The Johnson Smith Catalog
Any kid from the 1960s remembers the Johnson Smith catalog. It was packed with "novelties" such as:
this item:
https://archive.org/download/CBSRadioWorkshop/CBSrw_57-02-17_ep55-Space_Merchants_Part_1.mp3
https://archive.org/download/CBSRadioWorkshop/CBSrw_57-02-24_ep56-Space_Merchants_Part_2.mp3
There are Johnson Smith catalogs from the 1950s
https://archive.org/details/novelties-johnson-smith-and-co-1951-catalog
and the 1970s
https://archive.org/details/JohnsonSmithsFunCatalog7921979
on archive.org but unfortunately nothing from the 1960s. The 1951 catalog has more hobby stuff than the 1979 catalog - I guess the lesson learned by Johnson Smith was to specialize in silly.
As a young person interested in radio I denied my inclination towards purchasing fake puke and purchased this crystal radio instead:
I'm not sure what it cost, the earphone and the ground and antenna clip leads are all long gone but I suspect it would still work if I figured out how to hook it up. It is a crystal radio, permeability tuned which must have relied on the parasitic capacitance of the coil to resonate.
The cool thing (OK, the cheap thing) about the coil is that it doesn't have a threaded shaft, the ferrite core is pushed and pulled into and out of the coil to tune the station. It relies on that little spring clip to hold the adjustment.
Pull up on the metal ball and the spring slides along the shaft hitting the case. Push down on the metal ball and the spring hits the top of the cardboard tube. Since there is a pretty close fit there isn't much play in the adjustment. Neat.
Not sure why I put the tape on the coil or what I did with that catalog :)
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm