A century ago, there was big money to be made in charging batteries, and this ad in the November 1921 issue of Science & Invention told you how to get started. For just $20 down, you could purchase from Hobart Brothers Co. of Troy, Ohio, a battery charger.
The company would recommend the size of charger, from 6 to 70 batteries, to make the most money, and you could get started right away. The profits would allow you to pay the easy terms for the balance of the equipment’s price.
The May 1962 issue of Electronics Illustrated showed this smart-looking regenerative receiver kit from Allied, the Knight Kit “DX’er”, a three-transistor regenerative receiver for the broadcast band and one shortwave band. It operated with four penlight cells, and Allied touted the receiver as ideal for the fallout shelter.
It does seem like an ideal choice. The set undoubtedly had a low current drain, and with a few extra sets of batteries stored away, it would probably be a good source of information for the duration of the stay. The standard broadcast band could be used to pull in the local CONELRAD station, and the shortwaves would probably give some indication of what was going on in the outside world.
According to the magazine, the kit sold for $19.95, but in the 1963 Allied catalog, the price had been reduced to $14.95.
A hundred years ago, Montgomery Ward was a supplier of just about everything the radio experimenter might need. This ad appeared a hundred years ago this month in the November, 1921, issue of Radio News.
The St. Paul, MN, store with its iconic tower shown in the ad was a familiar landmark for me. It was torn down in 1996, but for decades, it served as the distribution center in our area. We lived in Minneapolis, and usually shopped at our local store. But when we needed something more exotic, we knew that everything in their thick catalog would be available at that store. Frequently, it was tires or auto parts. We would drive to the big store, my dad would use the catalog to fill out the order form, he would hand it to the guy behind the counter, and a few minutes later, they would return with our order. It was like having Amazon, but with immediate delivery.
As we’ve seen earlier, distance learning is nothing new, and sixty years ago this month, the November 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics carried a summary of the state of the art. It noted that television, either broadcast or closed-circuit, was the leading method in use at that time. The most famous was the NBC “Continental Classroom” program, which ran from 1958 to 1963, which offered college credit. While not mentioned in the article, a similar program, Sunrise Semester ran from 1957 to 1982.
And as we’ve previously covered, the article mentioned the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI), which broadcast from an airborne transmitter over much of the Midwest.
The most elaborate system in use, what we would call interactive, was that used by the New York Institute of Technology, shown above. The student listened to a recorded lesson, and then answered multiple-choice questions which were reviewed by the instructor. There was an intercom through which the student could ask questions of the instructor, and any visuals were shown to the student on a nearby TV monitor.
The magazine concluded by noting:
The exact methods that electronic instruction will follow in the future are not clear, but the question “Will it be a factor in future education?” has been answered. Make no mistake about it- electronic education is with us, and extending fast.
Fifty years ago this month, the November 1971 issue of Electronics Illustrated carried the story of Ivan The Terrible, the Soviet interloper who interfered with Nazi broadcasts during the war.
Deutschlandsender broadcast its German home service on 191 kHz, with broadcasts including the news. One day in 1941, listeners were able to hear additions to the news broadcast. For example, if the announcer said, “new victories have been won by the Wehrmacht,” another voice completed the sentence with “in the grave.”
The voices were coming from Soviet Station RW-1 at Noginsk, near Moscow. The engineers at that station were able to tune the 500 kW transmitter from its original frequency of 172 kHz and synchronize it with the German station to avoid any heterodyne. Eventually, the Germans were forced to put their news broadcasts on mediumwave, and use their powerful longwave transmitter for entertainment programs.
When the Russian source of the broadcasts was known, it was dubbed Ivan The Terrible, and that name is used in this 1941 Time magazine article from September 15, 1941.
According to the 1971 Electronics Illustrated article, British and American intelligence issued a report disclosing the identity of Ivan the Terrible. Unfortunately, however, the American copy of the report was misfiled and was lost somewhere in the Washington catacombs. The British copy was still covered by the Official Secrets Act and couldn’t be made public until 1991.
