More from the same house I found the radios a couple of weeks ago!  Here we have a classic Heathkit Shortwave Receiver, A Heathkit SWR meter (used for measuring antenna efficiency on transmitters) an RCA RadioPhone transmitter and a Timex Sinclair 1500.  My first computer was a TS-1000, the 1500 is basically the same machine with a chiklet style keyboard.

I wonder what the story is here?  Likely its a little sad, someone is finally getting around to clearing out 'Dad's' old hobby junk.

Found this pair of brass lanterns on my way to work yesterday - I used the old "shoelace tie" trick to carry them with me on my bike.

It absolutely kills me how many of these I have in my collection - close to 20 now, I think.  Invariably they are complete, functional, and merely tarnished.  Has no one ever heard of Brasso?!

On my way to work yesterday morning I spotted these in a box at the roadside waiting for collection.  There were a half dozen similar radios but since I was on the bike I could only carry a couple so I grabbed the best of the bunch.

On the right is an Admiral Model 4B22 and on the left is an Akkord Offenbach 51 short/medium wave radio.  Both are battery or mains powered and seem to be intact. 

This weeks visit to the town's transfer station netted some nice brass bits that I think will find their way onto the car project and another old typewriter.

As of late last year we were banned from pulling items for our town dump's metal and wood recycling bins.  The stated reason was 'public safety' but it was fairly clear from the expressions on the faces of a few of our town's selectmen during the discussion that the whole idea of 'taking things from the garbage' was abhorrent to them.

One of them related the story of seeing some folks remove a 'soiled mattress' from one of the dumpsters.  He feared that the town could be held liable for 'disease' if this form of reuse were allowed to continue.

While we generally love and respect the Victorians and their technology here at the Steampunk Workshop, we do think that our public officials need to have a more modern understanding of epidemiology.