The tiny Acopian Solar Radio was the brain child of Thomas A Workman & Sarkis Acopian and dates to 1957. At the time it was an extremely progressive item and drew on the newly emerging solar technology and the small power needs of transistors. Clipping the grounding wire to an metal object such as a radiator, the single selenium (solar) cell battery was able to offer enough power for regular medium wave radio reception. There is a metal rod on the back which rotates to turn the dial.
Such was the newness of the solar-powered market, that when this radio was released it was hailed as the first of its type in the world in the local US press (and is still often mis-quoted as such online). People have subsequently shown that the accolade for 1st solar radio actually goes to the Admiral 7L12 Radio of 1956 which was a regular portable radio but offered a solar powered battery pack as an attachment. After that came the Hoffmann K-P411 which snuck in just before the Acopian, and in third place came the Acopian itself. What is clear is that of the above three radios the miniature Acopian was by far the most interesting design and concept.
When released in 1957 this radio could be purchased either in kit form (named the ‘workchest’) or complete, and I believe that this example with the gold card denotes it was the kit option. It would have come with an earpiece which is now missing. Amazingly these tiny radios must have sold ok as examples do seem to turn up once or twice a year. However because the cases are only very cheap and fragile plastic and the insides just as flimsy, I almost always see them severely damaged or missing parts. Indeed this is the first example I’ve seen for a long while where it is in visually excellent condition so worth me buying. Unsurprisingly the internal radio in this case doesn’t seem to work but it would be foolish to begin replacing out the original parts.
Dimensions: 8 cm wide x 6.5 cm deep x 2.8 cm high without metal tuner.
