vintage receptacle with aerial

[Greg1707]

Here is a photo of a receptacle that is a first for me. Anyone seen this before?

 

[Gary Glaenzer]

vintage receptacle with aerial

That's a receptacle that was installed in the early days when 'home' radios went from battery powered to AC powered.

I don't know if the 'ARIEL' slot went to anything more than a bare wire run inside the wall. Perhaps it was carried all the way to an outdoor antenna, especially if the receptacle was on an outside wall.

 

[JFletcher]

Never seen it before.

 

[infinity]

Yes I have one sitting on my work bench that I removed from an old house. The aerial slot was connected to a roof antenna for presumably a television.

 

[GoldDigger]

Not likely to have been for TV. At TV frequencies a balanced "twin-lead" wire would have been used.
Coax was not seen in consumer environments at that time.
The wire would have been a "long wire" unipolar antenna for shortwave bands. The earth connection could have been a simple ground rod or the building GES, but should have been relatively short.

 

[infinity]

If I remember correctly the device had 300 Ω twin lead wire connected to it. The homeowner said that it was for an old roof antenna. Are you saying that these weren't used to television at some point, could it have been used for radio?

I should have checked Google first.

 

[GoldDigger]

If I remember correctly the device had 300 Ω twin lead wire connected to it. The homeowner said that it was for an old roof antenna. Are you saying that these weren't used to television at some point?

300 ohm twin lead is a balanced feed circuit and the center of the antenna element could be insulated (dipole) or optionally grounded (folded dipole.) It was used for TV, FM, and some Ham bands.
If properly mounted (almost impossible) it has a lower loss over distance than coax.
You could use this socket for twin-lead if it has two poles on the aerial side (hard to confirm from the picture.) The three pole variant may have been produced for awhile, but never, AFAIK, combined on a time with power.
If it has only two poles total it is old AM/shortwave and using it for twin-lead would violate its markings but work just fine if you do not connect a ground wire.

 

[fmtjfw]

The one I took out predated Television. Connected to a long wire antenna in the attic

 

[K8MHZ]

If I remember correctly the device had 300 Ω twin lead wire connected to it. The homeowner said that it was for an old roof antenna. Are you saying that these weren't used to television at some point, could it have been used for radio?

I should have checked Google first.

That's a beautiful receptacle. I sure wish I had one in my collection.