I found this at an estate sale today (wrapped in old newspapers in the basement). The people running the sale marked it as a "radio coil" and priced it at $15. It looks to me to be a loose coupler with a crystal detector, but this goes way back farther than what I normally collect and any historical info. would be appreciated from all you wireless people out there. Thanks.

Yep, you're exactly right, it's a loose coupler.
Are there any markings, names on it? Check bottom.
Any markings, names you can show will help.
Be very careful what you do to it, don't try to
clean it, you'll likely ruin it.
Very nice piece, are you interested in selling it?

I wonder what those sliders holding the ball contacts are made of...If plastic, would they be original?

One of the coil sliders (whatever material it's made out of) has a patent date on it of FEB. 1, 1910. Not that that means it was made back then, but chances are it's very old, and quite possibly original to the set.

Check this out. Here's a picture of a similar loose coupler on this website: http://www.radioblvd.com/DoddStation.html

See the similarities? One of the coil sliders in the OP's picture above says, "E.I. Co. N.Y.". That stands for "Electro Importing Company". Something I learned on the above website.




Here is a picture of the Rasco crystal detector, from the Crystal Radio Museum website:

FWIW The controls on my William B Duck loose coupler from 1917 are made of hard rubber. Looks more like bakelite than rubber.

John

Very nice. I'm sure I could find that tuner in one of my EI catalogs but it's around 1914, give or take, although Gernsback might have continued selling them for several years. Rasco is I believe Radio Specialty Co. and would be early 1920s, probably added by the owner. Don't remove it however. The slide contacts are probably molded shellac compound and may be brittle so I would move them around much.

Rasco Radio Parts #17 1927 P.70

Steve Rosenfeld asked me to resize and post this, from E.I. Co. catalog 11.

Yes, that looks like it! I didn't realize that it was that old. I did find some information on the Rasco detector in a crystal set book and it was advertised as the world's smallest (it IS really small). I will leave the detector in place. Thanks for the very useful and helpful information! The most amazing thing about this is that there are STILL treasures hidden away in basements - it just may take years and years for them to be uncovered. I have only had two loose couplers in many decades of collecting - they must be pretty scarce. The other one that I have is HUGE with probably one of the largest crystal detectors I've seen. It was called (so I've been told) a "watchmaker's" set for some reason that I don't know. It has the brand name "Ezra F. Bowman Wireless Instruments" on it. I will try to post a picture soon. Thanks again for the info.!

Yep, there it is. Thank you Mr. Douglas.

[quote="artdecoradios"]It was called (so I've been told) a "watchmaker's" set for some reason that I don't know. It has the brand name "Ezra F. Bowman Wireless Instruments" on it. I will try to post a picture soon. Thanks again for the info.![/quote]

It was called a "watchmakers set" because watch makers used
them to receive the NAA time signals so they could set their
clock.
Here's a photo of a Ezra F. Bowman time receiver.

That's it! That's the set. Thanks for posting the picture!