Material Type

Artifact

Other Name

REGENERATIVE RECEIVER

Date Range From

1942

Date Range To

1946

Materials

METAL, WOOD, CARDBOARD (?)

No. Pieces

2

Description

HANDMADE RADIO, 2 PCS. RADIO FEATURES TWO LARGE BAKELITE DIALS MOUNTED ON EXTERIOR OF OPEN BOX-LIKE FRAME. FRAME CRUDELY CONSTRUCTED OF SHEET METAL WITH COMPOSITE ELECTRONIC PARTS INSIDE. RADIO'S METAL COMPONENTS CORRODED AND DIRTY. ASSORTED PARTS MARKED "RCA", "100M-S", "CAT NO DT-6S1". LOOSE CARDBOARD PIECE, CIRCLE-SHAPED WITH EDGE CUT STRAIGHT - UNKNOWN ASSOCIATION.

Subjects

CONSTRUCTION T&E

Historical Association

MILITARY

POLITICS

COMMEMORATIVE

History

DONOR’S FATHER JACK EMERY PASSED AWAY IN OCTOBER, 2005. DONOR’S MOTHER WAS IN PROCESS OF MOVING TO A SMALLER HOUSE WHEN SHE AND DONOR “CAME UPON THE RADIO WHILE PACKING” AND DETERMINED THAT IT SHOULD BE DONATED TO GALT. THE SHORTWAVE RADIO ORIGINATED FROM CAMP 133 IN LETHBRIDGE (1942-1946). ACCORDING TO A SEPT, 1946 ARTICLE IN THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD, THE “POWERFUL SHORT WAVE RECEIVING SET” WAS “CONSTRUCTED SECRETLY BY GERMAN PRISONERS AT THE INTERNMENT CAMP DURING THE SECOND GREAT WAR”. THE RADIO WAS THE SECOND FOUND CONCEALED IN THE CAMP AND WAS DISCOVERED WHEN THE DONOR’S GRANDFATHER, TED EMERY, WAS WORKING ON THE CAMP’S FORMER PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM WAS SOLD AS PART OF THE CAMP’S DISMANTLEMENT TO LETHBRIDGE BUSINESSMEN J. PATEY AND D. PRIESTLY, WHO WERE AFFILIATED “WITH AN ORCHESTRA”. THEY TURNED THE SYSTEM OVER TO EMERY IN ORDER “TO PUT IT INTO SHAPE”. HE WAS A RADIO REPAIRMAN FOR TRANSCONTINENTAL AIRLINES AND OPERATED A LOCAL SHORTWAVE RADIO BUSINESS. WHILE WORKING ON THE P.A. SYSTEM, EMERY FOUND INGENIOUSLY CONSTRUCTED SHORT WAVE CONVERTER. IN ADDITION TO CANADIAN RADIO PARTS, MUCH OF THE RADIO WAS “PAINSTAKINGLY FASHIONED FROM WOOD”. THE SET, IT WAS CLAIMED, WAS “POWERFUL ENOUGH TO PICK UP TRANS-ATLANTIC MESSAGES… FROM GERMANY” JACK EMERY RECEIVED THE RADIO IN 1973/74 (UPON THE PASSING OF HIS FATHER). HE WAS LIVING IN OREGON AT THE TIME AND, THEREAFTER, WASHINGTON AND ALASKA, ENDING UP IN OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON. IT WAS KEPT IN A BOX IN AN ATTIC/BASEMENT/GARAGE FOR THE ENTIRE TIME. IT IS NOT BELIEVED THAT THE RADIO WAS WORKING OR USED WHILE IN EMERY’S POSSESSION. *UPDATE* IN 2014 COLLECTIONS ASSISTANT JANE EDMUNDSON DEVELOPED THE FOLLOWING BRIEF HISTORY OF PRISONER OF WAR CAMP 133 WITH INFORMATION FROM THE GALT MUSEUM BROCHURE "LETHBRDGE'S INTERNMENT CAMPS" AND THE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA WEBSITE. DURING WORLD WAR II THERE WERE 40 PRISONER OF WAR (P.O.W.) CAMPS CONSTRUCTED ACROSS CANADA TO HOUSE THE LARGE NUMBER OF INCOMING POWS - ENEMY MILITARY PERSONNEL THAT WERE CAPTURED IN COMBAT. CAMPS WERE BUILT IN ONTARIO, QUEBEC, THE MARITIMES AND ALBERTA. THE CAMPS