Shown here in this 1917 press photo is Miss Margaret M.A. Donahue of Boston. According to the Tombstone (Ariz.) Epitaph of May 6, 1917, and other newspapers carrying the feature, she was believed to be the first woman in the United States to get a first class commercial radio operator’s license. With war declared only weeks earlier, in a letter to the federal radio inspector, she said that she would be willing to accept active duty in any branch of the service.
In an earlier post, we showed the Beaver Baby Grand crystal set
manufactured by the Beaver Machine & Tool Company of Newark, N.J. The company appeared to be primarily involved in manufacturing electrical switches, which are shown around the margin above. The crystal set was a sideline. In 1924, the set was selling for $3.40, and was being marketed as a gift for less fortunate friends who couldn’t afford a tube set.
I happened to find this ad from 1922, at which time the set had a retail price of $10. It appeared in the June 1922 issue of the trade publication Electrical Record.
This ad was directed toward dealers, and calls the set a “new harvest in radio profits.” The company notes that it had uncovered a demand that had been growing under the surface for months of “veteran fans who want a portable set to take along on hikes, picnics, to camp, etc.” The ad also notes that if dealers show off this handsome little instrument to other customers, “you will sell many people who cannot afford the vacuum tube sets.”
At the top of the page is an admonition: “Dog Ear this page. The boss will want to see it.”
The product was also featured editorially in the “new products” section of the magazine:
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Normally on this page, we recognize the pioneers of wireless communications who facilitated the development of radio. We don’t normally recognize people who smashed radio equipment with an ax. But we make an exception in the case of a forgotten heroine of the First World War, Mlle. Marie Louise Gombier, a Belgian girl who bravely did her part to free her country from its German invaders.
At the start of the war, two days before the Germans took Brussels, Mlle. Gombier along with two other girls escaped from a convent and fled to her father’s home at Dickenbusch Farm (Dikkebus) near Brussels. Unbeknownst to her, a German officer was billeted there, and there was a German wireless station installed there.
She awaited an opportunity to slip into the room with the wireless, and did so when the German soldiers had left it unattended. With a shoe, she managed to put the station out of commission, but repairs were effected within 48 hours.
Undaunted, she awaited another opportunity, which presented itself a few days later. Acting under direction of Belgian military authorities, she returned with an ax and completely destroyed the station. Unfortunately, the commotion didn’t escape the attention of the German soldiers, who caught her in the act. She was taken before the commanding officer, who ordered that she be shot as a spy.
Croix de Guerre. Wikipedia photo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Fortunately, the officer billeted in the house intervened and commuted the sentence to imprisonment. She was imprisoned, but managed to escape five weeks later. She worked her way to the British lines, and attached herself to a Canadian unit, where she worked as a nurse until the end of the war.
During her work as a nurse, she was befriended by an American, Mrs. Lita Dowdy, a Y.W.C.A. worker from Los Angeles. At the conclusion of the war, Mrs. Dowdy adopted her, and she arrived in America on the French steamer La Lorraine in August 1919. She became a U.S. citizen in 1925.
Mlle. Gombier was awarded the Croix de Guerre with two palms by the Belgian government. Her home appears to have been near the location of the British Huts cemetery. Mlle. Gombier was reported as being 21 years old at the time of her arrival in New York, meaning that she would have been about 16 at the time she smashed the radio.
References
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In 1924, Radio was fast becoming a popular fad in Puerto Rico, as shown in this photo from the April 1924 issue of Radio Age. The island did not yet have any broadcast stations of its own, but the three young women shown here, Srtas. Lydia Rexach, Adela Gomez, and Emilia Rexach, are listening to a concert they’re pulling in from the States.
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In 1922, the Chicago Elevated Railroad was equipping its cars with a radio system. Shown here in the March 1922 issue of Science and Invention are a “dozen pretty girls” from the offices of the railroad line, dancing with road officials to the strains of jazz music transmitted from the radio station on top of the City Hall.
1922 L Cars like the one shown above. Wikipedia photo, © Jeremy Atherton, 2007; file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license .
The receiving antenna consisted of wires run atop the train car, and the radio was powered by a high voltage DC dynamo.
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This illustration of KPB, the Marconi Wireless station in Ketchikan, Alaska, appeared in The Wireless World a hundred years ago this month, June 1915. The U.S. Government already had wireless stations in place in Alaska, but the rate for private correspondence was extremely high, and the Marconi Company set out to provide private competition. Stations leased from Marconi were in place at canneries and mines in Chignik, Naknek, Kodiak, Nushagak, Koggiung, Clark’s Point, and other locations. In addition, most of the ships serving the canneries were equipped with Marconi wireless stations.
