The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-05-08
CHINOOK YOUTH
RADIO INVENTOR
.PERFECTS APPARATUS WHICH
MAY REVOLUTIONIZE
RECEIVING
Is a Set With But One Control; Was
Wireless Expert at IL Years old;
Robert Lehfeldt, Inventor, Is a
Student of 10 Years.

A Chinook, Mont, lad, a high
n school student this winter at Mum
Gle, Ind. has completed a radio
e development which will likely
q bring pleasure to hundreds of thou
sands of persons. The Chinook
boys development is a receiving
set with one control-one, not six
1 or eight or TO-.
This does not mean that the vari-
! GUS adjustments possible through the
: numerous controls on other sets are
; impossible on this. Rather, all adj
/, justments achieved on the more COM
plicated sets are so synchronized that
the one control on this set moves
them in the proper harmony.
The young inventor of this revolu-
} tionary improvement is Robert Leh-
feldt, 10. His home is at Chinook,
but last fall he went to the Indiana
course offered in the high school
there. Young Lehfelt graduated
from the Chinook high school last
spring, but there he had no oppor-
tunity to do electrical work. Hear
ing of the electrical class conducted
at Muncie by Harvey M. Anthony, he
LoQh0 Oil OPROA ohIb ~ oId0J ohAC
that instructor during the winter
and has developed his radio inven-
ton while carrying on his school
work.
Was Waiting for the Radio
Seven years ago, when the boy was
IL years old, his interest turned to
wireless t~e1egraphy, the nearest pa
ternal ancestor of radio. His knowl-
edge of this was such that when the
radio was developed he was right
in the front row.
Seeing that the more highly deve1-
oped the receiving sets became the
more complicated and difficult be-
came their operation, Lehfeldt real
lied that the most needed develop
ment was to make the receiving set
simple and foolproof-so simple that
any child who can turn a knob can
operate the outfit, and so fool-proof
that there is nothing to fool with.
Seeks Patent Protection
The effort to simplify the control
began more than six months ago and
Lehfelt spent many long hours be-
fore he achieved his goal. The radio
fan who spends an entire evening
in h~armonizing the controls for a few
stations, and later finds himself I'M
able to repeat the process may, if his
imagination be strong, imagine the
patience and application required to-
synchronize the controls so that all
will work in unison at all times.
The inventor has applied for pat
ent protection on his control de-
vice and until his patent registration
papers are received, he is keeping
fhic mort nf fhn 0nnorof.o - q ,o0fo1
case and closed from view. 1t is a
three-tube, semi-reflex, n-on-regenera-
tive set, with a wave length range of
100 to 600 meters.
Stations Nearly Indexed :
Another feature of the outfit is
that it is so calibrated that the oper- .
ator may locate any desired station =
by turning the Indicator to .
the cataloged numbers simple as .
the hand of a clock. BY ex- =
perimenting, Lehfeldt has found that, y
for example, Station KDKA is picked =
up when the Indicator is at 65; WOS =
Is heard at 80; WGN at IA and so on. =
Each of the So stations heard over !,
outfit has been listed with its To- :
,ation number. So when the opera =
or wishes to hear a program from :,
kDKA, he ascertains that it's number
s 65, turns the indicator to 65, and :.
here is KDKA. Conversely, if the :
picks up a selection when
he indicator is at 80, and he doesn't -
wish to wait until drawls .
This is radio station WOS, Jefferson
lily, Missoury," he may find No. 80 =.
n the catalog and see that he is list =,
ming to WOS. =,
Has Heard so Stations "
Moreover, Lehfeldt has developed p.
n accurate selective power in his !"
ct. Although two broadcasting sta -
ions may be heard at numbers sep a.
rated only a few points on the cali -
rated dial, one station may be cut "a
ut clearly as the other is cut in. On p
good radio nights" literally dozens al
f stations can be picked up in half =
S many minutes. tb
Telephones and Pie Pans mr.
Among other things that Lehfeldt 81,
as done, he has evolved a new use WI
)r telephones and for pie pans. One
light when the static was unusually
nnoying, he conceived the plan of III
ttaching his outfit to the telephone RI
lstead of to the aerial. Although ~
lis cut down the volume slightly, it fo
animated much of the static and pe
considered highly successful un- m
| the telephone company reported
it fnterfered with the phone =
The idea was too good to discard,
the next step was to get a connec-
on that would not affect the tele-
lone service. The method was so
mple as to be almost ridiculous.
ehfelt set the telephone Ca desk
hone) in a tin pie pan and CON
scted his set with the pan-and
at was the aerial. The felt cover
g on the bottom of the phone serves
an insulation that prevents inter
renee with telephone service, yet
e results are the same as if there
Re a direct connection. And when
e telephone rings, the person an