Broadcasting equipment used in the early days of Irish radio goes on display.
RTÉ Radio, or 2RN as it was then called, began broadcasting on 1 January 1926. To mark its golden jubilee, the exhibition hall of the Bank of Ireland on Baggot Street Dublin is hosting 'Fifty Years of Irish Radio'.
The exhibition includes examples of early broadcasting equipment including a HMV record player used when 2RN first went on air. It was played in the studio and picked up by a microphone placed nearby. An operator in the background would adjust the controls to broadcast to the nation. In 1926, record players had to be wound up manually.
By 1936, when RTÉ was making and using its own records, electronically operated record players were in use.
The voice of many an announcer would have come in over that to say, 'We interrupt the Irish Army Band Number One to bring you the time and the news'.
Eddie Slowey joined RTÉ in 1936. Now Deputy Director of Engineering, he explains how some of the microphones in the exhibition work. These include the ribbon microphone, Marconi-Reisz carbon microphone, moving-coil microphone and the condenser microphone.
The basic principles don't differ very much from what was known in the late 20s but the sophistication and improvement in quality and decrease in size is the main development.
Another part of the exhibition offers some early examples of valves. The Athlone transmitter needed 20 valves to produce 100 kilowatts.
Now a modern transmitter would produce, for example Tullamore, 500 kilowatts with two valves.
Eddie Slowey demonstrates the workings of a crystal set receiver and a valve set receiver. The latter needed ginormous batteries and paraphernalia, unlike the modern small portable transistor.
This episode of 'Eureka' was broadcast on 12 February 1976. The reporter is Jim Sherwin.
'Eureka' was a science series broadcast on RTÉ during 1975 and 1976. 'Eureka' set out to show the many facets of science and related technologies. Programmes included studio demonstrations and film reports from around the country. 'Eureka' was presented by Jim Sherwin and Caroline Erskine with reporters Jim Fahy and Pat Casey.
