Crystal Detector

Lamplugh Crystal Detector

This detector is mounted on an insulated base and holes are provided at the four corners for fixing the component to a baseboard or panel. At one end two telephone terminals are mounted, and at the other, the base is moulded with a projection and drilled with two holes through which a stiff vertical U-shaped piece of wire passes. The bottom of the U projects into a longitudinal channel cut in the underside of the base, and a cross-piece slide fits over the two vertical legs.

Two milled nuts screw on the ends of the legs, and hold the cross-piece in position against two springs, slipped one over each leg. A horizontal split screw in the middle of the cross piece grips a spear-pointed wire bent vertically downwards to act as a cat’s whisker. One end of a plated-metal strip passes between the bend in the U-shaped wire and the underside of the base, while a screw rotated by a knob of insulating material passes through a nut and presses on the other end of the metal strip. This combination acts as a lever with about a six-to-one ratio, so that an exceeding fine control of the vertical motion of the cat’s whisker is ensured.

The crystal is gripped in a pair of spring tongs moving in a metal sleeve through one side of the base. By pressing a small black knob, the jaws of the tongs are opened, and with the aid of the ball-socket mounting it is possible to pick up crystals from the base, and also to obtain coarse adjustment of the contact with the whisker.

Here you find 11 models, 5 with images and 0 with schematics for wireless sets etc. In French: TSF for Télégraphie sans fil.
All listed radios etc. from Lamplugh Ltd., S.A.; Birmingham