Evening star., 1926-05-09
No. 63-FalI.ng for FaIlacies.

Radio is such a mystery to the
average person that even the Widest
sort of superstitions and fallacieS are
given credence. Smith has made such
"a determined effort to master radio
from the set-owner's standpoint that
he has had very little time to listen
to the many strange notions that are
given out as information by those
who connect radio with black magic.
Recently. however, he must have felt
himself getting the better Of the basic
facts, for few idl" moments caused
him to tumble to a number of queer
notions.
1t rather surprised Inc to find him
going all over the electric light con
nections and floor plugs the other eve
ming. I was even more surprised al
the explanation he gave.
Brown saws loose lamp bulb. on
any loose electrical connection, in the
room will detune the set" he eX-
planned.
What does Brown know about it,"
| asked. HE doesn't know even why
a storage battery gives out energy
Light Bulb Loose.
"I don't care what he knows about
radio" Smith argued. at s ques.
ton Of what he has found out from
actual experience. He was telling me
the strangest thing that happened to
him the other night. 1t seems that
the set became extremely noisy so,
checking over the house fixtures ne
found that one of the bulbs in the
reading light was q little loose. When
he screwed it in tight the noise in
the set stopped.
He saws there must have been
some high frequency vibration set up
in the lamp socket. He couldn't eX-
plain it exactly, but it was clear
enough to me. After I get through
tightening up things around here you
won't know the old set
let Smith finish his work, and
then when he was satisfied the set
was working beautifully, ! loosened
several lamps around the room ana
showed him that all he got was a
click" as the current contact was
made or broken. OF course, he came
right back with the argument that l
couldn't strike just the right point
for the sort of vibration that would
interfere with the set. The answer to
that was the improbability of having
bulb Pickering enough to set up a
series of interferences with the set.
Goes to Another Story.
Smith then went on 10 announcer
story Brown had told him. 1t seems
that Brown had gone into another
room to disconnect a floor plug for a
lamp only to find the radio set sud
denly losing volume. Instead of put
ting the plug back again to see
whether the volume of the set would
increase and whether the plug really
had anything to do with it. he went
into the other room, tuned the set q
little sharper and took it for granted
tht there was some mysterious con
nection between the two.
The chances are ten to one that
while he was unscrewing the f1oor
plug a motor truck went by the house
shook it and detuned the set a little
by shaking one Of the dials. Brown
has a set with very fine adjustment
Still Smith preferred to mix radio
with rot. Brown had informed him
that his set often worked best when
he turned the loop aerial broadside to
ward the station instead OF pointing
it, as usually is required. Brown in
sisted that there was some mystert
Gus force at work upon his set, and
declared that an umbrella stand in
the corner had something to do with
radi6 fallacies.
The truth is that Browns set Is sc
sensitive he can receive better or
nights when radio weather is good by
| using less aerial energy. When he
turns the loop broadside to the station
and violates the ordinary rule to OBJ