A hundred years ago, this youngster is literally getting off on the right foot, thanks to this walking chair on which an eastern mother has installed a radio. Any station could be tuned in, and the child left to enjoy a concert or stories from the air. “Meanwhile, the child is able to push itself about and be entertained, and the cares of the mother are lightened.”

The photo appeared in the September 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Shown here is Miss Dorothy Benkeser, from the August 1923 issue of Science and Invention, , in which she described building her first radio set. When she decided to make a radio, she told a friend (presumably male), and was told “when you need my help, just call me up.” She vowed not to call him, no matter how much assistance she needed.

She bought the parts, and managed to put it together. She had only the tools from her mother’s sewing machine, which seemed to get the job done, until soldering was needed. For that, she tried using a curling iron, the type which was heated up on a stove. While she was able to do some soldering after it got red hot, it didn’t prove completely satisfactory. Eventually, she borrowed an alcohol powered iron, and got the job complete.

She had another friend help with the antenna:

In order to attach one of the poles, I tried to climb on a little ledge which is a good deal higher than the rest of the roof and quite near the edge. My friend told me it was very foolish to do this for the house was old and she thought any part of it might be very apt to become detached and besides, she didn’t think the chimney was a safe thing to hold on. I asked her if
she were making any reference to my weight and told her to “unhand me” for I was very confident the chimney was strong enough to hold me. This she refused to do and I was struggling to get away from her and to pull myself up when the piece of the chimney which I held gave way and had she not held me, I should most likely have landed on the cold and unsympathetic pavement three or four stories below.

She reports that the set had been in service for about two months, and picked up distant stations with little difficulty. She concluded with, “no, I do not wear overalls.”

Sixty years ago this month, the August 1963 issue of Popular Electronics carried the plans for this outboard BFO, dubbed the “Code Bander.” The two-transistor circuit would add CW and SSB capabilities to any receiver, making them useful for the novice ham.

No internal connections were required to the radio, because this BFO operated not at the receiver’s IF frequency, but on the same frequency as the received signal. It covered 3.5 – 4 MHz, the 80 meter ham band. It was usable on the other ham bands thanks to the harmonics.

The designer and author is familiar to our readers, Hartland Smith, W8VFD, later W8QX. Smith became a silent key in 2022, but we were privileged to exchange a few e-mails with him prior to his death.