The Roma was advertised in the 1937-1938 production season with the help of the slogan: “Phonoradio – a musical instrument for an exquisite home”. The radio combined the functions of a radio receiver and a gramophone. Like other Capello receivers of late 1930s – the Roma uses an exceptional “Geographic” scale. It presents a political map of Europe on which the locations of main cities and their radio transmission broadcasting stations are marked with backlit dots. This scale, innovative in both technical and design terms, was built using a bundle of glass tubes lit with lightbulbs placed on a moving screen controlled by the device’s knob. As the radio was tuned, different points lit up on the map, thereby showing the location and reception of the band from one of the 120 stations available at the time. Due to the Austrian Anschluss, in radios produced in 1938 and 1939 the map presented on the scale was different from the one used in the Roma. The “Geographic” scale was produced under licence from the Austrian Radiofabrik Ingelen of Vienna. In the period of the Second Polish Republic, the Capello plant held an exclusive licence for assembly of the company’s radio receivers.
The luxury Roma device was a precious decoration of living rooms in the 1930s. The mains-powered radio has a vertical housing, covered in fine veneer with a contrasting layout of areas – the light ones are made of walnut, the dark ones – ebony. The fittings and inlays enlivening the cuboid shape of the cabinet are made of chrome. In the top part, an Always is installed, whose adapter housing has the shape of an inverted shield. On the front side, there is a cabinet with a geographic tuning scale, closed behind two doors, concealing a Milano radio behind it (five-valve, seven-circuit superheterodyne). Placed below, behind a densely woven fabric cover, is an electrodynamic concert speaker.
Polskie Zakłady Radiowe Capello operated in 1935-1939. The factory was located in Wełnowiec, now part of Katowice, and the offices and sales department were located in the city at 23 3 Maja street. The factory took its name from the name of the company’s founders – brothers Adolf, Eryk, and Ignacy Kapellner. Interestingly, this was not Adolf Kapellner’s first business enterprise, as he had founded a wholesale warehouse of bicycles, pneumatics, sewing machines, parts, and mechanical tools. After Hitler’s aggression on Poland, the brothers’ economic activity was seized due to restrictions imposed on the Jewish population.

Authros: Piotr Turowski, Filip Wróblewski