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gital enthusiasts; they like the technology when it saves them time and effort, not when it
demands more of those resources.
A good example of an early technological product's transition from tinkerer's plaything
to everyday necessity is the radio. Like today's build-it-yourself PCs, with their mother-
boards, fans, and graphic cards, the standard 1910 radio set was something you put together
on your own. It contained crystals, tubes, amps, switches, wires, and all the rest. Early radio
was an interactive medium whose users talked as much as they listened. Most radio trans-
missions were meant to be point-to-point, so most sets came with transmitters. As with the
pre-Model T automobiles, these radio kits were often seen as toys. The main difference was
in the age brackets of the users. Parents bought build-it-yourself radios as Christmas gifts
for their precocious children. Few adults bothered with such gadgets. The radios required
proper assembly and constant maintenance, and the only way to listen to them was through
earphones—just right for a technology-obsessed kid at the dawn of the 20 th century. A radio
set was a fine adventure, but its design had a long way to go if it was to become a shared
family activity.
Figure 4 - Pericaud galena radio set, circa 1910, designed to receive clock signals.
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