Vagaries of Radio

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 16, 1 November 1929, Page 15

Vagaries of Radio

A KITCHEN stove in a house ond hundred yards away from «@ powerful Américan broadcasting station has reproduced radio programmes quite distinctly: The stove has no electrical connection whatsoever at« tached. to it. It is thought that the gas pipe probably acted as an antenna, a water-pipe as an earth, a rusted stove-pipe as a crystal and 2 hot-water. tank served as a loudspeaker, This phenomenon was discovered by a little girl, who announced to her incredulous: parents that the rats had a radio! A similar phenomenon was observed in the garage when music was weakly but distinctly emitted from the metal guard of a portable light when it was placed upon a motor-ear bumper. "THE latest story concerning the dur« ability of the British valve, states "Popular Wireless," is provided by one of the leading manufacturing firms in England. One of their customers found that his handmaiden had, ‘with that abandon which marks the lovelorn adolescent, thrown his newly~ purchased valve, box’ and all, into the furnace. ‘Twelve hours later the remains were salvaged. . The, box was burnt off, but.the pins and glass seemed to be all there, and when plugged into the set this salamandrine valve delivered 2L0 perfectly. The authen ticity of this remarkable occurrence is doubted by our office-boy, who says that the heat would have expanded the vacuum and burst the bulb! "THE effect of magnetic storms on the strength of radio signals was the subject of an interesting lecture given in New York recently, and some definite conclusions were arrived at. It was shown that when ‘signals from distant stations are weaker than usual, and signals from local stations louder, a magnetic storm may be expected; and that after such a storm, much stronger signals are received from distant stations. This is quite a reasonable explanation of the variation in reception conditions of overseas sta» tions. ,