Hello, I have recently acquired this rugged old gem. It’s missing it’s cabinet, so I posted here in cabinets as a starting point. I will upload a photo shortly. I wish to ask if anyone knows of another example, as I would like to build a faithful recreation to house my example.
Regards, Murray

Photos uploaded.

Hi Murray, looks pretty straightforward, a quick blow out with the compressed air, squirt with the contact cleaner and it should be ready to go!!!
That looks more like a test panel to detect gravity waves rather than a ?radio?.
What a mighty project.
Somebody should know something about it, like ..um..where are the valves?
Keep us informed of progess, I love it!
Fred.

I think Fred is right, it doesn't look like it was ever a radio. If it was, a very large amount of it is missing......

Look to me like a bunch of rheostats. Reminds me a bit of vintage diathermy equipment.

Hi Murray, take heart with this, i'm old enough (74) to feel right at home when I see a panel like that.
I grew up with and made electrical panels like that made with round bus wire and rheostats.
Usually such a panel may have been part of a process or a test thing.
The rheostats I instantly recognise, the wiring and the square block things looked straightaway like relays.
Could be part of a ships transmitter being the adjusting board for plate and filament currents or as Ian suggests part of a medical bit of equipment.
As a young apprentice I have had my head inside all sorts of equipment, scientific, medical, radio, industrial control and your board looks like part of a bigger thing.
Its a great bit of gear and fascinating and a survivor!.
Cheers, Fred.

or as Ian suggests part of a medical bit of equipment.

That is my suggestion, not Ian's.

Nonetheless, it would be good to determine what the heck it is!

Thanks everyone. It is the front panel of a British Ericsson four valve radio. I have found one example on the Internet, at radio museum dot org. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to put a hyperlink here, but you can google it. Step one is to find another example to measure the timberwork / cabinet.Many enthusiasts have emailed me with helpful suggestions, so thank you to all of those people. My search continues...

Links are allowed, providing they are relevant to the topic.

Hi Murray, I finally got around to looking at the link and now I see where the valves go.
A service mans delight!
Crikey you have a long way to go to re create that one.
Good luck.
Fred.

Thanks again Fred. It’s good to hear someone remembers this type of gear. It certainly is a long way from good condition. I have an uncanny knack of stumbling upon “difficult “ projects. I am really interested to learn about valve radios, circuitry, but I dabble in all sorts. I am almost finished restoration, as an example, of an early 1920s hit and miss engine, which I was given . It was in very poor form, and about 40percent complete. So I have the persistence required... it just takes time. That engine took about 8 years to track parts down, and do the work mostly myself... so I will see what I can do with this. As it seems to be very rare.. I could be in for a tough ride! Is it worth it? Well.. it belonged to my dad, who passed last year.. so I’d like to give it a red hot try.

Hi Murray,

That looks like a great project. When I first saw the picture I like most others thought that can't be a radio, but after I had a look on the radiomuseum site I was surprised how complete your set is. The coils may take a bit of head scratching to get right, but the rest looks very achievable.

If your luck runs like mine you will spend ages recreating the case, only to have one pop up on eBay the day after its finished. If you don't manage to get in touch with an owner to measure the case, you can actually get a lot of information from a printed photo if you have a reference dimension. You have the front panel so you should be able to calculate the box height and width. Calculations that come out to round numbers in inches and fractions like 1/4 or 1/2 will probably be accurate. The depth will be a little more difficult, but the internal components will give a good guide of roughly how deep it should be.

Good luck with it. It is great to see that you are keeping a piece of early radio history and your family history alive.

Regards, Frank.

Hello, everyone. I have had a little encouraging correspondence with a fellow member regarding this radio, and have sent application for membership to the people at radiomuseum.org .I reckon this might open some avenues for research.
I also had a scratch around in the dirt where I found this radio, and found a coil and both coil mounts. I think that’s a pretty good step forward, as I believe a new coil case should be easy to manufacture, the old one seems to be two parts of mounded plastic with the coils inside.

That's good news. With machines this age the originals were not made from anything sophisticated just your basic clay, metal or wood based materials. I don't think there will be any Bakelite or plastic in it, too early. Someone may correct me there.
So you should be able to use home workshop procedures to mould, fire or machine things from other things.
Good idea going back to the finding place even a piece of wire or a bracket is like finding gold.
Good work!
Fred.