedia doesn't even mention that DuMont made radios. Well, Wikipedia doesn't know everything.
Looking like the sort of radio that would appeal to a pipe-smoking guy with a moose head hanging in his den, this is the DuMont 1210. All these straps and snaps and rivets and brads give the thing a real luggage kind of feel. Its overall look is somewhere between a baseball glove and a steamer trunk. Boxy would be the word for it, I guess, if you wanted to use just one word.
The dial here is just about the most fashionable thing here. And practical too, since it's underpainted, the dial numbers won't wear off because, of course, they are literally painted on the underside. The rest of the decoration on the front is gold foil stamping which DOES wear off. It's not worn too badly here, but this style of applying lettering and logos was not terribly permanent. I think it may actually last longer on leather like this than it does on plastic. This radio might look better if the gold decoration on the front DID wear off. Here's the logo itself, just so you can fully appreciate what I'm saying. This logo, and in fact the entire design of the front of this radio, is what designers would typically characterize as..well.. hideous.
Inside, the label says "Du Mont model 1210 portable transistor radio, 9 volts, six 1-1/2 volt batteries, Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories, Bloomfield Avenue, Clifton, New Jersey." And here it shows the placement of the six transistors. This thing over the battery compartment says "To change batteries, remove this cover & replace six "C" size batteries--Eveready No. 935 or Burgess No. 1 or equivalent. Caution: Do not leave depleted batteries in case; [in case of what?] replace all six batteries at same time."
It looks like some of those batteries have leaked over the years. Haven't we all. It's not easy to see much in here. There's a circuit board. I see some General Electric transistors, in the top hat style. Those are the ones that look like Abraham Lincoln. Seen here wowing the audience in an Irving Berlin Revue. On stage, they're in fine form, but in the radio, they're in sockets, making them easy to replace. Although the promise of the transistor was that it would be a more-or-less permanent device, manufacturers weren't quite sure how permanent they would be in use, so many of the earliest transistor radios were made with the transistors in sockets for easy replacement.
From 1957, The DuMont 1210 portable transistor radio. In my collecting, I seek out things that are of interest to me in three different categories--things that interest me for their technology, for their historical significance, and for their beauty. Two out of three...
