Shown here ninety years ago in the September 1926 issue of Radio Age magazine is Charles Ostrand, described by the magazine as a farm boy from Shawnee County, Kansas. He built the three tube set shown here in order to listen to helpful agricultural programs. The magazine reported that he had built several other sets for his neighbors.

This was not an unusual phenomenon. According to the magazine, there were already a million radios on the nation’s farms, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that the number would soon double. The radio, according to the magazine, was not just a device for entertainment. It delivered weather and market reports, as well as vital scientific information of use to farmers.

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