The Radio Electric Company

The Radio Electric Company opened for business on 10th July 1922, as can be seen from the advert. The premises were on the eastern side of Worcester Street, in between Temple Street and Church Street.

The advert includes a reference to Mr. H. H. Speke, the chairman of Wolverhampton's first amateur radio society, the Wolverhampton and District Wireless Society. The society's first meeting took place on 1st March, 1922.

Mr Speke had a shop at 26 King Street, in which he sold models, toys and books, and later ex-army and navy surplus items.

The Radio Electric Company was started by George Jones, the Secretary of the Wireless Society who had the call sign 2WB. He had previously worked for Mr. Speke in King Street. When he started the business he relinquished his secretarial duties due to pressure of work. Within six months the business had moved to a shop in St. John's Street.

A map showing the location of the Radio Electric
Company's shop in St. John's Street.

Mr. Jack Rushton was an amateur radio enthusiast with the call sign 5LK. Jack had a shop in Victoria Street called 'Radio, Motors and Cycles Limited' (marked in orange on the map), where Halfords used to be. There was a link between Jack Rushton's business and the Radio Electric Company, because Jack's name was included on the Radio Electric Company's letterheads. The two shops were also linked by a connecting yard at the back.

A redirected envelope dated April 6th, 1923, found in the personal records of the late George Jones suggests that he may have left the business by that time.

At St. John's Street, Mr. Creed worked in the shop and George Berry, the son of amateur radio enthusiast, H. Berry, who had the call sign 6PB, was employed to build wireless sets. The cellars below the shop were used to charge accumulators, which in those days were an essential part of any valve receiver.

The St. John's Street shop was situated on the corner, where the street turned sharply to lead alongside the old Mander's works. Also on the staff were Mrs Creed and Mr. C. Fenwick. Mr. Creed later became manager of the 'Radio, Motors and Cycles' shop in Victoria Street, where receivers were constructed by Arthur Shaw, who was Mrs Creed's brother. He built quantities of a popular domestic crystal set which sold for seven shillings and sixpence.

An advert from 1924.

In 1928 Arthur started his own radio business in Queen Street when the shop was taken over by Halfords.

Jack Rushton was a man of many talents. He became an accomplished pilot of light aircraft and trained glider pilots. He also experimented with magnetic wire recording, and made improvements to storage batteries. Another of his interests was sending pictures by radio and wire.

When the Wolverhampton and District Wireless Society ceased to exist, it was replaced by the Wolverhampton & District Transmitters Society, members of which used to meet in the Radio, Motors and Cycles' shop and also in the Radio Electric Company's shop in St. John's Street.

A crystal set made by the Radio Electric Company in
possibly 1923 or early 1924.

An advert from 1925.

Jack Rushton.

A Radio Motors and Cycles receiver from 1925.

An advert from 1925.

An advert from 1925 which shows the 2nd floor room above the Victoria Street shop where meetings
of the Wolverhampton and District Transmitters Society were held.

An advert from 1926.

During 1925 'Radio, Motors and Cycles Limited' had either joined forces with the Radio Electric Company or been taken over by it, as can be seen from the advert above.

By the middle of the year, the Victoria Street Shop traded as part of the Radio Electric Company, which also had premises at Church Street, Bilston, which was presumably another shop.

The advert on the left confirms that the Radio Electric Company produced valve receivers, rather than just crystal sets, which may have been identical to the receiver described in the Radio Motors and Cycles advert above.

In the photograph the top two terminals are aerial and earth respectively and the bottom terminals are for headphones.

The two switches are for tuning. The one on the left is coarse tuning and the one on the right, fine tuning.

The plug and socket on the far left is for the plug-in Medium or Long Wave coil.

A Long Wave coil would have certainly been desirable after the opening of the BBC's Daventry transmitter in 1925.

Another view of the Radio Electric Company's crystal set.

Circuit diagram of the crystal set made by the Radio Electric Company.

The receiver is extremely simple. The tuned circuit consists of a plug-in coil in series with a much smaller tapped and switched inductance, which is used for tuning, along with the self capacitance of the coils. Coarse and fine tuning is possible by the positioning of the taps on the coil. The fine tuning switch increases or decreases the inductance in smaller steps than the coarse tuning switch.

The aerial is connected directly across the tuned circuit. Although this will effect the tuning and the selectivity of the receiver, it is of no great significance because the tuned circuit will already be heavily damped by the cat's whisker and headphones. Like the aerial, the cat's whisker and headphones in series are connected directly across the tuned circuit, which was normal practice in such a simple design.

This is clearly a simple and cheap receiver, aimed at the bottom end of the market. It's performance is poor, but it would have been affordable to almost anyone and so would have helped to bring radio to the masses, at a time when valve receivers were still very expensive. This may well be one of the crystal sets that were sold for just 7s.6d.

The inside of the receiver showing the crude form of construction. The coil is home-made and wound on a large cardboard tube.

An overall view of the receiver showing the oak case.

The licence plate that's mounted inside the cabinet lid. The low registration number suggests that it was made soon after the formation of the BBC in 1923.

A close-up view of the cats whisker. The handle on the right allows the cat's whisker to be adjusted to make contact with a suitable spot on the crystal.

Another view of the receiver, complete with plug-in Medium Wave coil.

A final view of the receiver, complete with plug-in coil. Although this is a bottom of the range receiver, it is still nicely finished.

Pieces of crystalline material for use in the receiver. The crystal is often a small piece of galena (lead sulphide), although other materials were used.

In the receiver the cat's whisker is enclosed in a glass tube to exclude dust. The crystals are quite soft and will soon wear as the point of cat's whisker is dragged across the surface, so replacements were essential.

The information on the company was obtained from 'Wireless In Wolverhampton', published by the Wolverhampton Amateur Radio Society in 1972. If you have any further information about the company, or its products, please send me an email.

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