All radio receivers were initially designed to be powered by batteries. Batteryless radios were actually any which could be powered directly from the mains AC power supply rather than from batteries.
The first batteryless radio was created by Edward Rogers, Sr in 1925; this was the first time that any radio was ever powered directly from AC mains electricity. These were only originally available in their native Canada, in 1926 these were released in the United States, and in 1927 they were launched in Europe.
