A hundred years ago this month, the December 1920 issue of Radio News showed this French receiver designed for receiving time signals from the Eiffel Tower. If it looks familiar, it’s because we featured it before.  The same receiver appeared in Popular Mechanics in 1914, so it had been on the market for at least six years before showing up on the cover of Radio News, which gave more details of the set and of the time signals sent from the Eiffel Tower.

In the magazine, we learn that the receiver is known as the Ondaphone, and consists of a galena detector mounted on the back of the telephone receiver. One wire is connected to a convenient ground, such as a radiator, and the other wire is connected to an antenna. In the picture here, a light fixture is used for the antenna. In a rural area, the article suggests that even an umbrella might form a suitable antenna.

Despite any inductor, the set was said to work well throughout Paris, and even in outlying areas.