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Shorpy: RCA Victor Final Inspector -- testing radio frequency alignment and making final test of chassis.

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Beloved Leader

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Apr 23, 2013, 1:13:01 PM4/23/13
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http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110

John Byrns

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Apr 23, 2013, 6:52:56 PM4/23/13
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In article <82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com>,
Beloved Leader <Kim_J...@volcanomail.com> wrote:

> http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110

Can anyone identify the radio/chassis being inspected in the photo, I'm curious.

How does that odd spiral dial work?

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, http://fmamradios.com/

MarkS

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Apr 24, 2013, 6:52:14 PM4/24/13
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"Beloved Leader" <Kim_J...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message
news:82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com...
> http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110


Cool, wonder if that was building 17, the Nipper building. Nice watch, thin,
that couldn't have been cheap...

Terry S

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Apr 25, 2013, 7:44:02 AM4/25/13
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On Apr 24, 5:52 pm, "MarkS" <mshuc...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> "Beloved Leader" <Kim_Jong...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message
Looks staged. Why would he be grasping the control and the dial lamp?
And yes, that watch looks a bit "fancy" for a radio assembly line
technician.

Terry

MarkS

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Apr 25, 2013, 8:25:05 PM4/25/13
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"Terry S" <tschw...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:2173b2c9-6ac1-4501...@n5g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...
> On Apr 24, 5:52 pm, "MarkS" <mshuc...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>> "Beloved Leader" <Kim_Jong...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com...
>>
>> >http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110
>>
>> Cool, wonder if that was building 17, the Nipper building. Nice watch,
>> thin,
>> that couldn't have been cheap...
>
> Looks staged. Why would he be grasping the control and the dial lamp?

Yep, unless he was after a 6.3v tingle...

> And yes, that watch looks a bit "fancy" for a radio assembly line
> technician.
>
> Terry

Camden NJ had a great radio & electronics store called General Radio
Supply... as you might imagine being next door to RCA...

A lot of school teachers spent their summers cooking tomato soup in the
Cambell's facility...

Both gone..

*sigh*...what the hell happened!!??

BR,

Mark

Bill M

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Apr 27, 2013, 7:25:34 PM4/27/13
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John Byrns wrote:
> In article <82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com>,
> Beloved Leader <Kim_J...@volcanomail.com> wrote:
>
>> http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110
>
> Can anyone identify the radio/chassis being inspected in the photo, I'm curious.
>
> How does that odd spiral dial work?
>
Looks to be a 9K/9T or 10K/10T chassis. The individual bands pop up
in a window in the escutcheon. The bottom knob is fine tuning. It
doesn't show the native 0-100 fine tuning dial.

Richard Knoppow

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Apr 30, 2013, 3:48:16 PM4/30/13
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"MarkS" <mshu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Y_ydnY7o9JGL_-XM...@earthlink.com...
Since you seem to be familiar with the RCA plants in
Camden I wonder what else you can tell us about them. I know
the main building was at Front and Cooper streets, a
familiar address from RCA correspondence but they must have
had many other facilities in the area. RCA seems to have
moved its manufacturing to Camden after acquiring Victor
Talking Machine Co, in 1929. I know they had some other
plants outside of Camden such as the vacuum tube factory at
Harrison N.J. RCA Labs at Princeton and also evidently at
711 Fifth Ave in New York, and a large plant near
Indianapolis for manufacturing phonograph records and I
think also TV and radio sets.
There were some others too but I don't know any details
and am very interested in RCA history.


--

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dick...@ix.netcom.com


MarkS

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Apr 30, 2013, 7:32:03 PM4/30/13
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"Richard Knoppow" <dick...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:Yaadnfc8dJm-vR3M...@earthlink.com...
>
> "MarkS" <mshu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:Y_ydnY7o9JGL_-XM...@earthlink.com...
>>
>>
>> "Beloved Leader" <Kim_J...@volcanomail.com> wrote in message
>> news:82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com...
>>> http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110
>>
>>
>> Cool, wonder if that was building 17, the Nipper building. Nice watch,
>> thin, that couldn't have been cheap..

