Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
Venus, Richard
Title
Powering the mantle of safety
In
19th Australasian engineering heritage conference: putting water to work: steam power, river navigation and water supply
Editors
Engineers Australia and Engineering Heritage Australia
Imprint
Engineering Heritage Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 2017, pp. 478-501
ISBN/ISSN
9781922107923
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.385378502568813
Subject
Chronological Classification 1901- Applied Sciences Engineering and Technology
Description

The pedal radio in outback Australia.

Abstract

The pedal radio was crucial to realising the Reverend John Flynn's vision of a "Mantle of Safety" across the Outback. Radio communication would connect all the parts of the scheme together and, once Alf Traeger's sets were available, his aerial medical service was able to achieve its full potential.

At the heart of this story was the introduction of Flynn to Traeger by Adelaide radio pioneer, Harry Kauper. Although he did not design the original radio circuit (this had been done by Kauper), Traeger's particular contribution was to build and continually refine the pedal-operated power supply. The whole apparatus became the icon of Australia known as the Pedal Radio. It developed from the clever use of two modes of communication: simple Morse code sent from low-powered homestead sets and voice (telephony) responses from higher-powered base stations. Traeger also put a significant amount of effort into designing and building sets which people with no technical knowledge could use and which were robust and reliable. This made radio communication a practical and affordable feature of Outback life - and not just for calling for help in emergencies.

Source
cohn 2018

Related Published resources

isPartOf

  • 19th Australasian engineering heritage conference: putting water to work: steam power, river navigation and water supply edited by Engineers Australia and Engineering Heritage Australia (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Engineers Australia, 2017), 536 pp. Details

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