Pathe "Westminster" Loud Speaker
Late 1920s
Pathe Phono & Radio Co.
20 Grand Ave.,
Brooklyn, New York, USA

    The Pathe "Westminster" cone speaker is unusual in that it's one of the few speakers, from the 1920s, to be illuminated. This is accomplished by two small colored light bulbs mounted one above and one below the speaker's driver. Thick orange colored paper is mounted on the backside of the tower structure to defused the light when the two light bulbs are on This also gives a look of stain glass windows to the tower. A non illuminated version, which lacked lights and orange paper, was also offered. The illuminated version is considered to be rarer more collectable.

Speaker when the lights are on. There is no light switch, just an AC plug.

    Close up of the speaker label. The knob mechanically adjusts the distance of the movable armature from the magnet in order to achieve the "sweet spot" where maxium volume and tone quality is produced. I have seen these speakers who's frames were either painted in brown or gold. My speaker is painted brown.

    Side of the speaker showing the speaker driver and two light bulbs. The upper light is colored yellow and the lower light is colored red. Both of these lightbaulbs are original to this speaker.

    The outer edge of the paper cone is held in place by a flexible bracket that is made of a metal rod coated in rubber and then covered over with brown braided silk. The bracket presses the paper cone's edge into a groove that encircles the speaker's frame.

    The proper, modern day, replacement light bulbs are the120 volt 10 watt  S11 light bulbs with E17 intermediate bases. They can still be found in Red and Yellow.

This web page was last updated: February 4, 2014