IN LETHBRIDGE AND MEDICINE HAT WERE THE LARGEST, TOGETHER HOUSING 22,000 MEN. THE LETHBRIDGE CAMP, NO. 133, WAS BUILT IN THE SUMMER OF 1942, AND BY NOVEMBER OF THAT YEAR HOUSED 13,341 PRISONERS. THE CAMP WAS DIVIDED INTO SIX SECTIONS, EACH WITH SIX DORMITORIES, MESS HALLS, KITCHENS, AND ENTERTAINMENT FACILITIES. MEALS WERE IN SHIFTS WITH PRISONERS SERVING AS COOKS. TAILOR, BARBER AND SHOE REPAIR SHOPS WERE ALSO STAFFED BY PRISONERS, AND NON-COMBAT POWS PRACTICED THEIR PRE-WAR PROFESSIONS AS MEDICAL DOCTORS AND DENTISTS. HOUSING AND RATIONS WERE THE SAME STANDARD AS FOR THE CANADIAN ARMED FORCES, WHICH SOMETIMES CAUSED RESENTMENT AMONG LETHBRIDGE CIVILIAN RESIDENTS, WHO WERE UNABLE TO OBTAIN MANY OF THE SAME SUPPLIES ON THEIR STRICT WARTIME RATION ALLOWANCES. WITH MANY YOUNG LOCAL MEN AWAY AT WAR, LOCAL FARMERS BEGAN TO REQUEST LABOUR ASSISTANCE FROM THE CAMP, ESPECIALLY FOR THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY. BY 1943 AN AGREEMENT WAS REACHED AND SOME OF THE PRISONERS WORKED ON FARMS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ALBERTA. MOST OF THESE PRISONERS WENT FROM THE CAMP TO THE FARMS DAILY, BUT SOME WERE KEPT AT 'LODGES' AT THE MORE DISTANT FARMS FOR DAYS AT A TIME, WITH MINIMAL GUARDING. FOR THEIR LABOUR, THE PRISONERS WERE PAID 50 CENTS PER DAY. WITH WAR'S END, CAMP 133 CLOSED IN DECEMBER 1946 AND ITS PRISONERS WERE SENT BACK TO GERMANY. THE AREA WHERE THE CAMP STOOD EVENTUALLY BECAME AN INDUSTRIAL PARK AND PART OF THE FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTRE. *UPDATE* ON FEBRUARY 20TH, 2014, MUSEUM COLLECTIONS TECH KEVIN MACLEAN VISITED THE ‘AMATEUR HAM RADIO CLUB’, BASED OUT OF THE LETHBRIDGE SENIOR CITIZENS ORGANIZATION (LSCO), TO SOLICIT TECHNICAL INPUT ON THE GALT’S GERMAN-INTERNEE-CRAFTED, CAMP 133 RADIO (P20050004000). MR. BLAIR SHAW SPOKE ON BEHALF OF THE CLUB REGARDING ASPECTS OF THE RADIO’S CONSTRUCTION AND ITS POTENTIAL FUNCTION IN THE HANDS OF CAMP INTERNEES. ON ITS CONSTRUCTION, SHAW STATED, “THE PERSON THAT MADE THIS DIDN’T INVENT ANY NEW RADIO CIRCUITS, BUT HE MADE GOOD USE OF THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE DAY. BOTH THE ALLIED AND THE AXIS MILITARY FORCES HAD SIMPLE RADIO TRANSMITTERS AND RECEIVERS THAT WERE BASED ON CIRCUITRY THAT WAS NOT MUCH DIFFERENT THAN THIS. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED PRETTIER, BUT IT STILL WOULD HAVE BEEN A REGENERATIVE RECEIVER…ALL OF THE PARTS HERE…HAD TO HAVE BEEN SCROUNGED AT THE CAMP. THAT MEANT THAT THE PERSON WHO BUILT THIS EITHER STOLE THE PARTS FROM AN EXISTING RADIO OR, BECAUSE THIS WAS FOUND IN A PA (PUBLIC ADDRESS) SYSTEM, IT CAME OUT OF THE PA AMPLIFIER…SOMEHOW OR OTHER THE PRISONERS GOT A HOLD OF THIS [RADIO’S] CAPACITOR. AN AMPLIFIER PROBABLY WOULD NOT HAVE HAD ANY CAPACITORS LIKE THIS…NOR WOULD IT HAVE HAD THIS COIL…[IT]MUST HAVE COME FROM OUTSIDE OF THE