The Cossor Melody Makers

One of the earliest Cossor Melody Makers

A TRF table receiver made between 1928 and 1931, the Cossor "Melody Maker" name was used well into the post war period. Some sets were home constructed from kits but most were manufactured. Somehow the design seemed to progress too slowly compared with other sets of the period. It was soon after this receiver was made that dials marked with station names began to appear. Cossor owners' were expected to keep a list of dial settings and station names as tuning dials were marked only with 0-180.

An innovation is a metal front panel instead of ebonite.

Front panel layout is nicely balanced and is not constrained by circuit layout.

An external speaker is needed as is an accumulator and an HT battery. The grid bias battery is mounted inside the case as it didn't need replacing too frequently (in fact it's still there now).

A more recent version

Cossor "Melody Maker" Model 500AC

Which cost £15 2s 9d + p.tax in May 1950

The trade mark name "Melody Maker" was coined by Cossor and spanned something like 40 years.

This Cossor Melody Maker Model 520 was threatened with the local tip if it didn't sell on ebay. Now.. the secret of selling stuff on ebay is not to say how bad it is but to stress the attributes, even though these may be hard to find... hence frequent use of "deco" or "rare".

To threaten the recycling centre netted this model a princely £1 but the seller, Jamie Medhurst, not only kindly delivered it, but waived his pound as well. I hope I can refurbish this little set to its former glory.

The set was one of a range of five models, the 500, 501AC, 500U, 502 and 520 using the same chassis and introduced between 1950 and 1954. This 520 was sold in 1954 for £15:15:0d plus purchase tax (like VAT). It has three wavebands and employs octal valves.

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