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Home Entertainment: 1925

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Family group listening to radio." A baseball game, maybe. The original caption label for this one has been lost. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Family group listening to radio." A baseball game, maybe. The original caption label for this one has been lost. View full size.

 

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You Can Be Sure...

...If it's Westinghouse. The receiver is a Westinghouse RA regenerative tuner, plus a DA detector/amplifier unit; both made in 1921. These were made for ship and amateur use, as broadcasting was in its infancy. The horn speaker is a Westinghouse UZ1320, first advertsed in 1923 for $36.50. This information is from Alan Douglas' fine book Radio Manufacturers of the 1920's, Volume 3. Incidentally, regenerative tuners were the earliest popular type of receiver, but were outlawed by the mid 1920's because a misadjusted receiver could interfere with others' reception for blocks.

TRF Receivers

Like the enhancement from tubes to transistors, the TRFs had drawbacks, but a much more dynamic sound than the superhets. I owned several as a kid, much later models than the one shown. Wish I still had them, not only for the sound, but the cabinet artistry too.

Tuned Radio Frequency Receivers

Mach 72 makes an excellent point.

Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) receivers were very finicky and many required constant tweaking. The headphoned lad might have been quite busy. By 1925, though, I believe TRFs were already gone, replaced by super-regens or superhets.

Can anyone identify the set in the picture?

Bowl haircut

I have pictures of my mother (born in 1921) with the bowl haircut of that little girl (the saying was that the mother or person cutting the hair put a bowl on the child's head and cut whatever hung out). I think that poor little girl's bowl was a bit too small. Love the embroidery on her dress though.

Some things never change

Just like these days I need to ask the kiddo to help me setup the newer gadgets and teach me how to use the social networking sites, in this picture we can see that Junior is in charge of operating the complicated radio apparatus, while the older (and newer) generations wait patiently. Granny looks at him with pride and a hint of admiration, while his younger brother to the right seems a bit jealous and eager to have his own chance to fiddle with those knobs...

Believe it or not this made me chuckle because it confirms that the technology gap between generations goes well beyond the origins of today's incredibly complex (to us "elders") digital world.

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