A DENTAL AERIAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 152, 30 June 1938, Page 8

A DENTAL AERIAL

HEARD RADIO IN HIS SLEEP

Hens that don't lay eggs, milk which' goes sour, and umbrellas that turn side out are only a few of .the phenomena modern broadcasting stations are accused of perpetrating, says a New York message to the "Christian Science Monitor." But the strangest and most f incredible complaint ever received by WOR's engineers came.when a woft. ried gentleman called at the trans* mitter building recently. : \ .v . The trouble started, he declared, when he began to drift off to sleep a* i night. Radio programmes, apparently emanating from nowhere, seemed t« float through his head. When he woke up, they vanished; when he began to;, doze off they woke him up again. It was, he indicated, very trying. NO one could explain. . WOR engineers proved to be aeienmined people. The problem was a challenge and so they began . this victim of phantom reception. The, questioning revealed that he works in a machine shop which specialises La the grinding of paper cutter knives. Also he resides very near to WOR f great 50,000-watt transmitter at Carteret, New Jersey. . The grinding of paper knives is A process which requires carborundum grinding wheels. Coupled with thif is the fact that the gentleman in question habitually reads in bed and has a email bed lamp attached to the frame for this purpose. Furthermore, there are gold fillings in his teeth. Now if you're technically inclined, these facts fit together like crackers and cheese.. Carborundum dust hatt settled in the gold fillings, and when he snapped off the lamp it removed the . partial radio short circuit caused by-Hie-filament of the lamp, allowing the bed frame to become a very efficient antenna. . As his jaw relaxed upon falling asleep, his mouth acted as a satisfactory crystal detector, receiving the signals picked up by the bed the same manner as the old-time , crystal detectors intercepted the earliest radio programmes. The solution was quite easy. The engineers gave him a new toothbrusn | to keep the carborundum dust from MS | gold fillings. , « ! "It's nice being able to sleep again, he told his WOR friends, "but I ao imiss some of the programmes."