GIBSON GIRL

“Gibson Girl,”
a radio transmitter that could send signals over some two hundred miles.

Untitled Slide

• The gibson girl was a hand crank 500
• khz rescue radio.
• It used two vacuum tubes and was
• crystal controlled.

BULKY AND AWKWARD

• Mounted in a bulky weatherproof case
• Weighed 50 pounds
• Umbrella top had unstable construction
• 165 feet of steel wire transmitter kite

An interesting feature of the British dinghy transmitter was the aerial was supported by a box kite which was launched into the air by means of a rocket fired from a Verey pistol. The kite, folded up and contained in a case, is drawn up by the rocket, and when it reaches its height deter- mined by the length of attached line (200 feet) it is stripped of its case and opens automatically.

In a wind of 6 mph or over it will remain aloft. The ae- rial wire was then at- tached to the line and the kite allowed to rise, car- rying the aerial to the requisite height of 208feet. The ae- rial wire is then connected to the kite line and paid out by unreeling the winch handle.

Radio Age’ ran a story on the ‘Gibson Girl’ in 1984 which reprinted a wartime advertising picture showing airmen in a life raft using the set. Its’ caption was ‘From our laborato- ries come weapons that will spell disaster to [the] Axis’. Note there’s an ironic state- ment, considering where the original design came from!