Using a pedal wireless transmitter

Educational value

• This asset shows a pedal wireless transmitter, which was a vital tool of the Royal Flying Doctor Service - the Service was founded in 1928 in the outback by a Presbyterian minister, the Very Reverend John Flynn of the Australian Inland Mission; it is responsible for flying to urgent cases, giving first aid, transporting patients to hospital, giving advice by radio, and flying a regular clinic circuit to areas without doctors.
• It illustrates the use of a portable pedal-operated wireless - in 1929, there was no regular source of electricity in the outback, telephone links existed only near larger towns and radio communication was practically unknown; to solve the problems of communication, Flynn asked Alfred Traeger (1895-1980), an electrical engineer from Adelaide, to design a transceiver that would generate its own power though pedals.
• It shows a person using a Morse key, where today a microphone would be used - to use these early transmitters, the operator needed to know the code of dots and dashes invented in 1835 by American inventor Samuel Morse (1791-1872); these dots and dashes were produced by pulses of electricity, which could be transmitted clearly over great distances.
• It shows how bulky and unwieldy Traeger's transmitters were - they retailed initially for £33, were adapted from a pedal electrical generator used in the First World War and were still being used widely through the 1940s.
• It is an example of a photograph that has been turned into a lantern slide to be used in lectures about the Australian Inland Mission - Flynn documented many aspects of life in the outback through his photographs; the lectures were given to inform people of the work of the Mission and, ultimately, to solicit support and finance.

Year level

1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12

Topics Australian history Central tendency Electricity Air ambulances Generators Telegraphy