What did they solder with at the birth of radio?

[SiriusHardware]

I'm maybe a little bit younger than many here so my first 'proper' soldering iron was made by 'Remploy'. It had a distinctive three-cornered shape at the element end of the blue handle which helped to stop it twisting and turning and also held the element / bit up off any surface which the iron was laid on. It also had a built in mini lamp which shone down one side of the element so that it illuminated the bit / work. Quite a nice design, really.

[Heatercathodeshort]

It must be remembered that the first Radio receivers were assembled with nuts and bolts.
My first soldering iron was manufactured by 'Remploy' a company I believe that employed disabled people getting them back to work. It was a Birthday present almost 60 years ago.

I don't think I ever owned a small 25W Solon. The Adcola with it's mottled Bakelite handle was very efficient and certainly appeared to be hotter than it's contemporary's. It was only let down by it's habit of jamming the bit in it's sleeve. These were very popular until the arrival of the Weller.

The 1939 65W Henley Solon iron still gets occasional use today. There is nothing like it for soldering tin plate and steel chassis.

The temperature controlled Weller is without doubt King.

The final one in the picture is a special model designed for surface mounted components and intricate work.

Regards, John

[Radio Wrangler]

I started out with a copper lump on a row with a wooden handle. Heated in our coal fire. I stretched bar solder to thin it, which sort of helped.

Next came a red handled electric Pifco with the handle moulding extending up and forward to hold a small lamp. It was so-so, but my introduction ti solder in wire form was a revelation!

That got replaced by a Weller gun 100W/140W version though a fair amount of that rating never made it to the tip.

A ceramic shanked Antex CCN lived in the inner pocket of my school blazer. One school bully didn't know about it and got his arm impaled on the tip. The ceramic shank survived. win-win I thought.

At college it was Antexes in all the bench kits. My next revelation was the Weller TCP1 I got issued with on joining HP. I've had one ever since and use it or an RF-heated Metcal today.

My usual kit is a Russian stereomicroscope and a pair of Metcals, one for each hand. Better power than the Talon hot tweezers for work on groundplane boards.

David

[peter_sol]

Things were screwed together at first

[suebutcher]

My fave is the Scope, an ancient Australian contraption with a carbon element that runs off 3V AC or a car battery. The design dates from the late Forties, and the irons haven't changed much since then. They heat very quickly, and the maker claims they have a heat output equivalent to a conventional 150W iron. They were commonly used on production lines until the introduction of transistors.

[emeritus]

We had some of those carbon element soldering irons at Plesssey in the 1970's. The guys designing microwave stripline amplifiers used them in pairs to de-solder the pairs of ground plane connections from the stud-type transistors where the electrodes were four metal strips arranged in a cross. Wellers took too long to heat up the metal and would damage the semiconductor chip. I well remember that they would glow if left on for too long: one of the technicians used to use one for lighting his cigarettes.

[HamishBoxer]

At the very birth of radio they used brass connectors etc as I do not think soldering irons were around.As a child in the 50's I used a fire iron and still have the scar where solder dropped on to my bare leg. Short trousers in those days.

[Boater Sam]

Yes, the original lead free construction with dozens of 6BA and 4BA knurled nuts, lovely job.
So just when did the all soldered sets appear?
1929 sets were all screwed as far as I know, but get to prewar sets and its solder.
My 1932/4 sets are a mixture of solder and rigid wire on nuts and bolts but the many repairs done over the years confuses the original construction methods.

[Oliver35]

I've got an old spirit-fired iron- it has a small mixer/burner at the end, and the distance of the bit from the flame is adjustable. When I'm home I'll take a photo.

Oliver

[kalee20]

Don't forget that within the components themselves there would often be soldered joints! Tinned copper wire soldered to the inside-end of those brass terminal studs, for example.

[trh01uk]

No idea what they were doing at the dawn of radio, but I did speak to someone who worked in a workshop at a country house during WWII. There was no electricity apart from the odd car battery. So they put their soldering "rods" into a coal fire.....

