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January 1930 Radio-Craft
 [Table
of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Craft,
published 1929 - 1953. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.
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Merriam-Webster defines
Christmastide as "the festival season from Christmas Eve till after New Year's
Day or especially in England till Epiphany." In 1930 when this article appeared
in Radio-Craft magazine, most likely everyone knew what Christmastide was, but not
so much today; hence, I provide the meaning.
Wikipedia
goes into more detail. While reading and scanning vintage magazine articles throughout
the year, I set aside ones specific to holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween,
etc., and post them during their respective seasons.
 This story is about the trouble caused by
a well-meaning but unqualified family member attempting to fix a radio that wasn't
broken by gifting dear old Dad a
Balkite trickle charger (which the radiomuseum.org website happens
to have in their collection of data) for his battery-powered radio set. It also
mentions
using
a potato to test the DC polarity of a power supply or battery. Last but not
least is the "Hemco" 3-way socket plug adapter
(this is a single adapter), a type of which is still in use today - much to the dismay of some safety advocates.
A Christmastide Muddle
Sometimes the Service Man's money comes easy - with the
accent on "sometimes."
By George F. Carpenter
The street mains in the heart of the city of Washington, D.C., furnish direct
current; the pole lines on the outskirts of the city furnish alternating current,
and thereby hangs a Christmas tale.
The old Georgia colonel's home on B Street, Northwest, was the scene of a lively
Yuletide gathering; his husky and prosperous boys and girls with their flocks came
to bring their Christmas gifts. Among them, Bill brought Daddy a Balkite trickle
charger.
The old Colonel's set was a six-tuber, the joy and pride of the household, built
to order by an expert who very cleverly supplied the "A" and "B" current from a
power board consisting of Clarostats and Tobe condensers and a couple of chokes
which smoothed out all the pulsating ripples.
Bill had an idea that the old Colonel's set was using the "A" battery for filament
supply (instead of a part of the filter, as planned) and, with a show of pardonable
pride, he produced his trickle charger, filled the jar with the acid electrolyte
and said:
"Now Dad, no more battery trouble for yours." The old man replied, "I haven't
any battery trouble whatever; but if this device will make it any better, why, go
ahead."
Bill disconnected the plug which fed the power board, connected the trickle charger
to the battery terminals and plugged in his charger on the direct-current wall socket.
Soon there was a smell of something burning followed by a puff of ill-smelling smoke
that brought consternation to all the group. Bill snatched the current lead from
the wall socket and disconnected the trickle leads from the "A" battery terminals.
He put back the power plug - correctly, he thought - but he had failed to notice
the slot cut in one side of the plug which denoted correct polarity. The set would
not function; wrong polarity. Poor Bill, how was he to know? He didn't have, a voltmeter,
nor did he know how to get a polarity reading with a potato.
I was hastily summoned by telephone: "Dad is afraid his set is ruined; I'll give
you $20.00 if you'll only have the set working by midnight; please come quick, etc."
It was then 11 p.m. There had been a family row and a glance at the centre table
told its own tale; there lay the ruined trickle charger - some of the acid had spilled
on the top of the beautifully - inlaid mahogany table, and mother was angry.
I went over the power-board panel so nicely secreted in the cabinet; a touch
of the test clips on my voltmeter leads told me that polarity had been reversed;
I pulled out the power plug, gave it a turn so that the slot showed on top, threw
on the power, turned the dials a bit and the loud speaker boomed out. "This is station
PWX, Cuban Telephone Co., Havana, Cuba." The old Colonel was jubilant and vowed
never to allow anyone to monkey with his set again. The old mother asked me if I
could fix it so the colored lights would burn on her Christmas tree and in the dining
room; and I happened to have a "Hemco" 3-way socket plug in my tool bag which solved
her problem. On the stroke of midnight I left the old Colonel's mansion with $20.00
in my pocket, and listened to the church bells pealing forth their message of peace
on earth and good will to men.
Posted December 14, 2023
(updated from original post on
12/2/2015)
Here are a few other Christmas-related items on RF Cafe:
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