Magnavox During World War Two
Fort Wayne, IN
1911-1975 Consumer Electronics
1911-1995 Military Electronics

This page updated 4-6-2022.

The tall stove tube device on display at Robert's Armory in Rochelle, IL is an M9A1 2.36 inch rocket launcher.  It is most commonly known as a bazooka and was designed as a man-portable anti-tank weapon.  This weapon may seem unrelated to an electronics company that was known for its radios before World War Two and its television sets after the war.  However, the M9A1 and the earlier M9 bazookas came equipped with Magnavox T6 magneto firing mechanism.  Author's photo.

The Magnavox T6 magneto firing system was located in the operator's handle.  Author's photo.

This M9A1 is on display at the USAF Armament Museum.  Author's photo added 4-6-2022.

This photo gives another good view of the Magnavox T6 magneto firing system.  Author's photo added 4-6-2022.

The earlier M1/M1A1 bazooka used a battery to ignite the rocket that the weapon fired.  Problems arose almost immediately with the early bazookas when they were introduced into combat in North Africa in 1943.  The batteries, if they were available, were not popular because they were subject to discharge and corrosion in wet weather.  The Magnavox T6 magneto firing system was more dependable and not reliant on batteries.

This is an exploded view of the firing mechanism.  Image from TM9-294.

The information below is a quote from TM9-294:
"The firing mechanism is housed within the trigger grips and is secured to the trigger grip support on the under side of the rear barrel.  It consists of a magneto, trigger, and safety mechanism.  The magneto consists of several magnets housing a coil of wire which in turn houses a steel armature.  When the trigger is squeezed, the armature moves in the coil and generates sufficient current to ignite the rocket.  The safety switch is located in the rear side of the left grip.  When the safety switch is manually moved to the "SAFE" position, the coil is shorted out of the electric system so the no current reaches the rocket.  The magneto generates current when the trigger is squeeze and also when it is released."

This is the left-hand view of the unit.  Image from TM9-294.

The right-hand view shows the trigger, field coil, armature, and magnet.  Pulling the trigger creates a current in the field coil as the armature moves through it.  The current flows to the rear of the weapon where it ignites the rocket in the tube.  Image from TM9-294. 

This M9A1 is on display at the National Museum of the United States Army in Belvoir, VA.  Author's photo. 

The approach of a German Panzer V Panther Ausf. A could spoil an American infantryman's whole day!  However, if he had a bazooka with a Magnavox firing mechanism that fired reliably every time, he had a weapon that helped to even up the odds against the 49-ton tank.  Author's photo taken at the American Heritage Museum.

The infantryman with a bazooka would work his way around to the side or rear of the tank, as the 2.36 inch rocket would not penetrate the front armor of the Panther.  The infantryman would aim for more vulnerable parts of the tank like the tracks and wheels, the area between the tank body and its turret, or the engine.  Author's photo taken at the American Heritage Museum.

This M9A1 bazooka, equipped with a Magnavox T6 firing mechanism, is on display at the Camp Blanding Museum in Florida.   Author's photo.

Magnavox was started in 1913 in Napa, CA as the Commercial Wireless and Development Company.  In 1915 the company invented the loudspeaker which was named Magnavox.  Magnavox is Latin for great voice.  A year later in 1916, it invented the first record player tone arm and automatic pickup.  In 1917 the Commercial Wireless and Development Company merged with the Sonora Phonograph Distributor Company and became the Magnavox Company.  After a relocation to San Francisco and then Oakland, the company moved to Fort Wayne, IN to be located nearer to its main markets and to be close to the magnet wire companies in the area.  Magnet wire was a large part of the construction of a loudspeaker.

After World War Two, Magnavox purchased a cabinet plant in Greenville, TN.  Then several years later, Magnavox built a plant to manufacture television sets in the same town.  In 1960 it built a second plant in Greenville, TN, which was the world's largest plant for manufacturing television sets.  Like other American consumer electronics companies, it began to lose market share to foreign imports.  In 1975 it became a wholly owned subsidiary of North American Phillips Development Company.  While the name would still be used as a brand name in consumer electronics through the early 1990s, Magnavox as an individual company was gone.

Magnavox Electronics Systems, which specialized in military products, continued operations as an individual company headquartered along I-69 on the south side of Fort Wayne until it was purchased by Hughes Electronics in 1995.  So ended the last independent Magnavox company that began in 1911.

Magnavox World War Two Products:  Machine gun solenoid triggers controls, head set assemblies, antenna reels, loudspeakers, microphones, amplifiers, radios, power supplies, interphones, capacitors, noise filters, phone amplifier kits, telephone installation kits, remote control kits, bomb arming controls, aircraft components, film projectors, gun components, sound equipment, SCR-291 radio direction finders, and 257,776 T6 electric trigger controls for the M6/M9A1 2.36 inch rocket launcher described above.

The next two photos show the reproduction of the radio shack in the USS Indianapolis that is on display at the Indiana War Memorial Museum in downtown Indianapolis.  The photos depict all of the various receivers in the USS Indianapolis.  Author's photo. 

With the exception of three receivers, the remaining radios were all built by RCA.  RCA was the main provider of radio receivers used on U.S. Navy ships in World War Two.  Author's photo.   

One of the non-RCA radios on display is this Magnavox-built Type CMX-46155-A long band receiver with frequency range of 15 to 600 kilohertz.  The CMZ-46155 with the associated CMX-20131 power supply, also built by Magnavox, was denoted as the RAK-8, which was an RCA design.  Due to production constraints at RCA, Magnavox was chosen to build the RAK-8 radio.  Author's photo.

This RAK-8 is serial number 649.  The highest serial number I have found is another RAK-8 with the serial number 2318, indicating Magnavox built at least that many.   Author's photo.

Magnavox made an unknown number of SCR-291 aircraft direction finders, which consisted of a BC-1147 receiver and associated equipment. 

There was a total of 1,043 units built by all manufacturers between 1943 and 1945.

The Magnavox Fort Wayne Plant:  When the company moved to Fort Wayne in 1931, it built a plant located on what was then named Bueter Road on the industrial east side of the city.  Since that time, the name of Bueter Road has been changed to Coliseum Boulevard.  Also, the former Magnavox plant in this location no longer exists and the land has been repurposed with a new, modern structure.  

This 1951 Sanborn map shows the Magnavox plant in the middle of the map.  The Phelps Dodge magnet wire plant was to the northeast, across the railroad tracks.  At the bottom of the map, it notes the location of the north side of the large International Harvester truck plant.  The Studebaker plant that made parts for R-1830 radial aircraft engines used on B-17 bombers was not shown on the map because it was outside the Fort Wayne city limits.  It was directly to the east of Magnavox across the railroad tracks and still exists today.  Also not shown in this section of the map was the location of the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation Plant to the southwest on Pontiac Street.

 One of the reasons Magnavox moved to Fort Wayne was to be near the several magnet wire manufacturers in the city.  It couldn't have chosen a better location which put it right next door to Phelps-Dodge, which was one of three magnet wire companies in Fort Wayne.  There was also Essex and Rea.  The Phelps Dodge plant is now the headquarters for Rea Magnet Wire. 

This image shows Magnavox and Phelps Dodge. 

This image shows Magnavox. 

This turns the map 90 degrees.  Magnavox had two buildings at this location.