«The most talked about shape in transistors — Sharp’s new «Tranket» — designed for the Space Age.»
Sharp calls this 1959 rocket radio the ‘Tranket’ derived from TRANsistor rocKET (see the advertisement below). This fantastic radio was manufactured in Japan at a time when the public was going crazy for all things ‘space age’. It features futuristic design inspired by classic car culture, the space race and the atomic age. This type of design is most commonly seen in 1950?s architecture such as coffee shops, motels and bowling alleys. It is sometimes referred to as ?googie design? and highlights the use of curvaceous, geometric shapes, bold angles, and pop-culture imagery.
This model operates on both the medium wave and short wave bands. The volume control and band selector are found on opposite sides of the body. The speaker is inside the chrome nose cone. To operate the tuning dial simply turn the nose cone in either direction. Its metal stand screws into the bottom and this must be removed to access the battery compartment. It measures 8.0? L x 3.7? H (205mm L x 95mm H) and has Conelrad Civil Defense markings on the tuning dial.
There is a variant of this radio, the BH-352 that I believe operates on the medium wave band only. There is a turquoise Sharp BH-351 on display at the Sharp Memorial Hall in Tenri City Japan.
This is the type of radio that the Jetsons would have listened to whilst whizzing around the rings of Saturn or relaxing at Neptunes Health Spa!
