One recurring theme during World War II was converting a car radio to operate indoors. This was because there was a shortage of receivers, due to production being stopped. And with gas and tire rationing, the car radio wasn’t getting much use. So it was only logical to bring it inside, and that’s what this gentleman was doing, following some pointers found in Popular Science for January 1945, eighty years ago this month.

The article discussed such things as replacing the speaker, since the car radio probably employed a 6-volt field coil, and it was easier to get a permanent magnet speaker. And, of course, a bit of rewiring would be necessary to get it to run off household current. The antenna was the easy part, since the car radio required only a short piece of wire.