> Since you seem to be familiar with the RCA plants in Camden I wonder
> what else you can tell us about them. I know the main building was at
> Front and Cooper streets, a familiar address from RCA correspondence but
> they must have had many other facilities in the area. RCA seems to have
> moved its manufacturing to Camden after acquiring Victor Talking Machine
> Co, in 1929. I know they had some other plants outside of Camden such as
> the vacuum tube factory at Harrison N.J. RCA Labs at Princeton and also
> evidently at 711 Fifth Ave in New York, and a large plant near
> Indianapolis for manufacturing phonograph records and I think also TV and
> radio sets.
> There were some others too but I don't know any details and am very
> interested in RCA history.
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dick...@ix.netcom.com

Hi Richard,

I am afraid I don't know a heck of a lot. I grew up about 10 miles
southeast. And growing up there, a lot of friends dads worked at RCA. My
best friend got a job there in the late 70's and continues to work at the L3
Communications East facility, essentially the military / aerospace side of
the old RCA. The L3 buildings are newer more modern and don't believe they
were original to RCA but I might be mistaken about that. Most of the old RCA
buildings have been razed (there were over 20- Neutron Jacked if you will)
except building 17, the Nipper building- so called because the tower of the
building has the round stained glass Nipper windows, one on each of the 4
sides. During maybe the sixties, the nipper stained glass was covered up by
round white signs containing the new modern RCA logo of the time. At some
point, the covers were removed and the stained glass restored. My friend
started his career at RCA in bldg 17. The nipper building almost met the
same fate as the other RCA buildings but was saved and turned into luxury
apartments in the early 2000's.

Now living in central New Jersey, my chosen field, semiconductor laser
diodes, has its technology roots in the RCA Princeton R&D facility (now
Sarnoff Labs) and the RCA Somerville NJ facility (gone, now Wegmans & Home
Depot sit on the property- yeah; don't get me started). Early in my career,
I had a few production ladies from the old Harrison tube plant; those
tweezer wielding magicians were amazing, I still see one of them from time
to time when she comes in for a visit, now 80+ years old.

Best regards,

Mark

Richard Knoppow

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Apr 30, 2013, 10:16:07 PM4/30/13
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"MarkS" <mshu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:jqmdnbqVYdz5yR3M...@earthlink.com...
Thank you so much Mark. I think the Nipper building is
the Front and Cooper streets building and probably dates
from the Victor Talking Machine days. It shows up in the
aerial photos available from Google maps. I had thought the
round windows were clocks but the Nipper trademark makes
sense. I had many friends at NBC in Burbank and am no
friend of Jack Welsh. I think a more innovative and
imaginative person could have made RCA into a going business
again. Beside a lot of semiconductor development evidently
the famous Collins mechanical filters also were originally
developed at RCA Labs.

J. Severyn

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May 2, 2013, 3:32:51 AM5/2/13
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http://www.thevictorlofts.com/about-the-building/

Thanks MarkS and Richard. Very interesting history.

John

Richard Knoppow

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May 2, 2013, 1:50:41 PM5/2/13
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"J. Severyn" <severyn...@comcastNOSPAM.net> wrote in
message news:klt4ko$r79$1...@dont-email.me...
> http://www.thevictorlofts.com/about-the-building/
>
> Thanks MarkS and Richard. Very interesting history.
>
> John

Thank you for the link. You may be interested to know
that the painting of "His Masters Voice" which became the
Victor trademark, was originally painted with a cylinder
phonograph. It was seen by Emile Berliner, founder of
Victor. He liked it and had the artist overpaint the
cylinder machine with a disc gramophone. The painting was
in the board room of EMI for many years but I am told it is
now in storage. Nipper was well named, a bad tempered dog
who nipped anyone who came close.
My source for the story is Emile Berliner's grandson
Oliver.

Beloved Leader

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May 22, 2013, 12:05:32 PM5/22/13
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On Tuesday, April 30, 2013 3:48:16 PM UTC-4, Richard Knoppow wrote:
> "MarkS" <mshu...@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:Y_ydnY7o9JGL_-XM...@earthlink.com... > > > "Beloved Leader" <Kim_J...@volcanomail.com> wrote in > message > news:82b39228-7c4d-4895...@googlegroups.com... >> http://www.shorpy.com/node/15110 > > > Cool, wonder if that was building 17, the Nipper building. > Nice watch, thin, that couldn't have been cheap... Since you seem to be familiar with the RCA plants in Camden I wonder what else you can tell us about them.

HABS/HAER
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

OK, so it's HABS/HAER/HALS now.

Over on the left, try "Browse by: Geographic"
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/index/places/

New Jersey - Camden County - Camden

Et cetera.

Beloved Leader

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May 22, 2013, 12:09:16 PM5/22/13
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On Wednesday, May 22, 2013 12:05:32 PM UTC-4, Beloved Leader wrote:

HABS/HAER http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

OK, so it's HABS/HAER/HALS now.

Over on the left, try "Browse by: Geographic"

I can't resist. I'm looking at Jack Boucher's pictures now.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?q=Pennsylvania--McKean%20County--Mount%20Jewett&fi=places&co=hh

He died last year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Boucher
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