The Brownie Number 2's Origin

The Number 2 was manufactured by the Brownie Wireless Co. of Great Britain Ltd. The set was available from September 1925 and appears in the 1925/6 Catalogue of the East London Rubber Company. It is described as:

Complete with Semi-Opal Protected Detector, D.L.5 Crystal and "Pallmadium" Cats whisker.

The whole attractively cartoned.

It sold for 10/6 (10 shillings and six pre-decimal pence), or 52.5p in today's terms, not that even the halfpenny is left today! This was, at the time, a very competitive price, cheap compared with the wooden-cased models of the time, which might have cost in the region of £1 to £5.

5XX Loading Coil

Also described is the 5XX Loading Coil:

Attached to a special moulded Coil Holder of substantial and pleasing design.

This sold for 2/9 or 14 and a half pence.

Description

The set is cased in a black moulded ebonite case and must be among the very first British wirelesses to be housed in a "plastic" case. The case contains a coil for the now medium-wave band; it is tuned with a sliding arm. The crystal detector is housed at the centre of the case.

The top has terminals for Aerial and Earth and, in the top centre, the Loading Bridge. It is here where the coil for long wave could be placed, the famous 5XX station. The bottom has the Phone terminals and, between them, the tuning knob which moves the sliding arm on the coil.

It could be used to tune to the new BBC medium wave transmitters that rapidly appeared around the country following the launch of 2LO, the London station, in November 1922. 5XX was the callsign of the long wave station at Daventry, which started broadcasting in 1925 on 1600 Meters.