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TinyTone Radio Co.
was founded in the 1935 in
Kearney, Nebraska, by Paul Beshore and his brothers, making
crystal receivers, based on a prefixed crystal diode
patented by Paul Beshore in 1933. This pocket radio was
about as big as a matchbox and was called TinyTone. |
| The
advertisement from Popular Mechanics below shows
a Tiny-Tone crystal receiver made in 1936. The radios could be ordered by
mail. They came in four different colours. |
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In the early 1940's the
company chaged its name to Western Manufacturing Co. |
| With
the outbreak of WWII the company began bidding for
government orders and were soon making aircraft parts
and components for a bomb sight.
After the Second World
War the Beshores started selling miniature crystal
receivers again, using model names like Pa-kette,
Tiny-Mite, Pee Wee and Ti-Nee. Advertisements were
placed in magazines like Popular Mechanics, Popular
Science and Mechanics Illustrated. The receivers were
cheap, the price was only
a few dollars. The design of these crystal radios
greatly influenced the design of the later pocket
transistor radios. |
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| Advertisement in Popular Science,
January 1947. One of the first post-war receivers was
the Pa-kette (smaller that a packet of cigarettes). This
radio really has the look of a much later shirt pocket
transistor radio. Western Manufacturing sold the radios
under company names like Pakette Electric Company and
Midway Company. These receivers were made until the
1960s, the last models using a germanium diode. |
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