The hub of Marconi’s Alaska network was the Ketchikan station shown here, and another under construction at Juneau. They, in turn, were linked to the station under construction at Astoria, Oregon.
The four 300-foot self-supporting towers of the Ketchikan station stood at the corners of a rectangle measuring 300 by 600 feet. The wire antennas were afixed to 14-foot wooden masts at the top. Three thousand pounds of zinc plates were buried in a circle around the station’s power house. Due to the heavy rainfall, the plates were continually wet.
2300 volt power came from the city power plant two miles away and powered a 25 kW rotary disc. The receiving station was 75 feet away, with two tuners covering 100-4000 meters and 100-7000 meters.
References
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WLW tower. Photo by R.P. Piper, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, via Wikipedia.
Off and on from 1934 to 1942, WLW in Cincinnati operated with 500,000 watts. For a time, it held the title as the world’s most powerful radio transmitter, and it was the most powerful broadcast station to ever operate in the United States. Other stations sought permission to boost their power to similar levels, but permission was never granted. In fact, WJZ in Newark, NJ (currently WABC), had gone as far as to order a 500 kW transmitter, but was never given permission to put it on the air. The WJZ transmitter was later sold to the British government, which put it to use during the war as the world’s most powerful mediumwave station.
500,000 watts is a lot of RF, and WLW had its work cut out to deal with it. One of the first problems was adjacent channel interference to CFRB 375 miles away in Toronto, which on 690 was only 10 kHz below the behemouth transmitter. This was solved by a passive element which WLW constructed across the road to limit the signal toward Toronto.
The other issue was all of the RF floating around near the transmitter site in Mason, Ohio, and those problems were detailed in a Popular Science article 80 years ago this month, June 1935. The photo here shows a WLW engineer drawing a spark from the metal fence that surrounded the tower. The arc would sing in time with the station’s modulation.
WLW programming could be heard from metallic objects for miles around. And if a man held a pair of wires attached to a 100 watt bulb in his hand near the gate to the tower site, enough electricity would pass through his body to light the lamp. A number of residents near the site erected antennas to tap the free energy and run lights or small appliances.
Much of the old WLW transmitter is still intact, The video below shows a 2013 tour of the old facility:
References
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Eighty years ago, Popular Science, June 1935, carried the plans for this complete 80 meter CW station. It could be used permanently in the shack, or as a portable station. The entire station weighed in at about 35 pounds, and could be transported relatively easily. The front panel measured just 18 by 12 inches.
The top third is the transmitter, which uses a type 47 tube as crystal oscillator, and two type 46 tubes as the final amplifier, putting out about 30 watts.
The receiver used one type 58 tube as an untuned RF amplifier, with a type 57 tube as regenerative detector. A type 2A5 was used as an audio amplifier.
The bottom section contained the 110 volt power supply, with a transformer supplying 450 volts either side of the center tap. This was rectified by a 5Z3 tube, with several capacitors and chokes doing the filtering. The article noted that where commercial power was not available, the set could be adapted to a vibrator power supply to run off six volts.
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A January 1965 report prepared for the Office of Civil Defense reported on several simulated fallout shelter exercises conducted in the Pittsburg area to investigate various shelter management factors. For example, in one study, the designated shelter manager arrived late. In another study, the effects of total darkness upon shelter operation were studied.
In three of the experiments, the stress level was increased by periodically playing simulated emergency broadcast system messages. The script of those broadcasts is particularly interesting, since it gives an insight into what civil defense planners thought might be a plausible scenario for a nuclear attack on the United States, and how news would be communicated to the public.
Here is the text of the nineteen radio broadcasts that might have been heard during a nuclear war:
EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM SCRIPT
EBS #1, Friday, 7:00 PMATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Take shelter immediately. Take shelter immediately. This is not a drill.
Repeat: This is not a drill. An enemy attack is being launched against
the United States. Take shelter immediately and stay tuned to this
frequency for further instructions.THE ABOVE MESSAGE IS TO BE REPEATED THREE TIMES, WITH 15-SECOND INTERVALS.
EBS #2, Friday, 7:10 PM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. We have just been informed that the city is now on the emergency power system. Please inform the control center if your shelter is without light-., Repeat: The city is now on the emergency power system. Please inform the control center if your shelter is without lights. We also have ….. we also have word here that there has been no confirmed report of a missile strike in this area. There has been no confirmed report of a missile strike in this area.
EBS #3, Friday, 7:15
(Phone is heard ringing in background.)
