[Phil G4SPZ]

The item depicted below has been donated to the museum where I work as a volunteer. It was accompanied by a photo of it, in-situ, at eaves level of an old house. Rather than see it skipped, the finder rescued it and kindly sent it to us, thinking it may have some pre-war wireless connection.

The green basket-shaped top part is made of thick solid copper wire, twisted in two and three strands, and it looks like the bare copper has oxidised to that typical green colour through long exposure to the elements. The bare stranded hard-drawn copper wire downlead was at one time attached to the base of the 'basket' which is supported by an insulator running through the circular ring of the steel bracket.

If it is indeed supposed to be an aerial, the 'basket' would have contributed little to the received signal. The bracket would have been strong enough to support the downlead vertically, but it was nailed (not screwed) to the building and I don't think it would have been sufficiently strong to support one end of a horizontal or sloping long wire.

Has anyone ever seen anything like it?

Phil