The Meccano Crystal Radio Receiving Set

"This [article] may be new to you, it certainly was to me. It is from a book dealing with the Meccano Magazine, which is the MM referred to in the text. I grew up in England (born 1931) and though I was always interested in both crystal sets and Meccano, I never heard mention of a Meccano crystal set.

In case you don't know, Meccano was the original mechanical construction set, Erector being the best known here in the USA. It seems likely, by the way, that A. C. Gilbert took his Erector idea from Frank Hornby, because Hornby patented Meccano over ten years before Erector was "invented". As you will see in the text the idea for this crystal set originated in the Meccano factory in the USA and Hornby took it back to Britain.

For reasons I do not know the GPO (General Post Office) objected to the design of this set and it had to be changed. Meccano then marketed in its place a conventionally made set that I do not think contained any Meccano parts. Perhaps one of your readers will take up the challenge to make a set out of Erector parts."

--Written by a member of the Xtal Set Society

FRANK HORNBY GOES RADIO-MAD

Meccano Magazine Editor's Note Having put the July-August edition of M.M. to bed, the Editor and Frank Hornby went off on the 27th May 1922, for a month's visit to U.S.A and Canada. Hornby had just negotiated the purchase of an existing factory at Elizabeth, New Jersey, which was carrying the MECCANO emblems by the time he arrived, (see Fig. 183)[not shown] for a tour of inspection. This was conducted by J. P. Porteous and his Sales Manager H. H. Dobson, who were already well established in U.S.A. Meccano marketing. Radio reception was in its infancy in U.K. but had already made rapid progress in America. The Meccano company over there had designed a crystal set using a number of Meccano parts and Frank Hornby was completely entranced by its performance. He had a duplicate made on the spot and, after completing the Canadian leg of the visit, he and Ellison Hawks returned to Great Britain on 2nd July. Hornby lost no time in spreading his enthusiasm for radio in the September 1922 M.M., by using no less than four of the 12 pages to put radio topics on the map as a permanent feature of Meccano Magazine.

Picture of the Meccano Crystal Radio Receiving Set

Samples of the many headings under which radio articles were included, (in the September M.M. alone!), are shown on this page. With three more of the pages given over to the usual Meccano Guild publicity, Club notes and Model-Building Competition items, there was precious little space left for anything that was specifically concerned with Meccano. They did manage to cram in a small block of New Meccano parts which are shown in Fig. 180 on the facing page. In next to no time, a U.K. version of the American Crystal Radio Receiving Set went into production, requiring the introduction of special fibre plates and other insulated items. The receiver, shown in Fig. 184, sold at 55/- ready for use, or at 45/- as a kit of parts.

Ellison Hawks had been hoping to use his extra four pages in the September M.M. to expand the engineering side of its contents but was committed to further radio coverage by Hornby's new hobby horse. In fact, Hornby took one full page of M.M. No. 26 to tell Meccano boys that his 'team of experts' were at work on Meccano Valve Receiving Sets and that full particulars would be announced in Meccano Magazine as soon as the sets were ready! To cope with enquiries on the 'new' topic, Hornby established a 'Radio Editor' as a feature of M.M.