Radio Broadcast (May 1923-Oct 1923)

Radio Broadcast " I had been handy with tools all my life, and had always derived a great deal of pleasure with a jack-knife. In fact, one of the first things I made after I lost my sight was a wooden chain which I had whittled out of a stick, and the keeper of the hotel where I was staying up in the Catskills liked it so much that he had it gilded and hung on the wall — not because of the beauty of the thing, perhaps, but because a blind man had made it. That called for vizualizing a chain, and very careful carving in order to avoid spoiling the links. Then again some of the neighbors have brought in their clocks for me to fix, and other similar jobs, so all in all I have kept 2|f^ in pretty good trim. And with it I ijjjiBj^ developed a sense of proportion and (Brjj|i design, and as I set about the task of Vfejigii building my radio set I could see it \^~-r* being developed step by step — see it almost as well as a man with eyes. " Dimensions of course were the principal thing. The secondary had to fit into the primary. 1 had to make calculations for the end boards, the stand it was to rest on, wire the coils, bolt on my condenser, the detector, insert my posts, connect to the aerial and so on. The set you see here is a loose-coupler type crystal set with a 43-plate condenser shunted across the secondary. It was the first set 1 built, but since then 1 have built three others — one for a girl across the street and two others for boys. 1 enjoy it immensely — there is nothing like being employed, no matter whether you are blind or not. It saves people from brooding and pitying themselves — self-pity is the worst affliction that can befall a man. What I have done, others can do, and they will be all the better for it, and if you publish this interview I hope it will reach the ears of blind folks so that they may learn of the advantages of radio. " First, in the actual construction of my set, I started with the base board, visualizing where the coils ought to be, the condenser, the detector and where the lead-in and ground posts should be. I sawed this board from the solid end of a box, using a square to get the saw started straight, and applying it frequently to the board to learn if 1 was making a good job. Then for legs for the set I got hold of four baseboard bumpers that folks sometime screw onto a door near the bottom to prevent the knob bruising the wall paper and plaster. Besides being about the right height — three inches or so — they have rubber tips and come so nicely carved all ready to screw on that one wouldn't want anything better for legs. Then 1 sandpapered them and set about building my coils. " That is where one of the things belonging to my wife came in — the much abused rolling pin. Besides proving wonderful kitchen nightsticks and pie-crust rollers, they are ideal for the winding of a coil — at least, it was so with me. My boy got a soap box for me and 1 cut out a small section on both sides, about two inches deep, to form sockets for the ends of the rolling pin to fit in. In a way, this j^gg"*' acted as an improvised lathe. Then SBB^ I ran the rolling pin through the cardboard cylinder on which was to be ^aH] wound the coil. This proved a very fiJ^iSgr/ good fit, and when the pin was set in ^r^W the niches of the box I could turn it S^is^ very steadily and evenly with one hand and guide the wire with the other, and thus I wound my primary coil. The secondary of course was a little harder proposition because I had to jab holes through the cardboard with a hat pin every ten loops and lead the wire ends through, for taps to the switch points. "The end board itself was a little difficult to make because I did not have an auger large enough to bore a 3i-inch hole. But my youngster had one of those model building sets with which you can build towers and bridges and things. In this set were several small pieces of steel with a number of perforated holes half an inch apart. Taking two pieces of steel, I set an old Gillette safety-razor blade between them and bolted the steel and blade together. Little axles and collars also come with a building set, so I screwed a collar to the board, saw that my safety-razor blade was if inches away, or half the diameter of the hole, and then swung it round and round like a compass knife, cutting deeper and deeper each time until finally I had cut all the way through the board. Right here, however, comes a joke on me — after 1 had spent the best part of a day making that 3^-inch hole, I found out I could have bought an end board with a hole already in it for five cents! But 1 had the fun of figuring out a device for making it, anyway. " The next step was to mount the condenser. This called for holes to be drilled in order to bolt the blade part to the meter scale. Drilling holes straight was a little difficult, but I managed to do it with the aid of a cardboard pat