Schodack: First Radio Reciever in Town

What does one do when one of your hobbies is archaeology and it's the dead of winter. The ground is frozen and damn it is cold up north. Well there are always musty basements or researching past pieces from previous digs or on this one occasion a dining room in 06037. A recent visit to my aunt & uncle home uncovered an interesting piece from media past. It was a punch bowl from around circa 1910 and not an expensive one , however , it could be classified as a family keepsake. Let me explain. The time is circa March April 1921. Two major radio stations had been established in the east. KDKA Pittsburg & WGY Schenectady. Radio was in it's infancy. There were not really what we would call a real radio on the market. What you had was a crystal radio. Aroll of wire attached to a crystal that you would drag a small wire across the crystal & pick up radio signal & hear the station over earphones. The set was attached to a long wire antenna located outside of your building or home. People had apparently been building these sets for years. The 2 industrial giants of the day Westinghouse & General Electric in sharp competition began to experiment with radio for the general public. Malcolm Harris of South Schodack Rd may have the been the first or one of the first to build a set and begin listening in Schodack. The Harris family which eventually had 13 kids lived in a house about a quarter of a mile from the Columbia County line. Malcomb , sent for the kit from a catalog with extra earnings from construction work. So , radio , news , farm reports , sports. The radio supplied it all without electicity because the radio used power from the actual radio signal itself. The farm itself as almost all farms of that era did not yet have electical power. With alot of kids and neighbors wishing to hear this new wonder the earphones were difficult. The solution from an article in the newspaper. You placed the earphones in a large bowl , like a punch bowl such as my Aunts heirloom. Then by leaning in close the sound would be amplified as in a megaphone. It was simple but somewhat effective. This was that punchbowl. A memory from radio's past and a quick story related to me on a family visit.