1936 “Porcupine” Antenna

1936JulyPS3

Eighty years ago this month, the July 1936 issue of Popular Science included this novel “porcupine” antenna.

for either shortwave or broadcast reception. The magazine noted that where space was at a premium, it could be fastened to the outside frame of a window, since it required no mast, insulators, or dangling wires. The “antenna” consisted of a “clump of short wires that resembles a procupine or bristle brush.”

It seems to me that the outdoor clump of wires would add little or nothing to the reception. In reality, if the antenna worked, it was only because the lead-in wire was functioning as an antenna.  At least it wasn’t advertised as containing oxygen-free wire.
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