Stone Vintage Radio Museum - Antique Radios, Wireless, Crystal Sets, Tubes, and Valves

JH Bunnell, Jove loose coupler and detector. Both are from the late teens. Loose couplers were the main method of tuning many early receivers. Loose couplers were a part of many receivers made during the "teens". Loose couplers consist of a primary and a secondary coil. The primary coil is fixed and is usually provided with a slider for varying the inductance. The secondary moves in and out of the primary coil to vary the coupling. Frequently the secondary coil has several switch points that can also change its inductance. The primary coil was attached to an antenna (that was typically at least 100 feet in length) and ground. The secondary was connected to a crystal detector or any other detector in use. This detector was made by the J. H. Bunnell company circa 1916, and was known as the "Jove" detector. Bunnell was the largest U.S. manufacturer of telegraph equipment, and as wireless telegraphy came into widespread use, they expanded into that realm, though it was never there primary market. The Jove detector was available either with a porcelain or Bakelite base. The Bakelite version had only the word "Jove" to identify it. The base measures about 3 1/4 by 2 1/4 inches. They appeared to have used two styles of binding posts on these units. A Jove detector can be seen in a vintage photograph elsewhere on this site. That detector uses the same binding posts as seen in the Bakelite based detector shown below, which tends to confirm that these are original parts.

Unless otherwise noted, all materials contained on this web site are copyright protected. Materials may be downloaded and/or reprinted for personal use only. Permission to reprint or electronically reproduce any document or graphic in whole or in part for any non-personal or commercial use is expressly prohibited unless prior written consent is obtained from the respective copyright holder(s).