During the mid-twenties, radio, or wireless as it was more commonly known, was just arriving. My brother Fred and one of his friends made our first wireless which was a crystal set, one of the parts being a “cat’s whisker” which had to be adjusted. There was also a station finder. The three radio stations which we could turn into were Manchester 2ZY, London 2LO and Daventry 5XX. One had to use headphones to listen. Fred attached the long aerial wire to a tree in the garden. There was also an earth wire leading through the window into the garden. We later advanced to a two-valve set and then a three-valve set. The sound came through a metal horn which was attached by wire to the set and was situated on the top of a chest of drawers. The power to operate the set was by a large dry battery, called grid bias, and a wet accumulator. The wet accumulator, which had acid in and distilled water, was recharged approximately fortnightly. The local electrical engineer had a workshop in Chapel Lane which incorporated a generator with which he could recharge accumulators. He ran a business in the village for that purpose and collected and delivered them at a cost of sixpence a charge. We later had an extra horn in the parlor or sitting room. This was connected to the set so that we could listen in two rooms at the same time.
Our main source of light was by gas light which was lit on a mantle. If one touched the mantle after its first use it would fall to pieces, so one always had to have spare mantles in stock. We also had installed a gas cooker which consisted of four burners and an oven. That was a big advance on the coal fire system as we could then boil the kettles on the rings and cook anything in pans. We had a gas light in the back kitchen, the living room, the parlor and one bedroom only. In the other bedrooms one had to use a small oil or paraffin lamp and wick. Electricity was eventually brought down to the Kem Mill area, which allowed the mill areas to do away with the dangerous overhead gas fittings. Our house also received the benefit of the electricity as one of the main overhead cables was attached to our house. Having electricity installed was a complete transformation as we had each room then with electric light and also enabled us to have the radio adapted to electric power. Father never did have an electric cooker but carried on the old gas cooker. I was in my teens when we had electricity installed. We also had an electric door bell.
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