time ago, experimenters are now vying with each other in making small
or novel equipment. Portable sets of all sorts are being fashioned,
from one which will go into an ordinary suitcase, to one so small it
will easily slip into a Brownie camera. One receiver depicted in a
newspaper was one inch square! Another was a ring for the finger, with
a setting one inch by five-eighths of an inch, and an umbrella as a
"ground." Walking sets with receivers fastened to one's belt are also
common. Daily new novelties and marvels are announced.

Meanwhile, the radio amateur to whom this book is addressed may have
his share in the joys of wireless. To get all of these good things out
of the ether one does not need a rod or a gun--only a copper wire made
fast at either end and a receiving set of some kind. If you are a
sheer beginner, then you must be very careful in buying your
apparatus, for since the great wave of popularity has washed wireless
into the hearts of the people, numerous companies have sprung up and
some of these are selling the veriest kinds of junk.

And how, you may ask, are you going to be able to know the good from
the indifferent and bad sets? By buying a make of a firm with an
established reputation. I have given a few offhand at the end of this
book. Obviously there are many others of merit--so many, indeed, that
it would be quite impossible to get them all in such a list, but these
will serve as a guide until you can choose intelligently for yourself.

A. F. C.