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Pye Model M78F article
THE LAST RISING SUN PYE In the 1940s, a rising sun signified more than the start of a new day. It was the emblem for imperial Japan, the "empire of the sun." As such, the image must have triggered painful memories and associations for people who had fought or lost loved ones in the world war. It surely would have been so in America; and in Cambridge, England, the rising sun also caused complications for a prominent British radio manufacturer, Pye. Back in the twenties a Pye worker, admiring the design of a colleague's cigarette case, sketched a stylized sun with rays streaming outwards through narrow slivers of clouds that soon became the grill fretwork of countless Pye radios--and eventually even the company's logo.1 The rising sun was first seen on a 1927 portable receiver and was greeted with considerable success. Subsequently the grill design was used for a number of Pye models, until radios with fancy grills fell out of form. Other well-known examples of Pye radios with this design were the Twin Triple in 1930, the model MM in 1931 and the model G in 1932. Pye stopped using the rising sun as a speaker fret in 1933, but continued with it as their logo. (The rising sun speaker grill design was reintroduced one time in 1937 on the Baby Q.) In Great Britain in the thirties, these Pye radios with their smartly designed wooden cabinets were as distinctive as the Art Deco-inspired molded Bakelite Ekcos (such as the round Ekco).2 After World War II was over, Pye decided to reintroduce the old motif which had been so successful for them in the late 20s and into the middle 30s. Model M78F or Pye "Personal" was the first of the postwar Pyes again using a grill with the sun and its shinning rays now sans clouds. It came out in June of 1948 selling for L12 12s. It was a compact portable radio using four miniature tubes and two batteries: a 1 1/2 volt and a 67 1/2 volt. The chassis is partitioned into separate units, attached to the frame of a five-inch speaker. It covered two bands, long wave and the broadcast band. The M78F measures 7 1/4 inches high, 5 5/8 inches wide and 3 1/8 inches deep. It is one of the smallest British tube portables--about one half the size of most of first transistor sets in that country. This postwar rising sun Pye was not cased in wood, as the earlier models had been, but in two tones of solid acrylic called Perspex--either cream and black or cream and green. The war was over but not forgotten, and the rising sun design on the grill of the M78F continued to remind the public of their recent enemy's flag. Anti-Japanese sentiment may not seem reasonable now, but in 1948 three years after the conclusion of the war with the tragedy and loss of life that affected so many British families such sentiment is more understandable. The public reaction against the evocative rising sun emblem was intense. There are stories (which I have not yet substantiated) of dealer's windows being smashed in reaction to the rising sun on the M78F. Pye reacted quickly and recalled the remaining 800 unsold radios of the thousand they had produced. But the story doesn't end there. Officially, Pye destroyed the remaining sets. Most published accounts of the subject say that the 800 sets were burned.3 As I write this, I am living in Cambridge, England, on sabbatical from Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. I have become acquainted with radio collectors, antique dealers and retired workers at Pye in this historic city where Pye manufactured its radios. I have done some poking around to see if I could learn more about what happened to the 800 M78Fs. The most common response to my questioning confirms what I had read: that the radios were burned. But there are other versions of the destruction of those offensive radios. One theory claims they were simply thrown into the Cam, the river that snakes through Cambridge and past the old Pye plant. Another told me the radios were destroyed in a giant bonfire. My natural suspiciousness raised another possibility: were they really destroyed? Had some employees taken a few of the doomed receivers home in their lunch boxes? I was helped greatly in my search for answers by Tony Bottrill who worked at Pye from 1944 to 1967. He suggested that 1000 sets was most likely a preproduction run since Pye would usually produce a minimum of 20,000 receivers once they were in production. He stated that the association between the sun rays design of Pye radios and the Japanese rising sun symbol simply did not occur to them. I have to admit that when I started my research the M78F I wasn't so sure about the burning story. So I asked Tony about it. He said that what caused the M78F to be ended "was not common knowledge amongst those in the laboratory. It was hushed up." But he did say that "They used to burn everything in those days. The stench of burning plastics was quite common in the back part of the factory." He added that he still remembered the acrid smell of burning plastic. "We hated to be in contact with the smell, although at times it couldn't be avoided." It was the way Pye disposed of unwanted Bakelite and plastic items in those days. I began to believe more the story that they were burned. He said that he had seen only three M78Fs since 1948 when they were pulled from production. Exactly what happened to the M78Fs may never be known, but we do know that they are rare. If they were not destroyed, then certainly they were well-hidden! When I have discussed the set with several British Vintage Wireless Society members, not one has been able to count more than a dozen or so still in existence. A few sets may yet show up in and around Cambridge or the United Kingdom; but given the original low production number, its breakable plastic case and its recall due to the offensive rising sun grill design, the M78F will always be a scarcity. It also is very handsome, as the accompanying photo(s) will show. The high contrast between the ivory center and the black edges emphasizes its modified ziggurat shape, and the subtle abstract design of the grill cloth behind the stylized rising sun unobtrusively adds visual detail to its elegant and striking modernistic design. Howard Stone 1. Keith Geddes in collaboration with Gordon Bussey, The Setmakers (London: BREMA, 1991). 2. See my article in ARC, 198_, on Round Ekcos. 3. Jonathan Hill, Radio! Radio! (Bampton, Devon, Sunrise Press, 1986); and The Setmakers. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bussey, Gordon. The Story of Pye Wireless. Cambridge: Pye Ltd., 1979; revised ed. 1986. Geddes, Keith, in collaboration with Gordon Bussey. The Setmakers. London: BREMA, 1991. Hill, Jonathan. Radio! Radio! Bampton, Devon: Sunrise Press, 1986. Stone, Howard. [here supply title and data on round Ekco article that appeared in ARC around 1986-87] "Trader" Service Sheet, Supplement to The Wireless and Electrical Trader, September 18, 1948, The Cornwell Press, London, England. The author would like to express appreciation to Tony Bottrill and Mike Kemp for technical assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. --------------------------------------------- Copyright 1994 by John V. Terrey. Reprinted with permission of Antique Radio Classified where it was first published in June 1994. For a free sample issue, write A.R.C., Box 2, Carlisle, MA 01741

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