PWSTS Forum for Old Boys, Family and Friends

No Pics also Stu.

I know what a crystal set is, my grandad told all about them when I was a young boy.

Cheers John.

Thanks EJ, the link works for me.

Cheers John.

Many thanks EJ for sorting that out.  I hope everyone who looked into it found it interesting.

I am intrigued at the follow up comments about crystal sets.  These were obviously very common in the early days of radio but when I was a kid just after the war (that's WW2, just in case there is any doubt), we used to buy the components in the old "Army & Navy" stores. This was war surplus stuff that was being recycled. To build a crystal set you only needed about 4 components, a crystal of course, a variable resistor, a capacitor, some wire to connect it all up and a headphone (or 2).  I think the other component was a tuning capacitor.  No batteries were needed.  Its amazing the great leap forward from this very basic communication to putting a man on the moon, computers, colour television, micro surgery, the internet of course, and Coronation Street!!!!   At the same time there is the mystery of how a scheduled passenger aircraft could disappear, so far without trace.  And that was just about a month or so ago.  We certainly live in an extraordinary world.  Stu

Dead right John.  I must have seen you in there !!!!!  Next door to there was a radio and electrical appliance shop run by a bloke of "Middle Eastern appearance".  If he didn't have what you wanted he would get an assistant to engage you in conversation whilst he nipped down the road, maybe even caught a taxi , and bought it from a rival shop so that he didn't loose a sale, and kept you out of the other shop.  He's probably a multi millionaire now!!!!!   That whole area was familiar to me because my best mate at school lived in Whitebarn Lane not far from there. When I was home on leave we would go to the Marquee Jazz Club in Leicester Square then on the way home stop off at his Mums place after walking from the Heathway station. Then after a coffee and bun I'd walk or jog  to Rainham, no wonder I slept well in those days.  Stu

Thanks for that John. It certainly brought back a lot of memories and I was trying to put a date on the photo.  In the fifties the traffic around there was much heavier and a lot more buses and folk on the streets.  I was trying to work out the date from the code that comes with the photo and although its a wild guess I think it may be December 1936. This would fit in with the vehicles age and the clothes people were wearing, however some of those vehicles were still being driven around in the 1960's. In fact my first car was a 1938 Ford and one of my cousins had a 1936 (?) Morris 8 Tourer and both were being driven well into the 1960's. Maybe you could put an age on the bus?  Anyway, many thanks, Stu

Sorry Stu only just able to catch up. Your email didn't display the photos either mate - doh

Thanks Andy. EJ solved the problem anyway, so no wurries mate.  The team in action.  Stu