But the author of the article did enough digging to give “a pretty good idea” as to the identity. According to the 1971 article, the instigator was Sololmon Abraham Lozovsy.
Despite his service to the Soviet Union, Lozovsky became the victim of one of Stalin’s purges. Even though Krushchev later issued a pardon, it came a bit too late, since Lozovsky was shot in 1952.
The actual voice of Ivan The Terrible was that of Bohemian Ernst Fischer. After winding up on the wrong side of the Austrian civil war, he found his way to Moscow where his fluency in German was put to good use. After the war, Fischer brought his communism back to Austria, where he remained a figure in the Austrian Communist Party until 1969, serving as the Communist Minister of Information immediately after the war.
For a similar use of radio during the war, see our earlier post on Soldatensender Calais.
Seventy-five years ago this month, the November 1946 issue of QST carried this ad from Sylvania for the venerable 1N34 diode, which had only recently hit the market. Because of the low cost of the device, practically all postwar crystal sets relied upon one of these, rather than the old-fashioned cat’s whisker and chunk of galena. (The latter, however, has the advantage of being able to make at home.)
The ad also contained something called the 1N35, which was simply two matched diodes (probably 1N34’s) mounted together on a metal bracket.
For those wishing to source this part today, they are readily available, as shown by our crystal set parts page.
Seventy-five years ago this month, the November 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics carried this article about one of our favorit topics, namely, the history of radio. And the article highlights just how much had happened in the medium’s first quarter century or so. The first commercial radio broadcasts had taken place in 1920, and the first permanent nationwide network, NBC, was formed in 1926.
The magazine noted that when KDKA carried the first scheduled broadcast, the 1920 Harding-Cox election returns, there were only a handful of receivers in the nation. But when FDR addressed the nation less than 20 years later, there were more than a hundred million Americans listening.
Obviously, there have been many changes in the last 75 years, but by 1946, postwar broadcasting, of AM, FM, and television, is still recognizable to us today.
The accompanying article doesn’t say for sure, but I’m guessing the gentleman shown at the left made some serious extra income 75 years ago, thanks to the audio amplifier he built, based on plans in the November 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics.
The general-purpose amplifier put out 32 watts, and had enough power to drive four large speakers. It could be used in emergencies, or to provide music and public address for school groups or outdoor activities. It had two 6L6 tubes in push-pull configuration running class AB-1, and weighed in at only 22 pounds, with a plywood chassis.
A hundred years ago this month, this savvy advertiser realized that scouts would be a huge market for the magic of radio. Wireless merit badge had been introduced in 1918, and radio was a young man’s game. This ad from the Wireless Equipment Co., Inc., of Newark, NJ touted the company’s ABC Unit detector.
The unit was a complete crystal set, but the name referred to the fact that it could be added to other units in a modular fashion. After starting with the crystal detector, a two-step amplifier could be added, or a vacuum tube detector could replace the crystal.
The booklet describing the set was only a dime, but the price of the set would have been out of reach of the impecunious scout. It sold for $24.50 which, according to this inflation calculator, works out to $375 in 2021 dollars. The ad appeared in the November 1921 issue of Boys’ Life.
Sixty years ago this month, the cover of the November 1961 issue of Popular Electronics featured the stars of the hit TV private detective drama 77 Sunset Strip. Roger Smith and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., are shown with a new co-star, namely CB radio. Smith is shown at the mike of a base transceiver, and Zimbalist is shown with a handheld unit. The base unit looks like it might be a Polytronics Poly-Comm Model N.
The magazine was proud to announce that it had been consulted relative to placement of CB radio on this network program. The detectives used a phony call sign, 11J5486. The format for the call was right, but the letter would have been W. But the number 11 was correct for southern California.
The magazine reminded readers to tune in to ABC on Friday night at 9:00, especially for the following episodes which prominently featured the CB equipment: The Bridal Trail Caper (season 4, episode 20), The Bel Air Hermit (season 4, episode 22), The Unremembered (season 4, episode 6).
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