Radiophile.com - Jewel 855

Jewel 855, ca. 1948

Approximately 7-7/8 inches / 20 cm wide.

Tube complement: 12BA6 RF, 12AT6 detector, 50B5 audio output, 35W4 rectifier.

This is the common four-tube TRF circuit—they were still making 'em at the end of the 1940s. And with miniature tubes, no less. And even an obscure brand like Jewel had tubes OEM'd with its own brand name printed on 'em.

Jewel radios were really made by some company like Mirrortone or Meck or Monarch Sales Co.—who knows who was really manufacturing these? The names seem interchangeable. After WWII there must've been at least a couple of manufacturers stamping out really cheap AA5 radios in plastic cabinets under a variety of brand names. These radios often used cabinets made from pre-war molds—many are in cabinets similar to my Firestone S-7426-6 and my G-E GD-520, for example.