The Philips 2601

written by: Hannah Schmit —
Object metadata
property value

Chronicles of Domestication: The Lives of Philips 2511 and Philips 2601

Dear reader, welcome to this biography. Over the next few pages, you are going to learn about the lives of the radios Philips 2511 and Philips 2601. Both were created in the first years of the Philips company’s activity as a radio manufacturer, and both belong to the period of radio domestication. We wish you a pleasant trip to the radio past!

Philips 2601: “Hello. My name is Philips 2601, and this is our biography. Before we begin by telling you our story, let us start with a round of introductions. I am a radio and a piece of furniture in one. I was built by the Philips company in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, in 1931 or 1933. I do not exactly know when I was built, because no date was ever found on one of my parts. But according to Albert Wolter, the gentleman who collected all the radios and donated them to the “Maison du Son”, I was built in either 1931 or 1933.”

Philips 2511: “A warm welcome from me too to our dear readers. My name is Philips 2511, and I am also a radio made by the Philips company. I was built on 16 July 1930. Let me ask you a question: up to this moment, have you wondered why my friend Philips 2601 and I share a biography? Well, you are going to find out in a moment.”

Philips 2601: “In picture Nr. 1, you can see what I look like.[1] The Philips company first created my radio type in 1930. I am a four-valve, all electric receiver with a built-in loudspeaker. As you can see, most of my exterior is dark red and black and my loudspeaker’s pattern is yellow and black. Its cover is also decorated with the logo of Philips. The stars in the logo represent the main product of the company, which were the light bulbs at that time. The waves stand for the waves of the radio, through which you can hear broadcasting and music coming out of me. If you look above the loudspeaker, you can see my buttons. Picture Nr. 3 showcases them with the fitting designations.[3] The master switch has different tasks. It can be used for turning me on and off or for choosing the wavelengths. Another possibility is to set it on position ‘G’, then it can reproduce record music from a gramophone for example. The turning knob on the left is for tuning control, while the one on the right is for volume control. The loudspeaker filter can be useful if for example interferences, like whistling noises, are caused by two heterodyning transmitters. My whole exterior is made from a material called “Philite”. It is similar to bakelite, but the Philips company had to name it differently because of patent rights. I am 81 cm high, 53 cm long, and 30 cm wide and I have four small legs. I weigh 40 kilograms, which is a lot compared to the small radios from the 21st century. It is because of my interior that I am this heavy. In this schematic, you can see what I look like from within.[4] I have 5 tubes, my wavebands are long- and mediumwave and I have direct amplification. My big built-in loudspeaker is also visible here. If you want to know what I sound like, scan this QR code:

image

Back to my internal parts, it is the receiver inside of me that already weighs 20 kilos. This is what bonds me to my friend Philips 2511. This receiver was first used in him and then, when the Philips company wanted to create a piece of furniture out of a radio, they used his receiver, and built me with it.”

Philips 2511: “Don’t you think people are now wondering why Philips wanted to create a mixture between a radio and a piece of furniture?”

Philips 2601: “Yes, I suppose that sounds confusing.”

Philips 2511: “Before we can explain this concept of radio furniture, I am going to tell our readers what I look like. Our following explanations will then be easier to understand. The next picture shows me.[5] As already mentioned, I was built in 1930, therefore I am older than Philips 2601. I am dark brown and black, and I look like a square box. For that reason, I received the nickname “The breadbox”. In order to be able to listen to broadcasts and music coming from me, an external loudspeaker is needed. It is sitting next to me in the photograph. As my receiver is the same as that of Philips 2601, you might have guessed that I am heavy too. I weigh 21,6 kilograms. I am 49,5 cm long, 27,5 cm high, and 23,5 cm wide. I have got two turning buttons; the volume regulator is on the left and the tuning knob is on the right. I was even the first Philips radio to have a tuning knob. The Philips company started building my model in 1928, therefore I was not the first one of my kind. All in all, my radio type was built until 1932 and sold over 120.000 times. To get an idea of what I sound like, scan this QR code: QR code of the video I made (source nr. 6 in my list on Github & Poseidon) Now that we have talked a lot about our appearances, we can reveal how the both of us came to exist.”

Philips 2601: “Have you ever heard of the concept of domestication? This is a concept within media and communication studies that describes and analyzes processes of how media technologies are accepted, rejected, and used. It gives the framework to understand the role of technology in everyday life. But what does “domestication” mean? It designates the process of how new technologies are integrated into the structures, daily routines and values of the users and their environments. Most often, this environment is the household. The goal of domestication is for the technologies to become part of the family, to be seen as comfortable and useful tools. How about the domestication of radios? This evolution began in the middle of the 1920s. The first radios that found their way inside the home were those with headphones. Often, when the owners only had one pair of headphones, only one person could listen to the radio. And this also means that this person was physically bound to it. ”

Philips 2511: “Those radios did not have a fixed place in the house. Each time someone wanted to listen to the radio, they had to build it up and afterwards dismantle it again and put it back into storage. Only at the end of the 1920s, when my radio type was first created, radio domestication really took place. The headphones were replaced with external loudspeakers like mine. The whole family could now listen together. This change from headphones to loudspeaker brought with itself the fixed position of the radio in the household, which was most often in the living room. Now, the owners could listen to the radio from different rooms and while doing different things. The next step in the domestication process was to let the radio become a piece of furniture, of which Philips 2601 is an example. The Philips company took a radio that already existed, in this case me, and turned it into something that could be part of the furniture standing in the living room.”

