A Little 6in Piece of History...

[Cooljjay]

I just had to share a little piece of history that I found hanging on the wall at an estate sale. I seen what was left of the Lansing mfg label on the rear of the speaker, and thought this is interesting despite the very fragile and torn cone. I don't think its worth a lot but its neat to have a piece that led to the world famous JBL we know today.

[Regis]

I just had to share a little piece of history that I found hanging on the wall at an estate sale. I seen what was left of the Lansing mfg label on the rear of the speaker, and thought this is interesting despite the very fragile and torn cone. I don't think its worth a lot but its neat to have a piece that led to the world famous JBL we know today.

That is neat! The cloth covered wiring dates it waaay back and I believe it's a field coil speaker. Looking it up, I found some references on the JBL Pro website and it references the six inch speaker as well as the field coil, so this may date back to the 30's and may have been hand-built by James B. Lansing himself or one of the family! How cool is that?

"Bill Martin came out to join his brother in 1930, and another brother, George, came at a later date. In 1930 there were no more than 40 employees at the Lansing Manufacturing Company. Some of the early products included armature loudspeakers, which are known today only as museum curiosities. Other loudspeaker products made use of traditional field coils as well as early
permanent magnets.

This was truly a cottage industry. The family would make cones and wind coils at home in the evening, and the parts would be taken in to be assembled the next day. The company experienced hard times during these years of the depression. Most of Lansing's customers were radio set manufacturers, many of them located in the Midwest. The company's products were largely eight- and
six-inch loudspeakers. What few larger models were made were used only in luxury console radios. The company established its permanent headquarters at 6900 McKinley Avenue in South Los Angeles."

[Steve Schell]

You have a genuine piece of Lansing heritage there, Cooljjay. Lansing Manufacturing Company made endless thousands of such speakers for the radio set manufacturers in the 1930s. Yours was likely made in the mid to late 1930s, when (I believe) Lansing was sourcing many of the parts from Magnavox. LMCo. served as a distributor for Magnavox on the west coast then, and it is unclear how much Lansing content was in these units. I have one 10" speaker that is branded "Magnavox - Lansing" on the foil label. Enjoy your speaker; it predates JBL products by a decade or more.