File: gauthierjohn06-oh-batteryradios_M.mp3
Speakers:
JG – John Gauthier
ID – Ivan Day
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
mid-late 30s).
6:50
JG: That would be around the mid 30s. Until that time we didn't have a radio. And of course with no electricity you depended on an old 6-volt car battery to power your radio.
KP: You had to take them to a general store to get recharged?
JG: Not around here. If they were – a little bit of improvisation, they'd take the generator out of an old car, prop it up on a roof and put and old wind mill propeller on it to charge the battery. The wind would turn the shaft of the generator, and would generate the electricity, which would feed it down to this storage battery sitting on the ground. That would charge the battery. They had a misconception then, "Don't play the radio too loud, you'll wear the battery out." This was nonsense, since it didn't matter how loud or how softly you were playing it, you were still using the same amount of electricity. That's going back.
ID: Everybody rationed their time on the radio because of this factor that the battery is going to run out. And when the battery ran out, lots of times you went for a week, or two weeks, or three weeks till you got money enough to go buy another battery, or go get it charged, you'd have to pay somebody to charge it.
