A Christmastide Muddle
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Merriam-Webster defines Christmastide as "the festival season from Christmas Eve till after New Year's Day or especially in England till Epiphany." In 1930 when this article appeared in Radio-Craft magazine, most likely everyone knew what Christmastide was, but not so much today; hence, I provide the meaning. Wikipedia goes into more detail. While reading and scanning vintage magazine articles throughout the year, I set aside ones specific to holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc., and post them during their respective seasons.
A Christmastide Muddle
Sometimes the Service Man's money comes easy - with the accent on "sometimes." By George F. Carpenter The street mains in the heart of the city of Washington, D.C., furnish direct current; the pole lines on the outskirts of the city furnish alternating current, and thereby hangs a Christmas tale. The old Georgia colonel's home on B Street, Northwest, was the scene of a lively Yuletide gathering; his husky and prosperous boys and girls with their flocks came to bring their Christmas gifts. Among them, Bill brought Daddy a Balkite trickle charger. The old Colonel's set was a six-tuber, the joy and pride of the household, built to order by an expert who very cleverly supplied the "A" and "B" current from a power board consisting of Clarostats and Tobe condensers and a couple of chokes which smoothed out all the pulsating ripples. Bill had an idea that the old Colonel's set was using the "A" battery for filament supply (instead of a part of the filter, as planned) and, with a show of pardonable pride, he produced his trickle charger, filled the jar with the acid electrolyte and said: "Now Dad, no more battery trouble for yours." The old man replied, "I haven't any battery trouble whatever; but if this device will make it any better, why, go ahead." Bill disconnected the plug which fed the power board, connected the trickle charger to the battery terminals and plugged in his charger on the direct-current wall socket. Soon there was a smell of something burning followed by a puff of ill-smelling smoke that brought consternation to all the group. Bill snatched the current lead from the wall socket and disconnected the trickle leads from the "A" battery terminals. He put back the power plug - correctly, he thought - but he had failed to notice the slot cut in one side of the plug which denoted correct polarity. The set would not function; wrong polarity. Poor Bill, how was he to know? He didn't have, a voltmeter, nor did he know how to get a polarity reading with a potato. I was hastily summoned by telephone: "Dad is afraid his set is ruined; I'll give you $20.00 if you'll only have the set working by midnight; please come quick, etc." It was then 11 p.m. There had been a family row and a glance at the centre table told its own tale; there lay the ruined trickle charger - some of the acid had spilled on the top of the beautifully - inlaid mahogany table, and mother was angry. I went over the power-board panel so nicely secreted in the cabinet; a touch of the test clips on my voltmeter leads told me that polarity had been reversed; I pulled out the power plug, gave it a turn so that the slot showed on top, threw on the power, turned the dials a bit and the loud speaker boomed out. "This is station PWX, Cuban Telephone Co., Havana, Cuba." The old Colonel was jubilant and vowed never to allow anyone to monkey with his set again. The old mother asked me if I could fix it so the colored lights would burn on her Christmas tree and in the dining room; and I happened to have a "Hemco" 3-way socket plug in my tool bag which solved her problem. On the stroke of midnight I left the old Colonel's mansion with $20.00 in my pocket, and listened to the church bells pealing forth their message of peace on earth and good will to men.
Posted December 14, 2023 Here are a few other Christmas-related items on RF Cafe:
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