Early Wireless
I started collecting early wireless many years ago and here are a few of the more unusual items found over the years and how some were discovered.
Marconi one valve 1922 receiver....click here
Marconi 1922 three valve receiver........................click here
Marconi HF unit for above..............click here
Marconi LF unit for above receiver......................click here
Marconi wireless adverts.................click here
Don’t oscillate!...........click here
Lamplugh 2 valve receiver..............click here
Emerson children’s radio........................................click here
Pye portable M78F...........................click here
Ferranti mains receiver...........................................click here
Gambrell DC mains receiver...........click here
GEC mains receiver.................................................click here
Home constructed 4 valve c1924.....click here
Assorted receivers, books,
valves, meters and boatanchors!......................... click here
Sony 3/4” Perspex radio!.................click here
BBC children’s radio circle....................................click here
Brookman’s Park Transmitter part ..click here
Adult novelty radios..................................................click here
Nelson multi filament valve..............click here
Aermonic valve base marker..................................click here
Hivac valves and Radio Aid..............click here
Whittaker aerial...........click here
Crazy indoor aerials!.........................click here
Crystals.........................click here
Plug in crystal set...............................click here
Lisle Street history and war surplus....................click here
Boys wireless books............................click here
Reflex wireless............ click here
Television CAT9 valve.................................click here
(valve used at Alexandra Palace in 1936)
Now why not see my humorous imaginative indoor or outdoor photographs?
I began searching for old wireless many years ago. Each Saturday evening I slept in an armchair fully clothed so that I would not disturb my wife! At 2.30am I would rise and travel to the Club Row area in the East End of London arriving at about 3am. In olden days it was told that you could have your watch and chain stolen at one end of Club Row and buy it back later at the other end.
For some 5(!) hours I would tramp up and down, up and down Sclater St. and Hare St., rushing up to each totter's car or lorry that arrived with its goodies on board. Old chairs, tables, electric fires, clothing, pictures, books, bookcases, pianos ,old carpets etc and yes, old wireless. Using a torch to try and see those giveaway black and dirty ebonite panels or cathedral outlines before the vehicles had ever stopped. Asking the driver how much before he had time to get out his car in case someone else snapped up a wireless treasure.
The houses each side of the road were mostly derelect in this old part of London, left over from the blitz and neglect. Some had old totters on the ground floors selling junk and trying to fight the leaking roof at the same time. Old bits of carpet festooned many rotting floors and one 'trod the boards' in trepidation at times thinking that one might finish up in the basement if the flooring ever gave way.
By 8am I was exhausted and made my way home just as the public arrived, who never found that old wireless because it was either in the back of my car or the car of another collector, who found the wireless before me. One such fellow collector
was known to the totters as, 'Mr.Wireless.' It was all a question of luck really as to who was at which end of the street as and when an early wireless of interest arrived in the back of a car or lorry. When we passed by each other we would enquire what the other had found. Sometimes I was envious of his finds and sometimes he of mine.
Doing this for about 5 years resulted in my acquiring my present collection, although much of it has been disposed of since then. It also resulted in my acquiring a few corns!
The prices I paid then were mouthwateringly low compared with today's prices. Somewhere between £5-£15 could buy from the old Cockney totter's house clearance goodies, wireless dating from the 1920’s onwards. All the most popular makes from the 30’s were to be seen most weeks, but very early 1920 were much scarcer to find as would be expected, but bright emitters were to be found too. I recall an old box tossed from the back of a car with gay abandon, containing - "Have the two for ten bob, guv." I did!
The middle classes getting married in the 1920’s and buying an expensive wireless for their home meant that by the 1970's many had died, their houses, sheds and lofts cleared, so most old quality wireless was getting scarcer to find from the old London Street markets as the last few decades of the 20th.cent. passed. Hence prices began to move up. This, together with the big wireless exhibition at the V and A in London in 1977, and the many others that it seeded, made dealers aware that early wireless was getting as scarce as Georgian furniture had become in previous years, so prices were adjusted accordingly from then on. The days of finding an old vintage wireless just for a few quid had sadly gone forever.
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