Historical Data - Philips Argentina 1935

History.
It is born the 19 of June 1935 as a factory to produce different types of lamps, soon to extend their manufacturing and commercial activities.

By those years an association with Radio Prieto had been concluded; and Philips had acquired the majority percentage of the actions of this society in which both made receivers. Additionally, Radio Prieto, had two radiotelephone stations "Prieto" and "Argentina Radio", that during a time were administered by Philips Argentina. Approaching 1938, Philips continued expansion towards the interior of Argentina. In addition to the earliest productions in Federal Capitol and Greater Buenos Aires, branch operations were born in Rosario, Tucumán, Córdoba, Mendoza, Bahia Blanca, Concordia, Commodore Ribadavia and even into the country of Paraguay.
By 1938, the line of receivers had arrived at ten different models; in that year was born FAPESA (Maker in Argentina of Electrical Products), directing the manufacturing activity, while Philips was in charge of the commercial functions. During World War II, the direction of world-wide Philips was transferred to New York (New York). . . . . . . . . (by research technical data from member Robert Sarbell this supports the explanation for the use of several critical parts that were made in the United States, and are found in the production of the very early model AL161 radio. It also lends credibility to the implementation and use of some parts which may cause the earliest models to appear as though they were "home-made.)

In 1946, Philips Argentina breaks free from all enemy contacts of their operations in Holland. First, they resorted to the import of material; soon it was necessary to improvise radio valves or to recover sockets to continue making incandescent lamps; the slogan was "not to stop", to maintain the production to "any cost". From Philips Argentina, the Additional Article Department was created there; thus it commercializes electrical refrigerators and to ice, ventilators, stoves to kerosene, antennas, equipment of amplification, etc. It participates actively in the development of the ball-point pen or "Ball Point", also was pioneering in indicators and signboards of neon.

Note to the Administrators: The above historical data has been extracted from a current internet web site, and translated as accurately as possible. According to the web site, it is necessary to request permission from the Philips Argentina offices. Web site link will be provided upon further review.
Respectfully,
Robert P. Sarbell
These revised historical comments reflect additional research by myself, and also some historical data inputs bty Senor Miquel Bravo from Cartagena, Spain. 12 June 2006

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This was a fantastic piece of research and restoration for this radio!

Perhaps, with the knowledge we now have of Philips radios, maybe we could start some sort of "Philips" family tree on this site.

I have a Philips based radio, Kosmaj '49 (Nikola Tesla, Belgarde), that was made right after the Yugoslavs parted with Stalin in '48.

What is interesting, is that the construction uses more expensive materials than its Dutch counterpart, the BX373A.  I believe the knobs are even Catalin!

Perhaps there could be some discussion how some of the real socialist countries of the former Eastern bloc nations aquired licenses, etc.

Philips has always been there when something good and new came about.  Examples are, the compact cassette (an item they didn't even license but made into public domain) and the compact disc.

In fact, I understand that Philips had a factory in South Africa too!

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Dear colleagues,

I have rewritten the whole page about the history of Philips with the help of the well-researched article of Mr. Santoro, published in Tube Collector 2009, to whom I express my thanks this way.

I have to add that in view of the new data, and after a careful review of the company history page of Philips Argentina, there are some erroneous data in the previous post (and the previous version of this page) by Mr. Sarbell.

The "breaking free of enemy contacts" is a misrepresentation of the company's own article, where they only state that "in 1946 they lost all contact to Holland" (verified for the archived website 2005 and 2006). I have added my own interpretation and marked it as such [MH].

The inclusion of Philips-owned FAPESA in the manufacturer page is new, as well as the listing of tubes with the different brands that have been employed by Philips/FAPESA.

For further changes, please make sure to include a reference/source entry. I am sure there will be many, as such a complex matter can never be fully accurately described. Thank you.

Kind regards
Mark Hippenstiel

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