This a close up of my 1923 Atwater Kent 3945 "breadboard" radio. This dates from just before the golden age of radio. It required a messy lead acid battery to light the vacuum tube and several more dry cell batteries for plate voltages. Note the early vacuum tubes with the exhaustion tips on the top. It's a thing of beauty on a mahogany breadboard, but became obsolete as fast as a x386 PC. Picture taken tonight.
Thanks for looking, comments welcome,
-Nick
http://members.localnet.com/~nickl/AK_3a.jpg
Edited by nlamendo on Sep 12, 2006 at 07:19 PM GMT (Reason: image edit)
nick...I love your old thing image......very nicely shown. The metallic appearance of the tubes is very nicely lit, and you've got great detail
Nice job!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful picture of your radio. I'm a ham radio operator and have a soft spot for tube radios. You can't beat the smell of a tube transmitter/amplifier heating up the room. Call me a geek, but this image definetely made me stop and think about this wonderful old techology. Best of luck with a really cool pic!
Bakelite, brass and what is that, green painted tin or steel for the base? That's just not stuff you see everyday, anymore!
But, when you do see it, you might appreciate seeing it in a properly color balanced exposure, with appropriately diffused light; it might be more attractive without the dust and some of the visual distractions, like the shadow in the top right of the frame, and the other object in the right background; and you might just want to see the whole thing, not just a part of it!
Other than all of that, what a blast from the past!
Thanks for the comments ToeTag.
If you think it is dusty now you should have seen it before I cleaned it. The object in the background is an Atwater Kent horn speaker, but I doubt anyone could recognize it. I wasn't happy with the light either, but I don't own a light diffuser and so this was the best I could do, in doors at night. I went with this cropped close up because I thought it looked better than the entire radio, antenna, and horn speaker. I've attempted to correct the white balance. Thanks for pointing it out.
ToeTag,
Thanks for the critical eye, it made try the shot a second time. I'm sure it still is deficient in many ways but I like it better than the first one I posted,
-Nick
Nick....I like the cropping and don't feel a need to see the whole thing. I also like the current image without the background object. As for the dust etc, I thought it was perfect the way it was.............
great shot
thanks for sharing it
Peter
wonderful photo, from such a pioneering age too. I love how the background and the cloth on the 'table' fits the age of the image. So what sort of tri-pod was it that you used?
Nothing against the photo at all but...
PS: is there a way to avoid you showing up on a reflection like this?
Hi Bren,
A double diffusion light box as close to the tubes as possible with out showing up in the photo would go a long way towards reducing the reflections seen in the tubes. I don't happen to own that kind of equipment, this is just a hobby for me, but someday I would like to own a light box and stand.
-Nick
?