CAMP UNLESS THEY WERE GROWING THEM IN THE GARDEN, BUT I RATHER DOUBT THAT. THE VARIABLE RESISTOR ON THE BOTTOM WOULD BE A COMMON ITEM IN A PA AMPLIFIER…THE TEST LEADS ON THE SIDE HERE, THESE TWO RED TEST LEADS, WERE FOR THE EARPHONES AND YOU WOULD USE THE CARTRIDGE OUT OF AN ORDINARY TELEPHONE HANDSET TO MAKE AN EARPHONE FOR THIS RADIO.” IN HIS INTERVIEW WITH MACLEAN, SHAW SPECULATED HOW PARTS LIKE THE VARIABLE RESISTOR AND THE RADIO TUBE MAY HAVE BEEN SWAPPED OUT WITH EXAMPLES IN THE PA SYSTEM WITHOUT DRAWING THE SUSPICION OF CAMP AUTHORITIES. AS TO ITS FUNCTION AS A SHORTWAVE RADIO, SHAW TOLD MACLEAN, “THAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN. IT COULD BE USED FOR SHORTWAVE, DEPENDING ON HOW YOU ADJUST THE CAPACITORS. BUT THE THING IS, SHORTWAVE RADIO TRANSMISSIONS FROM GERMANY WERE USUALLY JAMMED AND THEY WERE A LONG, LONG, LONG WAYS AWAY. MOST LIKELY THIS WAS USED TO LISTEN TO THE LOCAL RADIO STATION HERE, TO FIND OUT WHAT’S GOING ON…AND THAT INFORMATION…MIGHT GET RELAYED BACK TO GERMANY.” IN A STATEMENT LATER ON IN THE INTERVIEW, AND ON THE SUBJECT OF FUNCTION, SHAW SAID, “NOW, IT WOULD BE VERY INTERESTING TO FIRE THIS UP…IF IT WAS TRIED OUT, YOU COULD THEN SAY WHETHER OR NOT IT WAS FOR SHORTWAVE OR FOR BROADCAST. SO ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ADD 6.3 VOLTS, 6 VOLTS, AND SAY 35 – 40 VOLTS TO GET IT TO GO.” AS TO THE RADIO’S SOURCE OF POWER, SHAW COMMENTED: “UNDOUBTEDLY, THE POWER WAS GAINED FROM THE POWER SUPPLY IN THE PA SYSTEM, BECAUSE THIS RADIO WOULD NEED A SIX VOLT BATTERY WHICH IS NOT A SMALL THING. IN THOSE DAYS, A SIX VOLT BATTERY WOULD BE BIGGER THAN THE RADIO ITSELF. IT WOULD THEN NEED A HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY WHICH THEY CALLED A “B” BATTERY...EVERYTHING THAT WAS DONE [WAS] WITH THE PA SYSTEM, THAT’S WHY THIS WAS IN THERE OR WHATEVER.” MACLEAN REFERENCED THE RADIO’S MISSING WOOD DIAL – SEEN IN THE LETHBRIDGE HERALD PHOTO AND REFERENCED BY THE DONOR AT THE TIME OF THE RADIO’S OFFER - AS THE PART OF THE OBJECT THAT MAY HAVE BEEN THE MOST VISUALLY INTERESTING. SHAW RESPONDED: “YES, THAT’S RIGHT; THIS DIAL HERE IS MISSING. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST LIKE THIS DIAL HERE EXCEPT BIGGER. AND THE REASON IT WAS BIGGER IS BECAUSE IT’S EASIER TO MAKE A SMALL ADJUSTMENT WITH A BIG DIAL THAN WITH A SMALL DIAL, NO MATTER HOW STEADY YOUR HANDS ARE…THIS IS THE SCREW THAT TURNED THE KNOB. THAT’S THE VERNIER DIAL. SO, YOU WOULD MAKE FOUR TURNS AND THIS KNOB THAT’S MISSING WOULD MOVE MAYBE A QUARTER OF AN INCH WHICH WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THIS.” TO READ A FULL TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO INTERVIEW CONDUCTED WITH MR. BLAIR SHAW IN 2014, PLEASE SEE THE RADIO’S PERMANENT FILE.

Catalogue Number

P20050004000

Acquisition Date

2005-05

Collection

Museum

Less detail