The TR-55, released in 1955, was

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's first

transistor radio A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947—which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenien ...

, and the first to be made in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The use of

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

s allowed the device to be much smaller than earlier

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

History

Akio Morita was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony along with Masaru Ibuka. Early life Akio Morita was born in Nagoya. Morita's family was involved in sake, miso and soy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part of Tokoname ...

and

Masaru Ibuka Masaru Ibuka (井深大 ''Ibuka Masaru''; April 11, 1908 – December 19, 1997) was a Japanese electronics industrialist and co-founder of Sony, along with Akio Morita.Kirkup, James"Obituary: Masaru Ibuka,"''Independent'' (London). December 22 ...

, then operating under the business name

Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, had been working on plans to introduce a transistor radio to the market since 1953. When the TR-55 was released in Japan in August 1955, it was the first transistor radio marketed in that country. The TR-55 featured the Sony name, but the company did not officially change its name to Sony until January 1958. In the fall of 1955, Morita met with a representative of the

Bulova Bulova is an American timepiece manufacturing company that was founded in 1875 and has been owned by Japanese multinational conglomerate Citizen Watch Co. since 2008. The company makes watches, clocks and accessories, and it is based in New York ...

watch company in New York City. Bulova agreed to order 10,000 units on the condition they carry the Bulova name. Morita declined the deal. Sony later signed a deal with New York importer Adolph Gross to distribute an improved and slightly more compact model, and in March 1957, the Sony TR-63 transistor radio would become Sony's first product sold in the US. The TR-63 would not fit in existing shirt front pockets, so the company issued shirts with expanded pockets to salesmen so they could claim the product was "the world's first pocket sized transistor radio".

Technical specifications

superheterodyne A superheterodyne receiver, often shortened to superhet, is a type of radio receiver that uses frequency mixing to convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency (IF) which can be more conveniently processed than the original carri ...

circuit incorporating two AF stages and covered the

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytime ...

broadcast band. The TR-55 used the following transistors: *(1) 2T51 (oscillator-mixer) *(2) 2T52 (for IF) *(1) 2T53 (AF driver) *(1) 2T12 The TR-55's five transistors were designed in house by Sony, the technology having been licensed from

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

. This made Sony the first company to produce commercial transistor radios from the ground up. American company Regency had launched their Regency TR-1 transistor radio earlier in 1954, but bought the transistors from

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American technology company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that designs and manufactures semiconductors and various integrated circuits, which it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers globall ...

. Printed circuit boards were used, which was unusual for the time.

Physical specifications

The speaker grille was made from punched aluminum, and its design was reportedly inspired by

Lincoln Motor Company Lincoln Motor Company, or simply Lincoln, is the luxury vehicle division of American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company, Ford. Marketed among the top luxury vehicle brands in the United States, Lincoln was positioned closely against i ...

automobiles of the era. Although it was not as compact as originally intended, the relatively small size of the TR-55 was a novelty, and attracted the attention of Japanese consumers. *Height: 5.5

inch Measuring tape with inches The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelfth") ...

es *Width: 3.5 inches *Thickness: 1.5 inches *Weight: 560

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined as of 1795 as "the absolute weight of a volume of pure wate ...

References

External links

Video of the Sony TR-55 on YouTube
Models of radios Sony hardware 1955 in radio History of radio Products introduced in 1955 Radio in Japan {{radio-comm-stub

History

Technical specifications

Physical specifications

See also

References

External links