Philips 2601: “This means that both of us were immediate parts of the process of radio domestication. This process had also a broader societal impact. The first radio sets in the 1920s were very technical and only men operated them. Women were most often excluded from the listening experience. However, this was about to change with the shift from headphones to loudspeakers. Radios became less technical, there were less problems with interferences and tuning was improved with the wireless models. As technological problems were resolved and the radios’ exterior was adapted to the living room, women became the target audience. Since they were the most at home, radio programmes were planned according to the housewives’ imagined daily routine. From being on the outskirts of the radio experience, women became the central targets of broadcasting. Radio domestication therefore had an impact on society’s gender relations.”

Philips 2511: “When the Philips company constructed both our radio types in 1928 and 1930, they made advertisements to show their potential customers which type they should buy. In this excerpt of the general radio catalog of Philips from 1931, you get an impression of how radios were praised for potential clients. Philips 2601 is referred to as a “meuble de luxe”, while I am part of the “combinaison de luxe”.[6] In 1929, I was the most luxurious radio set available under the Philips brand name. This was highlighted by the many awards that I won. On October 29, 1928, I was voted “Best radio receiver” at the great Olympia Radio Show in London. In 1930, I won four different awards in the span of seven months: “Best radio receiver” at the great radio exhibition in Teplitz-Schönau in Czechoslovakia on February 12, the “Gran Premio” award at the great Spanish-American exhibition in Sevilla, Spain, on April 15, the highest possible award, a gold medal with diploma at the exhibition in Drammen, Norway, on July 31, and the gold medal at the annual fair in Wilna, Lithuania, on September 29. See? I was celebrated all around the world for my magnificence. I really was a luxury product and simply the best existing radio.”

Philips 2601: “Don’t get overexcited brother, we are still basically the same. However, the fact that you were one of the best radios at that time is quite astonishing considering that Philips only started building and selling radios in 1927. It was on 6 September 1927 that they presented their first radio, the Philips 2501. It was also at that time that radio builders worked on replacing the battery with electricity in the radios. This made it easier for users to install the radio because they only had to connect it to the power outlet. Philips reached its goal of an all-electric set with you, Philips 2511. The company was immensely successful with these radios because mass production allowed them to sell at acceptable prices. The designs were made by Philips’ design expert Louis Christiaan Kalff. He also invented the popular Philips logo with the waves and the stars. Philips’ radio business became rapidly huge, and they took the lead among the radio manufacturers in Europe.”

Philips 2511: “Generally, Philips radios were seen as the best on the market at the end of the 1920s to the beginning of the 1930s. Consequently, this means that Philips 2601 and I were built in the time when Philips became the biggest radio manufacturer, and we were part of this success.”

Philips 2601: “Exactly. We both therefore represent the domestication of radios and Philips’ radio history.”

[1] nr 7

[3] image

[4] image

[5] image

[6] image

Sources (second submission): —

  1. Philips 2511 - frontal view nr 1
  2. Philips 2511 - side view nr 2
  3. Philips 2511 - interior nr 3
  4. Philips 2511 - with loudspeaker nr 4
  5. Philips 2511 - close view on company logo nr 5
  6. Philips 2511 - broadcast (video to be found in Poseidon)
  7. Philips 2601 - frontal view nr 7
  8. Philips 2601 - loudspeaker with logo nr 8
  9. Philips 2601 - close view of buttons nr 9
  10. Philips 2601 - back nr 10
  11. Philips 2601 - interior nr 11
  12. Philips 2601 - interior close up view (1) nr 12
  13. Philips 2601 - interior close up view (2) nr 13
  14. Philips 2511 with Master Singer loudspeaker 900409-11-30, Radio 2511 and Meesterzanger (Master Singer) loudspeaker, 1929
  15. Packaging of Philips 2601 B3102, Packaging of radio 2601, 1931
  16. Brochure Philips 2511 from 1931 811.211 Brochure Philips 2511 (1931).pdf
  17. Brochure Philips 2511 Luxusempfanger from 1930 811.211 Brochure Philips Luxusempfanger 2511 (1930).pdf
  18. Brochure Philips 2601 from 1931 811.211 Brochure Philips type 2601 (1931).pdf
  19. Instruction manual Philips 2511 from 1929 811.211 Ontvangtoestel Type 2511 (1929).pdf
  20. Instruction manual Philips 2601 from 1930 811.211 Philips receiving set Model 2601 - Instructions for use (1930).pdf
  21. Advertisement “Zweiter Luxemburger Radio Räumungs-Ausverkauf”, Luxemburger Wort, 18 January 1936, p. 8: https://viewer.eluxemburgensia.lu/ark:70795/n0qts5/pages/8/articles/DTL567?search=Philips%202511 ad 18 01 1936 lux wort

