@General Lighting 466310 wrote:

I expect car boot sales happen closer to you but they are usually advertised in places the older generation frequent (age 50+). Was that a actual 1920s radio? Not uncommon to find valve sets from the 1950s onwards at car boot sales as well as vinyl records and other now vintage audio equipment but valves were only recently invented in the 1920s and few places had mains electric – radios actually of that era looked very distinctive and more like “mad scientist” equipment than the “wireless” you might see in old movies.

unless you know a bit about electronics be careful plugging old valve stuff in as many of the capacitors have often gone short circuit and many old sets have where one side of the mains is on the metal chassis (it was done to save putting in a big heavy transformer and because some areas (particularly North and East London) actually had DC mains where a transformer wouldn’t work anyway) – depending how the plug is wired it might mean everything metal in the set is alive at 230V :crazy:

‘Twas definitely from around the 20s-30s period. Never plugged it in because I just wanted to keep it to decorate my room and give it a vintage feel. I’m generally careful about any electronics as I know from my tinkering (I plan on learning mechatronics and systems engineering and find the electrical bit fascinating) that capacitors can and will fuck with you when they feel like if you don’t take the proper precautions.