Tintin Forums

A question regarding The Calculus Affair: why does it take so long for the radio to function on p. 23 ?

It is plugged in at the mid-point of the page, but only emits sound in the final frame.

Was this normal for a 1950s wireless set - did it need time to "power up"?

Or is this another case of adjusting the working or function of a prop to suit the needs of the narrative ?

Well, the radio, when we see it on page 24, appears to be a fairly large cabinet radio, and typically of the period that would contain valves. It wasn't so much that they had to "power up" (although radios did usually have capacitors, and these did need to charge up if exhausted), so much as the valves had to warm up. Once this happened, the radio would start playing, and I imagine this is what happened here.

Another possibility is that the radio was suffering from a fault which it would then share with a similar ancient set which was in the senior year's common room when I was at school: it just came on randomly.
The only way for it to be left safely was unplugged. Unfortunately for us, if left plugged in, the radio not only came on of its own accord, but also at full volume - inevitably leading to questions from a teacher if there was some innocent soul in the room at the time...
Perhaps this was a common flaw in old valve radios, but I don't know...

Speaking of that radio! For the longest time I thought it was just some baddie monologuing to himself. I didn't realize it was a radio play or something. (Or am I still wrong?)