General Electric C19

GE C19

Manufacturer: Canadian General Electric, Toronto, Canada
Model: C19
Approximate Date Of Manufacture: 1947
Type: 5-tube Superheterodyne AC/DC AM broadcast band radio
Tube lineup: 35Z5GT, 50L6GT, 12SK7, 12SA7, 12SQ7
Status: working, restored
Where purchased: Stittsville Flea Market, March 2004

Description

This is a pretty standard five tube AM radio with bakelite case. The set was working when received, It had some hum and a noisy volume control. It was missing the pilot lamp, the internal coil antenna was falling off, the line cord was brittle, and the dial lens was falling off and taped in place. The case was free of any cracks, but someone had repainted it with a thick coat of shiny white paint using a brush!

Underneath the new paint (and on the bottom) was the original paint, an off-white colour. After stripping off all of the paint (it was quite a chore to get all of the 60-year old paint out of the speaker grille), a nice brown bakelite was revealed. It looks so nice, I decided to keep it this way. I believe this model was offered in the natural brown bakelite colour as well as painted white. The knobs appear to have originally been brown bakelite.

As well as stripping the paint, restoration consisted of a good cleaning which revealed a nice clean shiny chassis and tubes. The back panel had become warped and was straightened out. The dial cover was a little warped and had some scratches. I left this as is, as it was very fragile and handling it was causing more paint to flake off.

Electrical restoration consisted of purchasing a schematic, replacing all wax and filter capacitors, replacing the 117V dial lamp, cleaning switch and control contacts, and replacing the line cord. A couple of the capacitors appear to have been replaced from the originals.

A label on the bottom describes the warranty and the requirement for a Canadian radio license.

Pictures

This image shows the radio as received. When it was repainted, they didn't even bother to remove the knobs!

This image shows the chassis before any cleaning or restoration work was done. Note the internal antenna held in place with scotch tape!

Here is the chassis after it was cleaned up.

This tube layout label was inside the case of the radio.

Rear view of the radio. Not much to see here other than the fahnstock clip connector for an external antenna.

Here is the restored radio.