Gillette "Blue Blades" as a crystal radio detector!

[bcarusella]

Tried the folks at the 100th Bomb Group page, unfortunately no response. I may be at another dead end.

 

[bmac10]

I heard of him in college!

 

[Konadon]

When I was a kid, my Dad showed me how to build a Crystal Radio using a Gillette "Blue Blade" as the detector. (This was back in 1958, when I was 10 years old.)

He told me that a lot of guy's from his unit, (the 100th Bomb Group) were shot down over Germany and spent the war in POW camps. And they made crystal radios in the POW camps using Gillette razor blades that they got from the Red Cross packages.

I don't know if this is true or not, but my Dad told me that the War Department helped Gillette develop the "Blue Blade" with a special coating that could be used for this purpose.....just to provide the POW's in Germany with a detctor to build Crystal Radios so they could receive news of how the war was progressing, and give them hope.

If you Google "Fox Hole Radios", you get a lot of neat information on this subject.

If this is really true, I would think that Gillette deserves some fantastic recognition for their contribution the war effort in WWII!

But so far, I have Googled the hell out of it...(Who would have thought that "Google" would end up a verb!)......but I can't find anything from Gillette that confirms this!

I am just rambling here, but if this is true, I would think Gillette would have some information on this...........I would really like to know if this is true or not!

You know what??? Your Right!
i was trying to find info on a 1949 Boy Scout Manuel project that showed how to make a crystal radio using a Gillette Blue Blade razor blade instead of a tuned germanium crystal. I built such a radio and was able to pick up a local Los Angeles radio station. Fun Day and Times
[email protected]

 

[ToddDubya]

You know what??? Your Right!
i was trying to find info on a 1949 Boy Scout Manuel project that showed how to make a crystal radio using a Gillette Blue Blade razor blade instead of a tuned germanium crystal. I built such a radio and was able to pick up a local Los Angeles radio station. Fun Day and Times
[email protected]

You joined today and your first post was in response to a necro thread from 2010?!?

Also "you're".

Welcome aboard.

 

[ToddDubya]

Forgot to paste this. Consider your chain yanked.

 

[JDL]

This is true and if you could find some old Gillette blue blades you could do this today

 

[JDL]

When I was younger I made crystal radio all the time. I would use salvaged diodes from scrapped radio equipment, wind copper wire around a toilet paper tube and shellac the coil and tube. I would use an ear phone from a transistor radio to listen on my crystal radios.