• Country
• United States of America (USA)

• Manufacturer / Brand
• Sparks-Withington Co., (Sparton); Jackson, Michigan

• Year
• 1935/1936

• Category
• Broadcast Receiver - or past WW2 Tuner

• Radiomuseum.org ID
• 182750

Click on the schematic thumbnail to request the schematic as a free document.

• Number of Tubes
• 5

• Valves / Tubes
• 78 78 75 43 25Z5

• Main principle
• Superheterodyne (common); ZF/IF 456 kHz; 2 AF stage(s)

• Tuned circuits
• 6 AM circuit(s)

• Wave bands
• Broadcast and Short Wave (SW).

• Power type and voltage
• AC/DC-set / 115 Volt

• Loudspeaker
• Electro Magnetic Dynamic LS (moving-coil with field excitation coil)

• Material
• Various materials

• from Radiomuseum.org
• Model: Sparton 566 Bluebird Art Deco Radio "blue mirror" Ch= 506 [Blue Mirror] - Sparks-Withington Co., Sparton

• Shape
• Design Radio or Novelty / Gadget - fancy or unusual shape.

• Dimensions (WHD)
• 14.75 x 14.625 x 6 inch / 375 x 371 x 152 mm

• Notes

• One often sees the Bluebird referred to in guidebooks and on internet sites as the Model 506 ... Not only did Sparton "proudly announce Bluebird Model 566" in one of their brochures but there is also the matter of their approach to model numbering. In June of 1935 they announced to the world their line of 1936 "regular" models, the entry level set being the Model 506, a small 5-tube ornamental mantel set priced at $29.95, the cabinet being made entirely out of wood. Later that year they unveiled their "Teague" line of upscale models, and shortly after that the Bluebird. Now, Sparton's model numbering system at that time used the number of tubes (often not counting the eye tube) as the first number, a model identifier as the second, and the last digit of the model year as the third. Key here is the fact that the second number was chosen to create a unique identifier, ensuring that no two models ended up with the same number. Thus, the 5-tube 1936 mantel set was the 506 and the 5-tube 1936 Bluebird the 566...

  Kirkland Museum of fine & decorative Art shows a 566, but places it wrongly for 1934:
  "Industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague’s design for a radio merged Art Deco streamlining with the practicality and function of an everyday machine. The mirrored blue glass front hides the radio workings in the back, while the three metal stripes across the front are elements of the streamlined style of American Art Deco design which often incorporated racing stripes and geometric shapes. Though streamlining originated to minimize wind and water-resistance on aircraft, trains and ships, in American Deco design, it transcended those origins to inspire the look of “things which will never move … simply because of the dynamic quality of this line which occurs in streamline forms, and it is characteristic of our age—this line that starts with a parabolic curve and ends in a long backward sweep,” Teague said. Streamlined design was the epitome of modernity in 1930s America."

  From schematic in book "American Service Manuals" published by Champion Ltd. This is a UK reprint of original US manufacturers service information. Schematics are of models imported into the UK.: Same circuit as models 506 & 594. The rear of the set can be stamped in white as: "Bluebird Model 566". Walter Dorwin Teage was born 1883 in Decateur, Indiana and died 1960 in Flemington, New Jersey. He "was an American industrial designer, architect, illustrator, graphic designer, writer, and entrepreneur. Often referred to as the "Dean of Industrial Design", Teague pioneered in the establishment of industrial design as a profession in the US, along with Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy, and Henry Dreyfuss."

  See also the replica model AR50 Sparton 566 Bluebird made by the French manufacturer TSM Electronic in the 1990s.

• Source of data
• -- Schematic

• Author
• Model page created by Keith Staines. See "Data change" for further contributors.

• Other Models

• Here you find 773 models, 361 with images and 720 with schematics for wireless sets etc. In French: TSF for Télégraphie sans fil.
  All listed radios etc. from Sparks-Withington Co., (Sparton); Jackson, Michigan