Related Items - Other Stuff In no particular order Click on an item for an enlarged view...

 

Kite Antenna System (M-357-A) If you were a sailor lost at sea and needed to radio for help, you might raise an antenna with one of these kites. One of them has instructions printed right on the kite fabric and came in a canvas bag, the other is in a carton with instruction tags. Each is slightly different, but both measure about 17 by 17 by 36 inches when assembled. They were made by the Hoffman Radio Company in Los Angeles, California. The reel contains wire for a kite line antenna. It is made mostly of wood, and the reel has a flip-out crank handle.

 

RCA Ashtray by Boehm OK, you're walking through an antique store, and your radio radar starts screaming in your head. You look, but see nothing save porcelain and dishes. Where's the radio thing? Then you see the symbol for a tube, rendered in red and yellow, sitting in the middle of an ashtray, trimmed in gold. You pick it up, and the back says "Designed for RCA Tube Department by Edward Marshall Boehm," and you realize your antique shop radio radar is still working!

 

RCA Pen Set There are two sets pictured here; one package is still sealed, and the other has been opened to show you the items inside. Each set contains two ball-point pens, one fountain pen, one ball-point refill, and one ink cartridge. The sets were apparently made by "Wearever." The paper inside says "RCA First Name in Home Entertainment" and "Compliments of your RCA Dealer."

 

Sputnik Record (1957) "The Earth Satellite" is a booklet and record commemorating the first earth satellite. One side of the record has a dramitization of the Sputnik launch, the other has actual signals broadcast by Sputnik from space. Interestingly, the majority of the booklet is devoted to Project Vanguard, which had yet to leave the ground. In fact, the booklet concludes with "United States scientists say Russia has done the United States a favor by launching its satellite first for it has enabled the tracking system, planned for Vanguard, to be given a good testing." Signals from space (67 seconds, .wav format, ~70K).

 

Western Radio "Radio Talkie" Although the instruction sheet calls this a "Radi-Vox," the gold lettering on the case says "Radio Talkie." It's simply a one-transistor AM transmitter. It has a telescoping antenna on the top, a tuning knob on the left (to adjust the broadcast frequency), and a push-to-talk button on the right. Probably from the early sixties.

 

Archer Walkie-Talkies A pair of Archer "Micro Space Patrol" walkie-talkies from the mid-1960s. I had these as a kid, which tells you about how old (or young) I am. The box proclaims them as the "new space age walkie talkie sensation!" They're just walkie-talkies, though, with an on-off switch on the right and a big red push-to-talk button on top. Made in Japan, Radio Shack catalog number 60-3032.

 

Thermometer Shaped like a radio, this thermometer is still working (it's 75°F right now). This item is made of some sort of cast material, and I would guess it's from the late 1930s or early 1940s.

 

Philco Refrigerator Cleaner and Polish OK, so this may be a bit of a stretch for a radio-related item, but the deep blue bottle does have a label with "Philco Radio and Television Corp" on it! Philco made refrigerators as well as radios, and they apparently made refrigerator cleaner as well. This half-pint bottle still has cleaner in it.

 

The Original Receiving Set That's what the little box says; when you open it, you see a little cast toilet! The toilet is a little over two inches high with the lid up, and is stamped "TOOTSIETOY" underneath. The box has a date of 1924 on it; this item was produced by H. Fishelov & Co., Chicago.

 

Radio Girl Perfume I don't know much about this little (2 inches) perfume bottle, other than is was made by the Consolidated Royal Chemical Corp. in Chicago. Since the perfume still smells good, I suspect this is a modern piece.

Copyright © by Don Adamson. All Rights Reserved.