“Amplification Without Distortion,” Acme Radio Co. 1925. Full Book Download…

Download the 40pp book/advertorial “Amplification Without Distortion,” as published by the Acme Apparatus Company of Cambridge Mass in 1925:

DOWNLOAD: Acme_AWD_1925

We haven’t run anything quite so Ye Olde for a while, so I was excited to come across this odd little item at the flea mkt recently.  Acme made a few transformers and other radio-part-flotsam and this book offers fundamental advice and construction information regarding RF and AF amps.  I’ve included some of the more relevant Audio Amp information below; I’m not a radio guy so I can’t comment on that stuff…  At left is their A-2 audio transformer, seems like a Plate-to-Grid unit based on the specs.  I think I actually have one of these around somewhere…

I actually own a few of these super fkkn old homemade radios, and they are really pretty fascinating, starting with the fact that there’s basically NOTHING in them… they don’t even have wires, everything is connected via buss bars.  I also picked up a circa 1922 one-tube power amp a couple years back, eventually I’ll get around to firing it up…  this is real dawn-of-a-new-age stuff here, folks, all of this gear was designed to run on batteries, cos very few people had ELECTRICITY when this book was published.  Dig in….

Below, schematics for the three audio amplifiers spec’d in the book: