Donald and Morag MacLean listening to a crystal set
Photograph of Donald and Morag MacLean listening to a crystal set in 1920.
Courtesy of Mrs Flora MacKinnon
Donald and Morag MacLean from Balevullin are listening with headphones to a crystal set at their uncle’s house on Paisley Road West in Glasgow in 1920. The set, which can be seen on the chest of drawers behind them, is the simplest type of radio receiver in existence. Requiring no external power, such apparatus was in widespread use in the early days of radio.
The set consisted of an aerial attached to a coil of wire, a crystal fixed in a brass cup and the ‘cat’s whisker’, a thin wire which the operator touched to various points on the surface of the crystal to find the loudest signal.
Because there was no electrical amplification, earphones were required and there was no way to control the audio volume. Different stations could be found by moving a slider along the coil, but in the 1920s the choice was very limited.
Black and white photograph of Donald and Morag MacLean in 1920.
Donald and Morag MacLean listening to a crystal radio set in 1920.
Photograph of Hector MacPhail at An Iodhlann’s first exhibition in 1997.
Hector MacPhail of Ruaig demonstrates the use of a cheese vat to Willie Walker, Archie MacArthur, Kilkenneth and Gaelic teacher Margaret MacKay at An Iodhlann’s first exhibition in 1997 in the old Reading Room in Scarinish.
Purchased by the Tiree and Coll Gaelic Partnership and renamed ‘An Iodhlann’, the building houses a growing collection of artefacts and records relating to the history, prehistory, natural history and culture of the islands of Tiree and Coll.
Hector, until his untimely death in 2000, was An Iodhlann’s resident historian. He recorded oral histories in Gaelic, gave public talks on local subjects and researched the histories of thirteen Tiree townships.
Black and white photograph of Hector MacPhail and visitors at An Iodhlann`s 1997 exhibition.
Exhibition at An Iodhlann in 1997. L-R: Hector MacPhail, Skipinnis, Ruaig; Willie Walker, Crossapol; Archie MacArthur Kilkenneth, Kilkenneth; Gaelic teacher Margaret MacKay, Heylipol.
Photograph of WAAFs on the steamer ‘Lochearn’ in 1945.
Courtesy of Mrs Jean Inglis
The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was created in 1939. Although WAAFs did not serve as aircrew, they played a vital role in transport, communications, meteorology, aircraft control and intelligence.
The group of WAAFs in this photo were leaving Tiree on the steamer ‘Lochearn’. Jean Inglis née Davies from Edinburgh (back row, extreme right) spent two years underground at 18 Group HQ, Coastal Command at Rosyth before being posted to Tiree in May 1945.
Jean was a wireless operator and, with her team, made contact with aircraft in the area, on one occasion helping to guide a damaged plane to a safe landing on the island.
Black and white photograph of WAAFs on `Lochearn` during WWII.
WAAFs on the `Lochearn` during WWII. L-R: (back) Joy Pearce, London; Nan Hogarth, Whitby; unknown; Jean Inglis nee Davies, Edinburgh; (front) Flora Semple, Aberdeen; Marjorie Pollard, Burnley; Jean Hind, England. Jean Inglis spent two years underground at 18 Group HQ, Coastal Command at Rosyth before being posted to Tiree on 27/5/1945. LACW (leading aircraft woman) Jean Hind was a Wireless Operator who met Wing Commander Bryn Lewis while both serving on Tiree on 8 July 1944). They married on 9 July 1950. Nan Hogarth was also a LACW Wireless Operator.
Photograph of whalebone post sockets from the broch at Vaul.
Courtesy of Mr Nicholas Redman
These whale vertebrae, photographed by Nicholas Redman in 2003, are two of the four excavated from Dùn Mòr at Vaul by Dr. Euan Mackie in the early 1960s and now stored at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.
The vertebrae were positioned two on each side of the rectangular hearth set in the centre of the floor of the broch. They had been perforated in the middle and doubtless used as post sockets. The best preserved vertebrae would have held an 8 cm thick post.
Situated too close to the hearth to be roof supports, the posts were probably used to support some sort of roasting spit or a frame for a cooking cauldron.
Three black and white photographs of whale vertebrae from Dun Mor, Vaul.
Whalebone post sockets excavated from Dun Mor, Vaul, by Dr Euan MacKie in the 1960s and now stored at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. (2 photographs not displayed in Filing Cabinet 8 drawer 2)
