Have you ever seen one of these?

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c2500

Senior Member
Location
South Carolina
I am doing a remodel on a late(?) 1930's home. Due to a deviation in the way the house was wired, I accidentally cut power to this receptacle. (The dining room fixture was removed due to the insulation shower I took when removing the fixture. In rewiring the 3-way, and extra wire left the switch box and went to this device and I did not catch it until I had started cutting the old box out.)

I have never seen one before and while it is obvious it goes to some type of antenna, does anyone know exactly what it did? At first, I thought it was a defective receptacle based off of the deformed nuetral side on the upper portion of the device.

Thanks,

c2500
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
From the Mark Shunk collection

radiorecanimation2.gif
 
TOOL_5150

TOOL_5150

Senior Member
Location
bay area, ca
TOOL_5150 said:
he said late 30's whats your issue?


~Matt
Click to expand...

to add:

NBC officially began regularly scheduled television broadcasts in New York on April 30, 1939 with a broadcast of the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair. By June 1939, regularly scheduled 441-line electronic television broadcasts were available in New York City and Los Angeles, and by November on General Electric's station in Schenectady. From May through December 1939, the New York City NBC station (W2XBS) of General Electric broadcast twenty to fifty-eight hours of programming per month, Wednesday through Sunday of each week. The programming was 33% news, 29% drama, and 17% educational programming, with an estimated 2,000 receiving sets by the end of the year, and an estimated audience of five to eight thousand. A remote truck could cover outdoor events from up to 10 miles (16 km) away from the transmitter, which was located atop the Empire State Building. Coaxial cable was used to cover events at Madison Square Garden. The coverage area for reliable reception was a radius of 40 to 50 miles (80 km) from the Empire State Building, an area populated by more than 10,000,000 people (Lohr, 1940).


~Matt
 
LarryFine

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
AM radio.

One ground lead (typically water pipe) and one antenna lead (typically a single wire run the length of the ridge in the attic.)

There were so few stations way back that many radios came with station ID's printed directly on the dial.
 
brantmacga

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
c2500 said:
I will have to say it was radio then. I do not think Greenville, SC had tv back then. Unique and interesting none the less.

c2500
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I remember the first time MDShunk posted those pictures, he specifically said it was for a radio antenna.
 
TOOL_5150

TOOL_5150

Senior Member
Location
bay area, ca
weressl said:
Even if TV broadcasting was available at the location, which it was not, to presume that receptacles were made readily available for a very narrow purpose and market is not a reasonable assumption.
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Ok I see you point, I took it as you saying there was no broadcast tv in the late 30's. My apologies. :cool:

~Matt
 
480sparky

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
-=PEAKABOO=- said:
Notice how it has a shield to keep the electrical noise away from the RF section of the receptacle.
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I don't think a slab of bakelite will sheild EMF from the antenna section. More likely it's to prevent 120v from 'getting into' that end.
Much like it is required today.
 
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