Consuming Interest

The Portable Box

By LESLIE ADRIAN

1 was lunching in a restaurant when the first reports from Baghdad were coming through. Just before the 1.30 news headlines, an American at the next table produced a small Zenith set from his jacket pocket and switched it on. It was no bigger than a box of 200 cigarettes, yet the repro- duction was perfect and the volume so great it had to be turned down.

Several of these sets, of similar size, are now being made in this country. The transistor valves, by which they operate, were invented before the war, but it is only in the past two years that they have been developed in the field of miniature radios and deaf aids.

The transistor is much less fragile than the old type of valve and needs considerably less electrical power. The smallest portables normally have five transistors and can be run for several months from two pen-sized torch batteries. Large-scale produc- tion has not been going on long enough to estimate the average life of a transistor in a portable radio, but a man in the trade tells me that it is believed to be considerably longer than that of the old valve and, in any case, replacement is cheaper. A new transistor costs around 12s. compared with approximately 21s. for a valve.

Pye, once more, are leaders in the field and have already brought out a transistor three-speed record player, a car radio and two types of port- able. The player, which runs from five ordinary torch cells, costs 26 guineas; the car radio, which does not need a convertor and runs direct from the car battery, 194 guineas. Pye, Kolster-Brands and Ekco each make what seem to me to be good, general-purpose sets, all measuring approximately 7 X 9 x 31 inches. The Pye, at 231 guineas, has a 7 X 4-inch speaker : the 22-guinea Ekco, a 5-inch speaker. The Pye, with gilt and green `suedeen,' loses marks for appearance and is not so well-designed as the box-type fabric-covered Ekco. The KB 'Rhapsody,' with 5-inch speaker and costing 23 guineas, has a very conventional plastic case.

But the miniatures are obviously going to be the fashionable gimmick. The Pye pocket portable measures only 4 x 7 x 11 inches and costs 18 guineas. Perdio Ltd. now make a miniature at 13 guineas, and the German Telefunken model `Akkord' is on sale here at £28. None of these, I regret, is of the same standard as the American 'Zenith.' It costs about 80 dollars, and 1 am told you can get it on the Continent.

One associates the firm of Porosan with fruit- bottling kit and kitchen foil. This enterprising concern have now brought out an ingenious new curtain rod which will fit across any space. It consists of a hollow aluminium rod with a rubber cushion cap on one end. Into the rod goes a spring and then a second rod of a fraction smaller diameter than the first. This second rod also has a rubber cap on the exposed end. The result is a rod which, because of the spring, can be con- tracted or expanded to fit. The rubber suction caps hold it firmly enough to take the heaviest curtains or a row of coats. Used vertically, a row of the rods makes an effective room divider, and I have seen one used to hold plants as an upright from desk to ceiling.

The rods cost 4s. 6d. for 1 ft. 6 in.-2 ft., and up to 1 Is. for 5-6 ft. They will be in the hardware stores next week.

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Cyril' Ray writes :

At this time of the year, the problem is often to find a modest red wine that is really light- bodied. The weather is too warm for so full a wine as burgundy; the occasion may not be grand enough for a really fine claret, the dish such that a white wine would he mawkish.

One answer is a yin rosé, chilled. The best is Tavel, which is becoming, to my mind, rather dear. The others vary, but are worth experi- menting with. Laytons, in Duke Street, Manchester Square, have a good little selection, from Spain and Portugal as well as from France, some at less than 7s. 6d., and as they sell wine by the glass in the wine bar, it is easy to make a choice.

Beaujolais, drunk young, is much lighter than its neighbours from Burgundy. Here, too, quality

varies. Harvey, have what I think is the best list in London of the rare, unblended Beaujolais, each with a commune name, such as Fleurie or Morgon, at between ten and thirteen shillings a bottle.

The Italians chill their Valpolicella, from Lake Garda, treating it as a rosé. There is a good deal about, and I can recommend the one sold at about eight shillings at all the retail shops—among others—that stock the wines shipped by Gilbeys, such as Hunters in Berkeley Street, and the chain of Foster and Co.'s shops, in Victoria Street and a number of London suburbs.