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This Is the Emergency Broadcast System. A missile attack has been launched against the United States. Reports about the attack are fragmentary and unconfirmed. The strategic missile bases west of the Mississippi appear to have borne the brunt of the attack. As of this moment there has been no official report of a nuclear detonation in our immediate vicinity. Fallout has begun to descend on the western portions of our city and is expected in other areas imminently. Do not communicate with the emergency operations center unless absolutely necessary.
.
EBS #4, Friday, 8:00 PMATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Stay tuned for an important message. (DISTANT VOICE: Okay, stand by now. We’ve got a remote from Washington.) Static ——- Noise. Another voice: This is a report from the emergency national command post in Washington. The President and his key civilian and military aides have been safely evacuated to the emergency seat of government. This evening at 6:35 PM the enemy launched an attack against the strategic retaliatory forces of the United States and its NATO allies. An intelligence warning allowed us to launch a portion of our land-based missile force against the enemy’s remaining strategic forces.
Polaris missiles have also been launched. In addition, our airborne alert and a portion of our ground alert aircraft forces have been sent against the enemy’s non-missile strategic forces. Our damage assessment reports indicate that many of our SAC bases have been destroyed or severely damaged. A number of communities near SAC bases have also suffered great damage. The fallout monitoring network reports that radiation is heavy in the western portion of our country and is increasing in the midwest and eastern portions of our nation. Although there have been several nuclear detonations in the east, it appears as if these have been the result of errant missiles, rather than a planned attack against population centers. The President, whom, I repeat is alive and well, will address the nation as soon as his command duties permit. This is the end of the Priority One report. Local EBS stations may resume Priority Two broadcasting.EBS #5, Friday, 8:30 PM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Short wave monitoring has disclosed that our air strike forces are currently launching attacks on the enemy homeland. These forces are utilizing a new….. what? What do you mean it’s not for release? (Another voice: Priority One. Now.. for heaven’s sake! Announcer: Well what the hell …… 1)
THIS MATERIAL CUT OUT.
EBS #6, Friday, 8: 50 PM
Has this one been cleared?
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. We have Just received word that the President has been evacuated to sea in the floating Whitehouse. The location of this ship is unknown. The floating Whitehouse is a battle cruiser, fully equipped for command and control functions. Our government has survived the attack. I repeat, our government has survived the attack.EBS #7, Friday, 9:30 PM
ATTENION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System, We have just been informed that a message is to be delivered from the governor’s office in Harrisburg. Please stand by,
This is a report from the governor’s office in Harrisburg. The state of
conditions in Pennsylvania is serious, but not critical. Erie has been
severely damaged by what is believed to have been a stray missile. No other cities have reported being hit, but the fallout level is rapidly increasing, particularly in western Pennsylvania. Apparently neighboring states have borne the brunt of the attack, particularly those in the western portions of the country. All citizens should seek shelter immediately. Do not attempt to evacuate your area until you are instructed to do so. Local law enforcement personnel should remain in their respective areas. State police have been assigned to more critical areas, and additional state aid will become available and be assigned when fallout levels permit.EBS #8, Friday, 10:15 PM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Fallout began to descend on the Pittsburgh area several hours ago and radiological monitoring reports indicate that radiation levels are dangerously high in many parts of our city. No one should attempt to leave shelters. Repeat: No one should attempt to leave shelters. Youngstown, Ohio and Erie, Pennsylvania have suffered severe damage as a result of nuclear detonations.
As of the moment there have been no nuclear blasts in our immediate area. The municipal power has been temporarily disrupted in some parts of the city. Power should be restored shortly. No further official reports on our retaliatory attacks on the enemy homeland are available. Unofficially, the absence of any significant second wave of enemy attack, plus the size of our surviving strategic force, allows cautious optimism that we will suffer no further major damage from any attack. Until further word is transmitted by this station, everyone must remain in shelters.EBS #9, Friday, 10:30 PM
ATTENTION. ATIENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. In order to evaluate the damage to Pittsburgh, the emergency operations center requests every shelter to gather the following information and to report it to the local emergency operations center. Is this a fallout or a blast shelter? How many persons are in the shelter? How many of these persons are injured? How many persons are suffering from radiation sickness? What is the condition, of your equipment? Is your shelter structure damaged? Do you have adequate electricity?
Do you have adequate ventilation? What is the state of your food supplies? What is the state of your water supply? Do you have any illness other than radiation sickness? As soon as we have received reports from district control centers we will relay such information on to you. When emergency missions are possible, disaster teams will be sent to those shelters which need medical supplies, food and water. Attempts will also be made to report specific areas of damage in our city. Please stay tuned for additional announcements.EBS #10, 11:30 PM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Wee have hundreds of people in the area who do not have shelter with an adequate protection factor. They must be moved to other shelters in order to survive.
