Monthly Archives: December 2023

1923 Street Grinder Upgrades to Phonograph

Just about any profession can benefit from adopting the latest in technology, as illustrated by this self-explanatory picture in the December 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics.

According to the magazine, this gentleman’s profession, somewhere in Europe, was a mendicant. That’s a word you don’t hear very often today, but it sounds a lot better than “beggar.” He had previously operated as an organ grinder (the article didn’t say whether or not he had a monkey), but constantly having to turn the crank proved too hard. Also, the hand organ was very heavy. Therefore, he invested in the phonograph shown here, which required cranking only occasionally after a few songs. Armed with a satchel full of records, he could share his entertainment and eek out a living much more easily.

TV Stations On the Air 1948

Here is a snapshot of which TV stations were on the air 75 years ago. The coasts were where most of the action was, but it was clear that TV would soon blanket the nation, as there were stations on the air in places like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Texas. This listing appeared in the December 1948 issue of Radio News, and lists the stations on the air as of November 1.

1954 Grocery Prices

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For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1954, this ad for Red & White Food Stores appeared in the Tabor City (NC) Tribune, December 29, 1954.

Sirloin steak for 49 cents a pound sounds like a bargain, but there’s been a lot of inflation in 70 years. According to this online inflation calculator, that works out to about $5.59 per pound in 2023 dollars. You might decide to eat the 33 cent bologna instead, but even that works out to $3.77 per pound.

If you were shopping for dinner in 1954, what would you buy?

1923 British Regen

A hundred years ago this month, the December 1923 issue of the British journal Wireless Weekly showed how to build this two-tube regenerative receiver. The exact frequency/wave length coverage is not stated (quite likely because the author didn’t really know for sure), but it was designed to receive long wave radiotelephone and radiotelegraph signals, as well as BBC broadcasts. So presumably, it covered the long waves and the medium waves.

It was said to pull in all of the BBC broadcasts with good volume.

The circuit isn’t all that different from similar receivers from subsequent decades. So it would be a good performer, even today. The picture above is somewhat deceptive, as it doesn’t show the components below the chassis. It is designed to be mounted in a a box about 3 inches deep, which is shown in the article.

1953 Model Train Voice Control

Seventy years ago, this young man was deriving new enjoyment from his train set, thanks to the voice control system his dad put together, from the plans in the December 1953 issue of Popular Electronics.

The system would cycle through forward, stop, and reverse commands. The actual words used didn’t matter, but with a bit of creativity, Junior could make it look like the device understood exactly what he said. For example, if the train was moving forward, then barking “stop” would have the desired effect. From a stop, the word “reverse” would do the trick. If the train was going backwards, then “now go forward” would give three syllables, making it cycle through to the forward mode.

The device was compatible with both Lionel and American Flyer train sets.

Mimi Benzell’s Hi Fi, 1953

Seventy years ago, it was a Hi Fi Christmas for soprano Mimi Benzell and her husband Walter Gould. They are shown here with what Santa delivered, namely, a Graarard turntable, a Pilot tuner, a Bogen amplifier, a University speaker enclosure, and a Wilcox Gay tape recorder.

They are probably shown at their home, which, according to Wikipedia, was at 45 Cardinal Road, Manhasset, New York. The picture appeared on the cover of the December 1953 issue of Radio News.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com!

We present a hundred year old silent film, the 1923 version of A Christmas Carol starring Russell Thorndike as Scrooge. It’s a short feature, so the story is quite condensed into less than a half hour. This rendition is accompanied by recordings from that era. Thorndike is best known as an author, and you can find his author page at Amazon.

Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning that this site earns a small commission if you make a purchase after following the link..

1943 Code Practice Oscillator

The December 1943 issue of Radio News carried the plans for this simple one-tube code oscillator. The 117N7 with a built-in rectifier meant that it could be done with a single tube.

The author of the article is one R.C. Zaun, an engineer with the Thorardson Electric Manufacturing Company. Not surprisingly, the most expensive part shown in the schematic is probably the audio output transformer, which just happens to have a Thorardson part number.

As shown here, the oscillator had a pitch of about 1600 Hz. This could be varied in one of two ways. First, R1 could be replaced with a variable resistor, although the article noted that this would also affect the volume. Another method would be to change the value of C4, switching in capacitors of different values to vary the pitch.

If wartime parts shortages meant that the 117N7 wasn’t available, it could be substituted with other versions of a different filament voltage. Of course, an appropriate dropping resistor would need to be used.

S.G. Brown Headphones

This ad appeared 75 years ago this month in the December 1948 issue of Practical Mechanics.

Your choice of headphones was important. For DX work, you needed good fidelity. But more importantly, you needed to uphold British prestige. And to do that, you needed the Type K headphone from S.G. Brown, Ltd.

Pyruma Putty Cement, 1943

Eighty years ago in the U.K., there was a war going on, which meant that many Christmas presents might have been unavailable. But Britons were known for keeping a stiff upper lip, and if there were no gifts in the shops, then they could make their own.

This ad for Pyruma putty cement appeared in the December 1943 issue of Practical Mechanics. After making the model, you baked it in the oven and it became stone hard. The compound was also used by the military in making models.