Richard

[Paul_RK]

A few illustrations from Harmsworth's Wireless Encyclopedia to show the art of soldering already established for radio purposes in 1925.

I'd missed that the very end of the article does mention the availability of electric soldering irons. "Soldering can be performed in a very quick and efficient manner by means of an electrically heated iron. This is simply a self-heated iron, the heat being obtained from a resistance coil. Its only disadvantage is that it is only available when current is at hand from the house supply or other service".

Paul

[Boater Sam]

Great Paul, thanks.
So electric irons in the 20s, I don't think they would have coped with lead free surface mounts somehow.
Love the idea of washing flux off with petrol, is this the original "Burning Bush" or why so many radio factories burnt down?

[Oliver35]

That's the self-heating iron I have! I've never fired it up, I was told it used meths, but that came from the antiques dealer who sold it (it was given to me as a gift) so may be taken with a largeish pinch of salt.

Vis a vis electric irons, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they turned out to be quite an early innovation, as heat generation was perhaps the second earliest use of electricity in the home, after light (effectively the same technique, anyhow). Electric kettles and toasters existed at the end of the C19th. I imagine the absence of suitable mains supplies was the primary indicator for non-electrical methods. Anyhow, enough rambling. Here's my iron;

Oliver

[Paul_RK]

Hello Oliver,

Yes, that does look like the very thing, 92 years old or thereabouts.

"A self-heating soldering iron is very convenient for many purposes, and a small but effective pattern of such an iron is illustrated in Fig.2, and is known as the Lamb.

It consists of a brass container with a screw cap on one end and an outlet tube on the other, the body of the container being wound with cord to provide a grip and to insulate the hand from the heat. The outlet tube finishes with a small nipple and Bunsen tube. Attached to the outer end is a brass plug, provided with a thumb screw in which is adjustably fixed a plain iron rod supporting the copper bolt, which in this case is set at right angles to the rod.

When not in use the burner and nipple are closed by means of a screw cap, shown in the foreground in Fig. 2. To use such an implement, the screw cap at the bottom of the container is unfastened and the container itself filled with petrol. This soaks into an absorbent material with which the container is fitted, and after shaking out any surplus petrol the screw cap is replaced tightly. The burner is then heated, after removing the safety cap, by holding the burner over a flame of a gas stove or other sufficient heat.

When it is warm the petrol issues from the cap in the form of a spray or gas, which, when mixed with the air in the burner tube, ignites and burns with a long, blue flame. This plays on the end of the bolt and speedily heats it up to a working temperature, and will maintain that temperature until the container is exhausted. The bolt can be removed from the container, and the latter used in conjunction with the burner as a small blow-lamp, with sufficient power for the silver soldering of small articles."

(Instructions reproduced solely for their historical interest, with absolutely no implied endorsement of their being put into practice!)

Paul

[Oliver35]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

(Instructions reproduced solely for their historical interest, with absolutely no implied endorsement of their being put into practice!)

Paul

Well, quite! Wouldn't dream of trying it out (although probably will one day, under suitably controlled conditions). I've used worse- I have an old acetylene bicycle lamp that is undoubtedly much more ferocious. The Lamb seems an odd brand name..

Oliver

[Paul_RK]

Perhaps from J. F. Lamb of Connecticut or E. H. Lamb of Santa Rosa, both of whom filed soldering-related patents in the 1920s.

Paul

[The Philpott]

Note the spelling of 'connexions'

Subtle changes like this are a great help in shewing when something was published..

[G4YVM David]

Not sure about the birth.of radio per se, but the birth of my radio was G Dobbs build a transistor radio book...all screwed together! My first soldering iron (by then i realised that my dads old lump designrd to be heated in the kitchen fire wasnt de rigeur any more) was a yellow Antex. It served very well indeed for twenty years or more. I also have a Weller heat gun which i bought 38 years ago and still going strong.

D

[The Philpott]

The one i use for most small jobs is a venerable yellow Antex 15. (Bought as 'new old stock') Even managed to get a new tip for it last month, which surprised me.