If you were in Britain 85 years ago and needed an enclosure in which to mount your radio, you needn’t look any further than the box in which your gas mask came! This set, shown in the May 11, 1940, issue of Practical Wireless shows exactly how to do it.

Apparently, the box was laced up with string, and the magazine explained how you could substitute wire, and use that for the antenna. The batteries would fit inside the enclosure.

Curiously, the article concluded by noting that the antenna wire and earpiece could be put away inside the box, allowing the box to be easily closed. “It then has the appearance of quite an ordinary gas-mask box.” I guess you wouldn’t want to alarm people by letting them know you had a radio, whereas the ordinary gas-mask box wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.