Vintage Friday, Dralowid, English version

Dralowid DR1

It’s Vintage Friday

This time I’m going to tell you something about the Dralowid DR1.

The Dralowid DR1 is a carbon microphone made between 1934 and 1939 by Dralowid Werk in Berlin. They have been making parts for radio’s since 1929 and later they also started producing microphones. At the time, the Dralowid DR1 had a price of about 42 Reichs Mark. That was quite a serious amount in the 1930’s.

At the time carbon microphones were quite popular. They were reliable, had a fairly high output and could easily be used anywhere. They were used at the radio, cultural and sporting events. The Dralowid DR1 was also used in German war propaganda in the 1930s, before switching to a Neumann.

The sound was, especially for that time, very acceptable. It was an omnidirectional carbon microphone.

The operation of the carbon principle in short: you make a microphone diaphragm from finely compressed carbon granulate (ground carbon) and an electrode. You put this under a light voltage of normally between 5 and 9 volts. When sound waves hit the live carbon, resistance differences are created. And that will form the audio signal.

This principle has been used for a long time in, among other things, our “landline” telephones.

The Dralowid DR1 on the pictures comes from my private collection, and is now between 85 and 90 years old.