Description:

World War II



WWII ingenuity: A Hand-made Radio Built in Natal Brazil by a Navy Lieutenant & Electronics Expert from Recovered Airplane Parts, c. 1944



A hand-made radio, measuring 11" x 8" x 7" constructed from recovered parts from crashed airplanes by Navy Lieutenant (j.g.) F[rancis]. H. Yonker in Natal, Brazil c. 1944, with hand-lettered tuning dial bearing Yonker's "brand" name for the improvised device: "GOOK-BOX" adding the "manufacturer's" address: "INDUSTRIA BRASILIERA / CASA DE AVION / 32 ANDAR, QUARTO DE ART'S / NATAL, BRASIL." The bottom of the label bears the name of the maker: "F. H. YONKER." Scratches an peeled paint consistent with age, parts intact (but not determined if unit remains functional).

 

Francis H. Yonker (1920-2012) was a longtime electronics enthusiast (at age 9 when he installed a regenerative radio on his bicycle and a RCA Radiola III on his sled), who parlayed his skills to national defense during the Second World War serving as a naval officer specializing in radar and countermeasures. To this end he took courses at Bowdoin College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  During his tenure in the Navy, he attained the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade and for some time was stationed in Natal, Brazil, the site of an important U.S. Naval base and air station— as the city is the first landfall in the Americas when flying from Dakar in West Africa (according to the records of the U.S.S. Matagorda, he was in the region in November 1944).  Following the war, Yonker settled in State College, Pennsylvania where he taught radio and television at Penn State while also commanding the U.S. Naval Reserve company at the school which specialized in electronic warfare ("Radio Row," Antique Radio Classified, September 1998, Vol. 15, No. 9; The Daily Collegian, State College, Pennsylvania, September 30, 1947, p. 1).

 

It is possible the equipment was recovered from a U.S. Army Air Corps bomber which crashed at Natal shortly after takeoff on February 9, 1942 ("9 Die in U.S. Bomber Wrecked in Brazil" The New York Times, February 10, 1942, p. 11). 



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