Manufactured by GEC in 1923, this crystal set has a polished mahogany case with lift up lid and ebonite control panel. Connection terminals and sockets are provided for the aerial, earth and headphones. The controls comprise a tuning knob and a lever to adjust the cat’s whisker crystal detector. The cat’s whisker is just a piece of wire fixed to a knob so that you can probe the surface of a fixed piece of galena crystal to detect the best signal. This required some skill and patience as the slightest vibration would cause the signal to be lost.

This set would have cost £5 10s in 1923, of which 7s 6d (6.8%) was a royalty paid to the BBC.

Did you know...
£5 10s in 1923 was about 3 weeks average workers wage in 1923.
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