History of the radio manufacturer Magnavox Co.; Fort Wayne (ex Oakland)

In 1910 Magnavox started as "Commercial Wireless & Development Company" at Napa, California. Peter L. Jansen, Edwin S. Pridham (both ex Federal Telegraph Company) and Richard O'Connor (finance) formed the company to achieve a sensitive telephone receiver. In 1915 Jensen and Pridham have put a horn to their "telephone receiver with moving-coil system" and then used it as a "Fog-Horn" for the local baseball park (Radio & TV News, February 1959). They called it Magna Vox. They developed a phonograph pickup and made a joint venture with Sonora in 1917 called "Commercial Wireless & Development Company".

They developed the "SE4005 noise-cancelling microphone" for aircraft intercoms. In 1919 Magnavox moved from 526 Mission Street, San Francisco to 14th Street in Oakland and made vacuum-tube power amplifiers. In February 1920 Magnavox introduced a radio speaker, forerunner of the 1921 Model R-3.

1924 Magnavox began also to produce a tube "A" with a special design and a year later also radios.