CGE Ribbon (Unknown)

The CGE ribbon microphone is pictured in the Italian magazine 'Radio Industria', on page 20 of the 1946-1947 volume, and also in the 1943-45 volume. On this basis we have provisionally dated the microphone as being manufactured between 1944 to 1947.

Some commentators have suggested that these microphones were built by the Magneti Marelli company which seems plausible because GEC was part owned by Marelli. However, the various GEC branded mics are quite different from the Marelli branded MC16, which much more closely resembles the RCA 74B.

The following company history is Summarised from a Wikipedia entry about CGE:

Compagnia Generale di Elettricità (CGE) was founded in Milan in 1921 as a partnership between the American giant corporation General Electric, FIAT, and Ercole-Marelli. Initially, the company sold radio receivers made by the RCA Corporation but by the late 1920s it had begun producing its own radios.

During the 1930s, CGE expanded significantly in the radio industry. In 1941, it acquired rival company FAR (formerly SAFAR) and created FIAR, while also opening factories in Milan and Baranzate to manufacture radios, navigation equipment, and related components. Production stopped during the later years of World War II because of Italy’s worsening military situation.

After the war, CGE quickly resumed operations and diversified into household appliances and televisions. In 1946, television manufacturing moved to the Baranzate plant, renamed FIRT, while FIAR in Milan focused on military radio transceivers for the Italian Army. During the early Cold War, CGE also traded with Eastern Bloc countries, attracting monitoring from the CIA.

By 1958, ownership of CGE was evenly split between GE and Fiat, and the company also held a 50% stake in CONE, a Naples-based manufacturer of refrigerators and water heaters.

Thanks to Alon Schmidhauser

This example has a high impedance output transformer and an arrangement of four block magnets at the rear of the motor. The magnetic field is rather low and measures around 1250 gauss.

A wikipedia page about the CGE company.

A youtube video by Niki Luciano showing repair of a similar CGE ribbon microphone, although the magnets are different from our specimen.