Search Results

The origin of the car radio is, like that of the automobile, an obscure one. This paper attempts to describe its early-history in the United States and Western Europe, briefly describing at the end some recent developments made possible by modern technology.

The evolution and development of the automobile radio antenna is perhaps one of the most neglected success stories in the automotive industry. Born in the twilight of the last century, it evolved from a simple wire wrapped around a tree branch, to the current heated rear screen or backlite antenna. Part One (SAE No. 870090) described seven types of antennas in detail, covering the period 1897-1937. It was shown how the early radio engineers, struggling to develop a viable car antenna, had displayed a great degree of creativity and flexibility, from the “firecracker” experiments of Guglielmo Marconi in 1897, to the ingenious systems developed to overcome the problems created by the all-metal Turret-Top vehicles introduced by General Motors in 1934. In those pioneering days, the United States public was having a love affair with both the automobile and radio broadcasting, so it was no surprise that their marriage did not take long to arrive.

“There's nothing new under the sun,” the old proverb says. But you only have to read a magazine, scan a periodical, listen to the radio, watch television, or glance at the multitude of ads that promise that such and such product is the latest trend or has up-to-date, state-of-the-art technology, to seemingly prove the old proverb wrong. However, old proverbs become old because they withstand the test of time. In this case, a hasty judgement should be withheld. Currently, as in the past, the above holds true for car radios as well. Whether in the United States, Europe, Canada or Latin America, the public has always been susceptible to last minute technological advances. It is curious then, that as far as car radio styling is concerned, their appearance has been typically rather conservative, and that it is only recently that styling has begun to change to be more in tune with the times.

While one probably tends to think that car radios were invented and developed in the United States during the early twenties, it was actually in Chelmsford, England, that the first mobile experiments took place. Designed by Guglielmo Marconi, the first mobile installation antenna on record goes back to 1897. On the other side of the Atlantic, the experiments of Guglielmo Marconi were continued by the Americans Lee Deforest and Edwin Armstrong, who set the foundations of radio early in the twentieth century. Lee DeForest had been one of the prime advocates of “automobiles as wireless stations.” Early in 1903, and as told by a magazine of that era, “he fitted his instruments to automobiles so that the electricity which propels the automobile while in motion can be used for wireless telegraphy when the automobile is at a standstill”.