Chapter 8

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Type 19 [...] Doerle Twinplex
The Doerle “Twinplex” regenerative radio receiver, a popular kit or DIY radio design in the mid-1930s, often sold by or associated with the Doerle Company. It used the Type 19 dual-triode vacuum tube.

an eye electrically fly
In 1930s slang, "fly" meant smart, sharp, hip, alert. So this phrase would mean "sharp, perceptive vision."

policy runners
“Policy” (also called the numbers game, policy racket, or policy wheel) was an illegal daily lottery. Players would choose a 3-digit number (usually from 000–999), wager a small sum (a penny, nickel, dime), and hope the number matched the “winning number” drawn that day — often based on horse-race results or stock exchange figures. A small bet could return big winnings — sometimes $60 on a nickel bet — so it was wildly popular among working-class people shut out of legitimate financial systems. Policy runners were the low-level agents who collected bets from players in homes, barber shops, taverns, and street corners. They “ran” the slips and money to a policy station or policy bank, where a “writer” or “clerk” logged them in and forwarded them up the chain to the “banker” — the operator who financed and controlled the operation.

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Mary Texanna Loomis's Radio College
Loomis (1880-1960) founded the Loomis Radio College in Washington, D.C., around 1920. Her goal was to train students not only in radio theory and operation but also in the practical craftsmanship and electrical skills behind the technology. The school included a workshop and a lab, where students built or repaired their own equipment. She required students to have hands-on experience: “No man … can graduate … until he learns how to make any part of the apparatus.” Courses included topics in radio theory, operating practice, drafting, basic electricity, shop work, and more. More...

bootleggers
In the 1930s, “Bootleggers” were people or organizations that broadcast or transmitted radio signals without a valid government license — the radio equivalent of Prohibition-era alcohol bootleggers.

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U-13 Austro-Hungarian submarine
An Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine active during World War I, one of the U-10-class boats built for the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine (Imperial and Royal War Navy). Austria-Hungary’s domestic shipyards were not yet set up for small submarine construction in 1914 so they purchased German Type UB I boats from Germaniawerft. U-13 was one of these — a coastal, small-range U-boat intended for operations in the Adriatic Sea. It was commissioned July 1915 under Linienschiffsleutnant Georg von Trapp (yes, the same Georg von Trapp later made famous by The Sound of Music). It was lost on August 16, 1915 in the Adriatic Sea, off Cape Pelagosa (now Palagruža, Croatia). The cause is uncertain — most likely struck a mine or was destroyed by a depth-charge attack from Italian forces. All 14 crew members were lost. It was the first Austro-Hungarian submarine lost in World War I.

a Thrill Box of unconventional design
In radio-tinkerer circles of the early Depression era — the kind who read Radio News, Short Wave Craft, or QST — a “thrill box” was a nickname for a tiny regenerative radio receiver that packed surprising sensitivity or volume for its size. 1) One- or two-tube regenerative sets, often using a dual triode such as the Type 19 or 1H4G; 2) Built from mail-order kits (like Doerle, Pilot, or Meissner) or from magazine schematics; 3) Tuned both the broadcast and short-wave bands, capable of pulling in foreign stations late at night — a real thrill for the listener; 4) Often mounted in a small homemade chassis or cigar box — hence the “box” part of the nickname. So “thrill box” in this sense meant a little set that gave you the thrill of DX reception — hearing distant voices across the ocean.

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BCNU
an old-school abbreviation meaning “Be Seeing You.” In the 1930s, “BCNU” was used by telegraphers, ham radio operators, and later military radiomen.

silent key
In the 1930s, just as today, the phrase “Silent Key” (often abbreviated SK) was used among radio operators — amateur, commercial, and military — to mean a deceased radio operator.

County of Cook
the most populous county in Illinois and the second-most populous in the United States. It is located in northeastern Illinois, and its county seat is Chicago.