Name/Title
Cased display of two Brighton Borough Police pocket radios showing internal construction of one. Radios from 1933Entry/Object ID
11Description
Cased display of two Brighton Borough Police pocket radios and typed display panel, in a dark wooden glass fronted wall hung cabinet 69cm x 49cm. One radio set comprises a bakelite box containing receiver and battery space, connected by cloth covered cable to a bakelite and aluminium earpiece. The other consists of an ear piece without parts of its outer covering to show the working's inside, together with the electrical components that would normally be houses inside the larger bakelite box. The adjacent type written explanation panel is titled "Brighton Police Pocket Wireless Set".Use
To demonstrate the internal construction of the 1933 Brighton Borough Police pocket radios.Context
In the 1920s and 1930s various British police forces began experimenting with wireless communications. To begin with these were restricted to vehicles because of the size of the equipment required. In the 1930s the Chief Constable of Brighton, Charles Griffin became interested in the possibility of a device that could be carried by an officer on foot patrol. An officer with an interest in radio managed to produce a working but bulky prototype. This work was continued by a local resident and amateur radio engineer, Colin Begbie, who designed the model shown here. A transmitter was installed at Brighton Town Hall in 1932 and a "Wireless Room" set up on the top floor, next to the caretaker's quarters. The Brighton Police call sign was "GTN", and in 1933, the Borough Force purchased 30 of these pocket sets and spare batteries, at a cost of £443 10 shillings, equivalent to over £32,000 in 2021. Brighton became the first police force in the UK, if not the world, to use pocket radios on 14th September 1933 when the system went into general use.
This type of radio only receives transmissions, it cannot send them. When a radio transmission was made from Police HQ, a bell would ring in the earpiece, which was carried in one pocket, with the receiver box in another. or in a satchel. The officer would take out the earpiece and push a button, which would allow a voice transmission to be heard. It was possible for the general public to hear these messages on home radios, so messages were either passed in code, or an officer, or all officers, instructed to contact police HQ on a police telephone, for further information and instructions. The code consisted of words such as "monk" for murder, "hoax" for housebreaking, "brick" for burglary and "frog" for fraud. To instruct all officers to report to a police box the message "GTN box" was transmitted. To instruct a specific officer to contact HQ, say Constable number 24, the message, "GTN 24 box", would be transmitted.
Most of these radios were issued to specific police boxes, small brick or wooden kiosk type offices, located around Brighton, for the use of foot patrol officers on specific beats, though two were allocated to motor cycle patrols. This particular set numbered "15" was issued to Box 15 situated at Lewes Road Arches. Most radio numbers did not match a particular box or beat number, 15 appears to be an exception. These radios used rechargeable "accumulator" batteries which were collected and deposited at boxes every day.
Despite their limitations these radios were successful and in daily use until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, when the wavelength they used was discontinued. They were in use in Brighton at a time when most UK police officers had to rely on fixed telephones for receiving messages and were in many ways well ahead of their time.
It is not known when this cased display was put together but it does not appear to have been exhibited at the 1946 Police Exhibition in Brighton, as it is not in the list of exhibits. There is though a picture of the case with other items of communications equipment at the 1970 Sussex Constabulary Exhibition in Brighton. It may be that the case was put together specifically for that exhibition.