In the begining there were two friends: R.H.G. Mathews of Chicago and Karl Hassel of Pennsylvania who had met at the Great Lakes Training Center while in the Navy during WWI. Following discharge they opened the Chicago Radio Laboratory to follow their passion for wireless.

Not a garage industry for they had no garage at first, early radios were assembled on Mathews kitchen table. Their station name - 9ZN - led to the name Z-Nith. Their receivers and transmitters had one major difference to separate them from others produced on kitchen tables around the world in those years, they were extremely well made, partly a result of their military training And partly an innate desire for quality.

In 1920, the friends made one very important acquisition that would set them apart from the bulk of the other would-be manufacturers: a license to utilize the patent on Regeneration granted to Major Edwin Armstrong that was a quantum inprovement in wireless.

Enter Commander Eugene MacDonald. On New Year's Eve, 1920, he was at a garage to pick up his car. He was already wealthy for automotive dealings before WWI. Hearing a radio playing in the shop, he bacame interested which lead to the discovery of the boys in their transmitter shack, their possesion of an Armstrong license (the fact that the license was for amateur use only did not slow the Commander down, little did.

In short order Z-Nith became Zenith and all everyone could do was to try to keep up with the Commander.

The early period (1920-1924) were primarily devoted to manufacturing radios as fast as they could. With names like "Amplifigon" and "Paragon" model numbers were descriptive of function and were essentially built to order.

Representative of the 1920-21 period were identifiers such as PR-1 ("Portable" Receiver), MBR-2 (Motor Boat Receiver), and TR-1 (Time Receiver - for setting clocks). Several had "Audion" in their name to demonstrate their use of DeForest's Audion tubes (much like the "Intel Inside" logos of today). For 1921, the MacDonald infuence began to show as "Z-Nith Long Distance Radio Apparatus".

For 1922, concentration on receivers as "Apparatus" was dropped and the mainstay Zenith began with the 1-R and presumably superior 2-R (at least it cost a third more) "Zenith Long Distance Radio Receiver" and the 1-M, 2-M, and 3-M amplifiers being most promoted.

This continued for 1923-1924 with the introduction of the 3-R and 4-R receives, the higher numbers obviously indication superiority over the earlier models.

1924 was significant in that it also offered what Zenith called "The World's First Portable Radio", ignoring Maj. Armstrong's wedding gift to his wife in 1923 and the "OperaRadio" of the same year. There is some basis to the claim since the Zenith was wholly self contained and could be carried while operating - no assembly necessary. What is not mentioned is that according to contemporary accounts, over half of these first portables were returned as "unsatisfactory".

With the Roman numerals of 1925, Zenith started on a ten-year-long search for a meaningful set of model numbers that would permit its salemen to be able to assist customers without making it too obvious that there was a Plan. Gone were the regenatives as all chassis were now "NOT Regenative". The consumer market was attacked with a vengance as styled cabinets were promoted equally with technical specifications.

"Deluxe" models with a price tag to match were not the right stuff even for the Roaring Twenties as a consumer items and so the model VII was to be the sole profitable carryover from a line that included the first "Chinese" model. Notable is that these were the first of the one dial radios and that the "Spanish" model listed for two thousand five hundred 1925 dollars (they were bigger).

More reasonably priced were the "Super-Zenith" models VII, VIII, and X all on the same two-dial, six tube TRF chassis.

For the 1926 season, Roman numerals became Arabic again as the "Super-Zenith" Model VII became the mainstay model 7. Battery sets were supplanted by line powered ones through use of the Zenith battery eliminator option. In addition, the 7 could be ordered as the model 27 which included AC power supply and 2 (count them ) gas rectifier tubes valued at $6.00 each ! (other tubes were optional).

"DeLuxe" ten tube models were contiued to be offered though it is likely that these were mainly unsold 1925 chassis.

Optional accessories for the two dial model 7 included a soinet base, a console base for the model 7 with loudspeaker and battery comparment, or a console base for the 27 having two loudspeakers.

"No Batteries" was a major selling point though contingency plans were expressed with with a bracketed notice that "Where no electric current is available super Zeniths may be purchased for use with storage batteries." and the sales of the 27 proved the public was ready. Good thing because Zenith in 1926 nearly went bankrupt.

In 1927, Zenith stuck with the same proven models (27, 28,29) and with the signing of a patent agreement with RCA, "NOT Regenative" was admitted to mean "Tuned Radio Frequency"

Probably a good thing since Judge Bodine was inclined to a way of thinking very favorable to RCA - one manufacturer was found to infringe on the patent simply because their circuit could fail in a manner that would cause oscillation even though it would never do so in designed use.

Folowing the buying trends of the public, the 1927 mainstay was the model 17 and where previous "7"s had been designed for use as either battery or mains powered, the 17 was solely AC.

For late 1927-1928 (model years had not yet officially appeared so listings were for year manufactured despite the fact that new models were typically offered in the August-November timeframe - later these would be called "1928's"), numerical model numbers begn to make some sense: Models 11 & 12 shared the basic chassis and the addition of a loudspeaker created the model 14. Model 15 was a plain box having 8 tubes with a loop antenna and companion 16 had an ornate cabinet. Adding an E suffix meant that the set could be operated with ac instead of batteries and the 16EP was ac with a powered speaker. Model 17E included a gas rectifier but the spinet base was $20 additional. Big news for the 18E was calibration in both kc and meters (but the tuning range was expressed as 105-550 meters - essentially 545 kc-2.8 Mc

All together, mixing and matching suffixes on the 11, 12, 14, 15, 16,17 & 18 resulted in sixteen "different" models for 1927-1928. 11-14 shared a common six tube (all working) battery chassis. Models 15 & 16 were eight tube while 17 & 18 reverted to a six tube chassis but were AC only

Single knob tuning was further perfected as Zenith boasted of "four Zenith condensers permanently balanced on one shaft". Non- console models were basically variations on a coffin theme (model 11 boasted a 6 inch longer cabinet than the model 12). Styling for the masses was definately coming as the $180 model 14 claimed "When (doors are) closed, there is no indication that the cabinet contains a radio set."

Having used the 20s in 1927, teens in 1928, Zenith skipped to the "30"s for the six tube chassis of 1929 with models 31-35 suffixes A (mechanical remote tuner), P (powered speaker), and X (seven tube chassis). Model 39 came in mid-year as was common in those days and was the top-of-the-line.

Running out of 30s, Zenith moved to the 40s while still in 1929 with the midyear introduction of the 41 & 42 (June). As a result, models for the 1930 lineup would begin with the fifties.

Thus in the space of 1926-1929 Zeniths went from multi-dial regenerative battery sets to two knobs to one knob tuning TRFs that pretended not to be radios & preferred not to use batteries.

Still at the Iron street plant and farming out cabinet work, Dickens St. and "The Big Black Dial" was soon to come.