Winston Churchill
Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the Britain as a people. He led Britain as a prime minister until victory over Nazi Germany had secured. Without this specific artifact( radio), Churchill's inspirational broadcast would not have been aired, and Britain would have not won victory over Nazi Germany.
As 1940 was fast approaching…RCA (radio corporation of America) needed a more modern dynamic microphone design to keep up with their main competitor....Western Electric. As we saw in previous articles, Western Electric had the jump on RCA with their very state-of-the-art models 630 “Eightball” and the 633 “Saltshaker”. The RCA model 50A “inductor” dynamic was becoming outdated.
RCA engineers came up with an excellent design to compete directly with Western's “Saltshaker”...it was dubbed the 88A. The 88A utilized the same “moving-coil” dynamic principle as Western Electric used in their dynamic designs which meant that RCA probably had to get licensing for it from Western Electric! This mike was non-directional and had kind of a “saltshaker” look to it as well using a rounded chrome perforated screen on the front.
The 88A was “pill” shaped with quite a different mounting arrangement than previous mic. Rather than having the stand mounting on one end of the mike they used a side mount location just back of the front screen that normally had the mike in a horizontal position...although it could be tilted to any position with its ball socket-type swivel. As with most of RCA broadcast mikes the stand mount used a half-inch pipe thread. RCA thought that this made it easier for stations to make up their own mike booms using readily available half-inch pipe. Most other mic manufacturers used a 5/8th inch size mounting which continues down to the present.
Information on Radios
Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the Britain as a people. He led Britain as a prime minister until victory over Nazi Germany had secured. Without this specific artifact( radio), Churchill's inspirational broadcast would not have been aired, and Britain would have not won victory over Nazi Germany.
As 1940 was fast approaching…RCA (radio corporation of America) needed a more modern dynamic microphone design to keep up with their main competitor....Western Electric. As we saw in previous articles, Western Electric had the jump on RCA with their very state-of-the-art models 630 “Eightball” and the 633 “Saltshaker”. The RCA model 50A “inductor” dynamic was becoming outdated.
RCA engineers came up with an excellent design to compete directly with Western's “Saltshaker”...it was dubbed the 88A. The 88A utilized the same “moving-coil” dynamic principle as Western Electric used in their dynamic designs which meant that RCA probably had to get licensing for it from Western Electric! This mike was non-directional and had kind of a “saltshaker” look to it as well using a rounded chrome perforated screen on the front.
The 88A was “pill” shaped with quite a different mounting arrangement than previous mic. Rather than having the stand mounting on one end of the mike they used a side mount location just back of the front screen that normally had the mike in a horizontal position...although it could be tilted to any position with its ball socket-type swivel. As with most of RCA broadcast mikes the stand mount used a half-inch pipe thread. RCA thought that this made it easier for stations to make up their own mike booms using readily available half-inch pipe. Most other mic manufacturers used a 5/8th inch size mounting which continues down to the present.
Information on Radios