#Exhibit of the Month

Christmas bells entered the Romanian cultural space through a long process in which archaic traditions blended with Christian belief and European influences. Long before the holiday of Christmas developed as we know it, metallic sounds played an important ritual role in old communities: they were used to drive away evil spirits, to purify spaces, and to protect people during transitional moments at the turn of the year. These beliefs have been preserved in winter customs such as caroling, the Plugușor, and masked dances, where bells and jingles were indispensable.
With the spread of Christianity, the sound of the bell also acquired a profound religious meaning, becoming an announcer of major feasts and a symbol of the Nativity. Small bells, however, were not originally used as decorations but primarily as functional or ritual objects.
The first decorated Christmas tree in the Romanian lands was the one at the palace of Prince Carol I of Hohenzollern, following his arrival in the Romanian Principalities in 1866. From that moment the tradition took root, and on Christmas Eve princes and princesses invited to the palace would take part in decorating the tree. Among the ornaments used were small metal bells, symbolizing joy, the good news, and divine protection for the home.
In the twentieth century, Christmas bells spread across all Romanian provinces and became a visual emblem of the holiday, appearing in both decorations and carols. Even during periods when religious expression was curtailed, bells remained in people's homes as signs of joy and the continuity of tradition. Today they retain this dual meaning: the echo of ancient beliefs and, at the same time, the announcement of the Birth of Christ - a symbol of hope, light, and the link between past and present.
These tinkling pieces are part of a generous heritage collection at the National Museum of History of Moldova (NMHM), which includes more than 200 cultural items. A substantial contribution to the museum's collection of decorative bells was made by Dorina Raischi, a teacher at School No. 94 in Chișinău, who donated 174 bells, of which around 30 are winter-themed. Made of ceramic, porcelain, glass, and metal, they were brought from different parts of the world and together offer a succinct picture of the global culture of bells. They add a festive note to the home and even to a gift, and it is hard to imagine Christmas without their cheerful tinkling.

Virtual Tour

#Exhibit of the Month

February 2023

Radio receivers: Telefunken and Philips

Radio represents one of the outstanding technological achievements of human thought, which led to the emergence and development of the most powerful and popular means of mass communication. From its beginnings, radio broadcasting had immediate effects on the social, economic, military, but also on the cultural level.

Radio is the work of time, to which many scientists have contributed. Among the most important names we mention: the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, who predicted, in 1860, the existence of radio waves; the German physicist Heinrich Rudolph Hertz, who demonstrated that rapid variations in electric current could be projected into space as radio waves; the American inventor of Croatian origin Nicola Tesla, who, in 1891, built the theoretical model of the device that produced electromagnetic cycles.

Those who are primarily credited with this discovery - the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi and the Russian physicist Alexander Popov - did nothing more than synthesize or weave together floating ideas, so no one has intellectual authorship, which does not exclude their rights conferred by patents and glory.

For more than 120 years, radio has been telling stories, saving lives, delivering news, educating generations, providing a means of recreation, shaping a society's experience of diversity. As a sign of appreciation for this powerful vector of information and culture, UNESCO instituted, in 2012, a special holiday, World Radio Day, which is celebrated worldwide on February 13.

The advent of sound broadcasting propelled the development of radio technology. Gradually, starting in 1920, the need for collective auditions determined the manufacture of the first loudspeakers based on the principle of electromagnetic induction, which had a diaphragm or a diffuser cone. Moved by a metal paddle, they actuated a large mass of air, thus producing loud sounds. Overcoming the evolutionary framework, with all the inherent difficulties, the radio was continuously perfected, with predilection after the invention of radio lamps and transistors, arriving at the construction of increasingly complex devices.

The National Museum of History of Moldova conserves and uses about 120 radio receivers with historical, technical and memorial value, manufactured between 1934 and the beginning of the 21st century in various countries. The radio sets in the museum heritage are of interest for the history of science and technology, some of them standing out as reference pieces for the evolution of means of communication.

From the point of view of the principle of operation, the radios owned by the museum are direct-amplified, reactive and superheterodyne. From a categorical point of view, the museum's radio technical fund is made up of: 36 radio equipment, 17 radio receivers with electronic tubes and 68 transistorized radio receivers. This month, as part of the "Exhibit of the Month" series, we bring to the public's attention two stationary radio receivers with electronic tubes, Telefunken and Philips, of great historical and technical value, they laid the foundations for the constitution of the museum's collection of radio devices.

Telefunken radio receiver, model Koncert Trial, was manufactured at the Radiotechna enterprise in Prague-Prelouc, Czechoslovakia, between 1934 and 1935. It is a superheterodyne device, in a Bakelite case. Technical characteristics: 4 electronic tubes - REN904, REN904, RENS1374S and RGN564; the wave ranges - UL (long waves), UM (medium waves) and US (short waves); dimensions - 290x355x175 mm; power supply - 110/240 V; speaker - permanently dynamic.

Philips radio receiver, model 36U, was manufactured in 1943 at the Philips workshop in Hungary (which operated from 1931 to 1949). It is a superheterodyne device, in a bakelite case. Technical characteristics: 4 electronic tubes - UCH21, UCH21, UBL21 and UY21; wave ranges: UL (long waves) and US (short waves); dimensions: 250x170x130 mm; power supply: 110/150/220 V, weight: 2.5 kg; speaker - permanently dynamic.

#Exhibit of the Month

Decorative Bells

February 2023

Radio receivers: Telefunken and Philips

#Exhibit of the Month