Midget Radio (Jan, 1947)
Filed under: Radio — @ 10:26 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1947
| Buy on Ebay
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1947
| Buy on Ebay
Midget Radio, left, is tuned in by an official guide at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London where it was one of 6,000 items in the “Britain Can Make It” Exhibition. It costs about $70.
I am having “snark potential” overload here. Do I say something about how an FM tuner embedded into a cellphone would surely BLOW THEIR MINDS? Do I say, “Please, they prefer to be referred to as ‘little people radios?’” Do I post about what US[1947]$70 is equivalent to today?
Comment by fluffy — April 9, 2009 @ 7:12 pm
Well, it *is* a transmitter/receiver, not just a tuner. And it’s got that kicky shoulder strap, too!
Comment by Toronto — April 9, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Fluffy, be fair now. What technology from 60 years in our future won’t blow OUR minds? And have a little respect for elders–those girls would be the mothers of the teenagers who would swoon over the Beatles 15 years later…
Comment by kruk — April 10, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
Well, sure, I look forward to having my mind blown when I’m older (I probably won’t still be around in a mind-blowable state in 60 years unless one of those mind-blowing technologies is something which extends a person’s longevity while keeping their mental faculties in charge though). I thought I made it clear that I was going for snark, not fairness.
Comment by fluffy — April 10, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
What’s amazing to me is that this must’ve been a tube based unit, judging by the date. That IS pretty small and nifty to pack a working tube-based tranceiver along with a power supply.
Sure we have smaller more advanced technology today. I’m old enough to remember when a 5GB iPod was something revolutionary (ok, I’m actually quite a bit more than old enough to remember that). What will people be blown away by 60 years from now??
Comment by Richard C — April 10, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
Richard is amazed by a 5Gig Ipod, I remember when Walkmans were the rage… without the tape deck.
Comment by Mike — April 13, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
And I’m old enough to remember our family’s first portable radio (about 1940) which was a Motorola roughly the size of a small overnight bag complete with leather baggage handle and covered with a cloth overlay to make it look like luggage. The battery was rectangular and was about 16 inches long by about 4 inches wide and two inches thick. The whole shebang weighed in at about 12 to 15 pounds and had somewhat smaller than normal tubes in it which fascinated me at the time with their more or less miniature size. There was only AM broadcasting available back then, of course. Needless to say, my mind has been blown so many times over the decades that I’m no longer surprised by anything. And here I sit today writing and communicating on a gorgeous 24″ iMac. What would I have thought of that back in 1940?
Rick
Comment by rick — April 14, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Actually, this is a supremely ironic piece, considering that the only thing Britain could “make” in 1947 was itself into a Soviet satellite. The Labour Party who had come into power and who were busy nationalising the nation into permanent poverty and eventual ruin, came that close to adopting the Hammer and Sickle as their official emblem…
What British industry achieved post-war, like the DeHavilland Comet, was in spite of its government, and it didn’t get far.
Comment by Baron Waste — April 19, 2009 @ 12:10 pm