Eighty-five years ago this month, the April 1940 issue of the British Practical Mechanics magazine showed how to build this pocket-sized two-tube receiver. The magazine acknowledged that to make it pocket sized necessitated putting the batteries somewhere else. But as long as they could be placed in, perhaps, a different pocket, then the set could be built into a small cigar box.

To avoid cracking the delicate wood of the box, no band switch was used. Instead, to switch between medium waves and long waves, the ground cable used a crocodile clip which would affix to a different tap of the coil.