Monthly Archives: February 2024

1924 Telephone Workers: Risking Life and Limb

1924FebBLA hundred years ago, the telephone had become an essential part of American life, and the public had come to take it for granted as part of their normal business and social lives, as well as relying upon it in emergencies.

But The Telephone Company and its workers didn’t take it for granted. Despite fire or storm or flood, the telephone operator stuck to her switchboard. And the lineman and a quarter million employees risked life, limb, and even health to make sure that messages continued to go through.

All the public had to do for all of this was to pay the moderate cost.

This ad appeared in the February 1924 issue of Boys’ Life.



1939 British One-Tube Regen

1939FebPracMechThe plans for this one-tube–er, I mean one-valve–regenerative receiver appeared 85 years ago this month in the January 1939 issue of Practical Mechanics.

The article begins by noting that “the small receiver is apt to be despised in these days of 7 and 8 -valve superhets, there is still a very wide field of application for the simple one-valver. Many schoolmasters, for in- stance, have asked for details of a set which may be used as a demonstrating model, either for handycraft instruction, or to explain many of the theories underlying modern radio technique.”

The circuit relies upon a pre-made coil, which is no doubt unobtainium these days. But the article does describe how to make a very similar coil, which can be used with slight modification of the circuit. Either way, the set did tune both longwave and mediumwave bands, thanks to a band switch which shorted out the longwave portion of the coil. The set uses a D210, which is a British model, but almost any triode would probably work well.

1939FebPracMech2