  22. Advertisement “Philips 2601: mobile di lusso in Philite contenente” from 1930, in: Hagley ID, Box/folder number, John Okolowicz collection of publications and advertising on radio and consumer electronics (Accession 2014.277), Audiovisual Collections and Digital Initiatives Department, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE 19807. The website contains an email-address to ask about the copyright. https://digital.hagley.org/AVDJOPN2014_philips-italia-bw italian ad

  23. Dutch advertisement “The newest, best, and most beautiful Dutch radio receiver”, Overveluwsch Weekblad/Harderwijker Courant, 11 October 1930, p. 3, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2601 dutch ad

  24. Dutch advertisement “Philips Radio op den top der techniek”, Schilder’s nieuws-en advertentieblad, 18 October 1930, p. 4, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2601&mistart=4 other dutch ad

  25. Dutch advertisement “Geeft het allerbeste Philips Radio”, Utrechtsch Nieuwsblad, 24 November 1930, p. 12, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2601&mistart=4 24 november 1930

  26. Dutch advertisement “Uw kerstgeschenk moet iets moois zyn”, Utrechtsch Nieuwsblad, 19 December 1930, p. 15, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2601&mistart=4 19 december 1930

  27. Dutch advertisement “Philips De Overwinnaar”, Het Nieuws, 4 January 1929, p. 183, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2511 2511 1929

  28. Dutch advertisement “Philips Luxe Ontvangtoestel N° 2511”, Het Nieuws, 4 January 1929, p. 1014, https://www.archieven.nl/en/search?mivast=0&mizig=304&miadt=0&miview=ldt&milang=en&mizk_alle=Philips+2511&mistart=4 1929

  29. Instruction manual of the Philips 2511 Philips - Ontvangtoestel type 2511 gebruiksaanwijzing.pdf

  30. Instruction manual of the Philips 2601 nl_philips_2601_man_01-merged.pdf

  31. Excerpt General Philips catalogue from 1931 SKM_C224e23060512170.pdf

  32. Publicity picture of a woman with a Philips 2511, https://www.vintageradio.nl/radio’s/philips_2511_engels.htm publicity picture of a woman with a 2511

  33. Schematic of the Philips 2601 - frontal view, https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_2601_3.html 2601_1487399

  34. Schematic of the Philips 2601 - back view 2601_1487400

  35. Philips 2601 from 1931 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwTkkJsq5mE

  36. Philips 2511 from 1928 https://www.vintageradio.nl/radio’s/philips_2511_engels.htm

Literature: —

BERKER, Thomas/HARTMANN, Maren/PUNIE, Yves/WARD, Katie (ed.), Domestication of Media and Technology. Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005.

BIRAUD, Guy, Les Radios PHILIPS de Collection. 1928-1948, Vol. 1, Fontenay-le-Comte : Edition CVR, 1983.

DAHL, Peter, Radio. Sozialgeschichte des Rundfunks für Sender und Empfänger, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1983.

DANNEHL, Karin, Object biographies: from production to consumption. In: HARVEY, Karen (ed.), History and Material Culture. A Student’s Guide to approaching alternative sources, London: Routledge, 2009, p. 171-186.

FRIEMERT, Chup, Radiowelten. Objektgeschichte und Hörformen, in: Ruppert, Wolfgang (ed.), Chiffren des Alltags. Erkundungen zur Geschichte der industriellen Massenkultur, Marburg: Jonas Verlag, 1993.

LENK, Carsten, Die Erscheinung des Rundfunks. Einführung und Nutzung eines neuen Mediums 1923-1932 (Konzeption Empirische Literaturwissenschaft, 20), Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1996.

MOORES, Shaun, Media and Everyday Life in Modern Society. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000.

MOORES, Shaun, ‘The box on the dresser’: memories of early radio and everyday life. In: Media, Culture & Society 10 (1988), p. 23-40.

MÜSKE, Johannes/FÖLLMER, Golo/HENGARTNER, Thomas/LEIMGRUBER, Walter (ed.), Radio und Identitätspolitiken. Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven (Studien zur Popularmusik), Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2019.

WALZ, Rüdiger, Einstieg von Philips in den Radio- und Röhrenmarkt. (22.05.2023), in: Radiomuseum, URL: https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/einstieg_von_philips_in_den_radio_und_roehrenmarkt.html#1 (last accessed 23.06.2023).

WALZ, Rüdiger, Philips 2601. Restaurationsbeschreibung (14.12.2015), in: Radiomuseum, URL: https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/philips_philips_2601_restaurationsbeschreibung.html (last accessed: 23.06.2023).

WALZ, Rüdiger, Philips 636 A – Teil 1. In: Funkgeschichte Fachmagazin für Interessierte der Geschichte des Funkwesens 46/268 (2023), p. 82-88.

WALZ, Rüdiger, Philips 636 A – Teil 2. In: Funkgeschichte Fachmagazin für Interessierte der Geschichte des Funkwesens 46/269 (2023), p. 134-139.