Please advise the emergency operations center as to the number of additional people you can take into your shelter. This is imperative. Please inform the emergency operations center as to the number of additional people you can take into your shelter.EBS #11, Saturday. 1:30 AM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency 3roadcast System. Radiological monitoring teams report that the radiation levels in the Pittsburgh area are still high. However, there is no additional accumulation of radioactive dust. The fallout on the ground is beginning to decay. It is simply a matter of waiting out this decay time before we can undertake further civil defense measures. Everyone is to remain inside until further notice. Please do not leave your shelters.
EBS #12, Saturday, 2:15 AM
ACCIDENTALLY OVERHEAR A SHORT WAVE BROADCAST. “Hello Tower…. to checkpoint two…. ” Static and short wave noise.
EBS #13, Saturday, 3:00 AM
LOUD STATIC AND SHORT WAVE NOISE.
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System.
EBS #14, Saturday, 3:45 AM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Reports have been received that there are bands of looters wandering about the city. Attempts have been made to loot shelters in this area. Be alert to this situation and act accordingly. Security police will begin patrolling the area as soon as the radiation level permits.
EBS #15, Saturday, 4:15 AM
ACCIDENTALLY OVERHEAR SAC PLANE MESSAGE. Sounds like:
“Angels 46 — Same heading — Roger, Angels 52 — Fuel 30 … ”
Much static.EBS #16, Saturday, 6:00 AM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast Svytem. Stay tuned for an important message. Okay, stand by to switch.
MUCH STATIC ———– “Please stand by.”
This is a Priority One report from the emergency national command post in Washington. It appears that the enemy attack is over. There have been no further reports of missile strikes since early last evening. Radio monitoring indicates no further enemy air activity. Damage assessment reports indicate that the brunt of this attack was borne by western states. Many of our SAC bases have been destroyed or severely damaged. Communities near SAC bases have also been severely damaged. The central and eastern portions of the country have escaped extensive damage although stray missiles have struck some of the smaller population centers. Fallout is moving across the country in an easterly direction, carried on westerly winds. All citizens should remain in shelters until instructed otherwise by local civil defense commands. The President and key members of his cabinet are still aboard the U. S. S. Northampton. The President will address the American people as soon as his command duties permit.This is the end of the priority ….. this is the end of the Priority One report. Local EBS stations may resume priority two broadcasting.
EBS #17, Saturday, 7:30 AM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Emergency teams have been established and have begun to operate in various sections of Pittsburgh. There is a shortage of able-bodied men to serve on work details in Shadyside, East Liberty, Bloomnfield, and Morningside. Will all shelters submit to the emergency operations center the names of able-bodied volunteers who may be asked to leave shelters before radiation levels are completely safe for permanent exit. Phone the names into the emergency operations center. Further information will be provided as to when and where the rescue volunteers will report.
EBS #18, Saturday. 10:00 AM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Weather monitoring teams report that there is a severe storm approaching the Pittsburgh area. What’s that? It appears that this storm is bearing with it a radioactive dust cloud and we expect the levels of radiation to increase severely. Some shelters do not have adequate protection facilities against this cloud. There is a possibility that some shelters will have to mobilize and be moved. (PAUSE) We will contact these shelters by phone within the next few minutes. Please do not call the emergency operations center. If your shelter is one of these that has to be mobilized and be moved, we will contact you. Please stand by.
EBS #19, Saturday 3:00 PM
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Radiological calculations of fallout levels in Pittsburgh indicate that permanent exit from some shelters will be possible in the near future. At the present time recovery teams are surveying the city to locate and to prepare facilities for post-shelter operations. It is imperative that you do not attempt to leave your shelter without prior notice from the emergency operations center. There are still many dangerous radiological “hot spots” in the city. Therefore, regardless of the radiological readings in your immediate vicinity, wait for official notification. from your government in the emergency operations center.
THE END
For more insight into 1960’s civil defense, my website contains a scan of the 1962 St. Paul, MN, civil defense operational plan, which includes the manual that shelter managers would use in the operation of a fallout shelter.
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Ninety years ago, it was expected that a deluxe hotel would install a radio for the entertainment of its guests, and the Biltmore in New York City was no exception. Here, a member of the hotel staff is tuning the set for actresses and Zigfeld girls Marion Benda and Mary Mulhern. Two years later, in 1927, Miss Benda married Zeppo Marx.
In 1930, Miss Mulhern married actor Jack Pickford, becoming his third and last wife. Citing mistreatment throughout the marriage, she was in the process of obtaining a divorce at the time of his 1933 death.
The photo here is from the June 1925 issue of Radio Broadcast.
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