I have a couple of Atwater Kent Model E speakers. As with a lot of these things, the cords are badly frayed and almost always missing the plug ends of the wires. Does anybody have a source for replacement plug ends? How about a source for correct wire for these speakers.
Thanks
Steven

Hi Steven

Check with AES, www.tubesandmore.com . They had the wire & ends. You could use AC cloth covered line cord. It's stiffer but looks similar.

Norm

:I have a couple of Atwater Kent Model E speakers. As with a lot of these things, the cords are badly frayed and almost always missing the plug ends of the wires. Does anybody have a source for replacement plug ends? How about a source for correct wire for these speakers.
:Thanks
:Steven

Is the connector for an AK Type E the same as for a Type F?

The Type F speaker has a 4-pin plug that fits into the speaker socket for my AK Model 55 receiver. At first glance, it looks like a 4-pin pre-octal tube base, but the pin spacing isn't the quite the same.

Often, Type F speakers sold over eBay or at swap meets are missing their plugs. (Who has them all?)

In any case, about a year ago, I was unable to find a reproduction replacement plug from any of the usual sources, so wound up buying a used one.

I wonder if Mr. A. A. Kent decided to use a proprietary, non-standard speaker connector to discourage the use of non-AK speakers?

Doug, the E series speakers are high impedance types normally used with battery receivers such as the AK model 20. This type of set does not have an output transformer, so the speaker wiring is the same as a pair of headphones, usually with two standard RCA pin jacks on their ends. Speakers and headphones were optional accessories during this era, and just about any brand could be used with almost any radio.

The type F speaker was manufactured specifically for the AK Model 55, which has an output transformer and speaker field. Therefore, the speaker requires a 4 conductor cable with a 4 pin plug. A non standard plug was used so that its socket could not be mistaken for a standard 4 pin vacuum tube. Speakers of this type vary widely among other manufacturers and their specific sets, so there were no non AK speaker substitutes.

This site sells four and six conductor telephone cords (cloth covered) for antique telephones. The four conductor cable may work well for those of you who have the dynamic A-K speakers. Keep in mind that this is tinsel wire. Don't get any ideas and use the six conductor cable as a power supply cable. It can't handle filament current. Also, the wires are strictly cloth insulated. If you get these cables wet, they will short out. Original speaker cables were of this nature, too, so the cables will be suitable for speakers. If you get a speaker cable wet, don't touch it and the radio chassis at the same time.

Here is the web site link. You can also get to this point by going to phonemerchants.com. Then hi-lite "Novelty and Decorator Phones." After this has been hi-lited, an additional menu should come up that says "Parts For Old Telephones." Click on this. Anyway, here's the direct link:

http://www.phonemerchants.com/parforoltel.html

Thomas

Thomas mentioned tinsel wire. What was the idea behind that wire? I've never been able to make decent connections, mechanical or solder type, with the stuff.

Playthings of the Past sells the phone tips that go on the end of the speaker leads. The AK Model E has only two leads, and these tips work very well. Contact Gary after the middle of Oct (he's closed right now) at http://www.oldradioparts.com/
Regards,
Jeff

Tinsel wire is able to flex a lot without breaking. Each "wire" is actually a ribbon of thin copper wound around fibres. A round cross section of copper has rather uneven stress points, if you can put it like that. When you bend it, the molecules in different parts of the cylinder (think of the wire as a cylinder) want to move more or less. Those on the outside have to move more than those on the inside of the bend. Each time the wire is bent, the molecules which must stretch the most break apart. Eventually the wire breaks.

With a ribbon of wire, however, which is incredibly thin, and can almost be thought of as a unit of molecules on the same plane (which they obviously are not if you examine it at that level), the molecules on the outer portion of the bend don't have to stretch as much, and don't break apart much if at all. Think of the comparison between the ribbon of wire and the circular cross section of wire as the difference between a board and a dowell, or the difference between a flat piece of steel stock and a round rod of steel. The flat piece bends more easily.

Now if you take this ribbon and wind it in a helix with fibres in the middle to hold the shape of the helix, this allows even more flexing of the ribbon, and allows the unit of ribbon and fibre to be flexed in unlimited directions which a flat ribbon may not otherwise want to be flexed in (say flexed in the direction of the ribbon's width).

Tinsel wire is rather difficult to solder, but it can be soldered. Sometimes burning away the fibres helps, but then you have to remove the soot from the copper.

An interesting thing you can do with a strand of tinsel wire is connect about an inch or two across a medium current train transformer (say 4 amperes at 12 to 18 volts). It causes quite a flash because of the burning of the fibres.

Thomas

Both RadioDaze and AES sell those speaker/headphone tips. RadioDaze # is: SPC-TIP (5/$3.00). AES # is: S-H33-156 (10/$6.50).

Here is how I solder them to wire leads: hold the end of the tip in a vise, with the large, open end of the plug pointed up. Apply heat with your soldering iron, and fill the large end with solder. Then stab the end of the wire lead into the molten solder.