 These articles are scanned and OCRed from
old editions of The Wireless World magazine.
OK, I give up. What is a "pukka amateur?"
According to an online dictionary:
pukka, adj
(esp in India) 1. properly or perfectly done, constructed, etc. a pukka road 2.
genuine pukka sahib. Then, we have a
Blattnerphone. That sounds an awful lot like Blattenberger, or
maybe more like Blattnerberger. Anyway, a Blattnerphone was an early attempt at
recording sound on a steel tape - never heard of it before now. My native language
is English, but evidently there are still a lot
good words to learn which have been forgotten by society over the years. If you read enough vintage magazines from the first half of
the 20th century, you will run across many words and phrases that are still in the
Merriam-Webster dictionary,
but you hardly ever see or hear them used anymore. These are some great
candidate words for Scrabble.
If the sea were rough.
by "Free Grid"
Ocean Waves
RADIO Paris still seems to be as popular as ever as a medium through which various
commercial undertakings, not excluding journals, can put across their welcome Sunday
programmes. In these days of "Buy British," however, it seems a pity that so much
good money should have to go out of the country for the hire of the station, and
I hear that, in spite of the B:B.C.'s monopoly, it is not unlikely that we shall
soon be hearing these programmes radiated from what is technically British soil.
According to an acquaintance in shipping circles, a well-known financial house
contemplates the purchase of one of the many liners which are at present laid up
around our coasts, with the object of fitting it up as a high-power broadcasting
station. When one thinks of the relative smallness of the wireless room on even
the largest liner, it is at first a little difficult to see how a station with reasonably
high power could be accommodated, until one remembers that there would be a very
large amount of space, usually devoted to goods or passengers, available for the
transmitting apparatus and studios.
The idea is that the vessel shall pick up its artists or gramophone records at
some convenient spot and then go out beyond the three-mile limit and cruise about
while trans-mission is in progress. There is no information as to which part of
the coast the ship would use as its base, but I do not suppose the inhabitants of
the neighbouring coast towns would be too pleased about it, unless they had Autotones,
or at least superhets ; but still, there are plenty of lonely stretches of coast,
and in case of complaints the ship could get several miles farther out.
I am told that if the P.M.G. raised any objection, the vessel would use as its
base a nearby Continental port,· the artists being conveyed thither by aeroplane.
The question which at once springs to my mind is what would happen if the day were
rough and the artists were seasick.
My Autotone
IT is a funny thing that all the greatest brains in radio, including my own,
have been unable to devise a better method of matching condensers than by means
of segmented end vanes. The method looks crude, but nevertheless it works well -
as the hangman said to his doubting client - and that's all that matters. This principle
of fine adjustment by vane-bending is, of course, carried to its logical conclusions
in the Autotone, where, I suppose, more accurate ganging has been achieved than
ever before. I have, by the way, been finding the initial adjustment of this set
uncannily fascinating; the set is almost foolproof - no nasty remarks, please -
and yet it comes as a welcome relief amid the welter of "factory-hand" designs which
make no appeal to the pukka amateur.
 Anticipating a boo.
Cackle Control.I HAVE so often. complained of the annoyance
caused by the sycophantic studio audience who give such roars of applause at the
conclusion of every item, whether good or bad, that I am only too glad to admit
that I have done them an injustice and to apologise accordingly. I have had my suspicions
for a long time, and so the other night, when I happened to be a member of the audience
in Studio
No. 10, I took special notice of the fact that the red lamp I went out - thus
indicating that the microphone was dead-immediately the various items finished,
and therefore our faint-hearted efforts at polite approval were not broadcast.
The applause which is invariably broadcast is usually so hearty that I concluded
at once that my worst suspicions were confirmed. My presumption, however, that the
B.B.C. kept a couple of dozen professional applauders in a spare studio, continuously
clapping and emitting other noises of approval, and that their efforts were duly
"mixed-in" in the control room, proved to be quite wrong. I am told on reliable
authority that the B.B.C. are far too economical in man power to do this, and that
although there is actually an applause studio, it contains a number of Blattnerphones
continuously operating records of hand clapping, feet stamping, laughter and apprehensive
gasps, each of which is "faded-in" according to taste.
I wonder, however, how it is that in the middle of an item we get the inane cackles
of laughter which so often mercifully prevent us from hearing some of the chesnuts
which are broadcast. I can only. think that the B.B.C. must have an expert psychologist
in an ante-room constantly watching the faces of the audience through a peep-hole
so that he can intelligently anticipate a boo, and with a quick turn of the "mixer
control" replace it with laughter. When television is perfected, and we can see
the audience, I suppose that the B.B.C. will arrange at critical moments for a quick
fade in of a talkie' film of a Coliseum audience listening to George Robey.
People old and young enjoy waxing nostalgic about and learning some of the history
of early electronics. The Wireless World was published in Great Britain
from April 1913 through March 1922. Thereafter it ran under the name The Radio
Review, and then finally Electronics and Wireless World. For all of
the articles posted a page is created with a cover image and the table of contents.
As time permits, I will be glad to scan articles for you. All copyrights are
hereby acknowledged.
Vintage "The Wireless World" Magazine Articles
Posted May 12, 2023
(updated from original post
on 4/9/2011)
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