Aristone

It appears that Aristone was started by Messuers Charles Power & William Charles Jorden who are named as the first directors.

The bussiness was started in the bustling suburb of Prahran, about 5 km South East of the Melbourne CBD. The street address was 230 Chapel Street, and they also had a show room at 203 Elizabeth Street in the city. This was the site of  the once famous McGills Newsagency,  although in a much newer building.

Acording to the Melbourne Herald on 20 September 1933 Aristone had the best testing and manufacturing equipment, as well as the best personnel who was "one of the most brilliant in the industry".

At least one advertisment was placed in the Catholic newsapaper, The Cardinal, on 22 March 1934.

The company, like so many others of the time, faded into obsurity. Nonetheless, in August 1935, Stratosphere Radio advertised Superhetrodyne radios from the Chapel Street premises. These radios were apparently designed by their expert, a Mr. Jack Missen.

In The Age of 15 September 1937 the companies listing notes that Stratosphere Radio Pty. Ltd. was registered in September 1937 to take over the assets of Stratosphere Radio Co. Subscribers were John Arthur Missen, Joseph Keith Edwards, and Director Cyril Arthur George Prideaux.  The trasil goes cold from July 1940.

On 22 October 1937 Myer took out a full page advertisiment in the Melbourne Herald, see bellow.  Myer must have bought the Stratosphere company and the registered trade mark of Aristone. Myer continued to use the premises at both Chapel and Elizabeth Streets, probably until the Commonwealth Government stopped radio production because of the Second World War.

It appears that Myer used the Aristone branding soon after production re-commennced. However, they did not use their own facilities, using many other suppliers instead. From the early 1970s they rebranded generic Asian  radios and cassette recorders of which my family bought a couple of examples. 

It was during the 1970s that the city store of Myer ramped up their Audio department and sold brands such as Docorder and Sony. They even had a HiFi listening room that was generally unattended. I spend many an hour playing with equipment in that room and was rarely asked what I was doing! 

This Radio was a barn find. Literary. I was photographing abandoned houses in North-West Victoria and looked in an abandoned shed. There was lots of rubbish, a number of snakes, very rusted machinery, and this radio lying in the doorway.

Myer branded radios were always of the budget variety, and while I can't find any information on this radio to bring it back to life, it seems there are similar models out there. The big problem will be the lack of valves, that were stripped when found. This radio is far from the top of the list to be restored.

The top advertisement was in the Melbourne Herald of 22 October 1937. Whilst the lower was in the Advocate (a Catholic Church paper) of 22 March 1934.

Below is a part restored clock radio from the 1960s. I have all the knobs, etc. It's just waiting on a new good clock as one of the gears from the motor is partially stripped.

The red radio is an example of Myer using cast off parts for their radios. While it's in very poor condition it does work. It's a 3 valve set, a retifier and two other valves. The case, (and most likely the manufacturer) was used by Admiral an American company that also made Televisions for a very short time, as well as white goods.