How Britain found its frequency

When radios first appeared in British homes in the early 20th century, one thing soon became clear: domestic life would never be the same again. Beaty Rubens tracks Britons' reaction to this extraordinary new technology via seven cartoons

- Beaty Rubens

Radio silence

This double cartoon from 1923 laments the impact of the wireless on the art of conversation

Listening to the radio today is so familiar an occupation that we easily forget it was once a new technology. Like most new technologies, early radio stirred massive public excitement but also fear about its disruptive potential. What exactly was radio - or 'wireless', as it was then called? Who was it for? Where would it happen? As the first ever form of home-based mass entertainment, anxieties ran particularly high about radio's impact on the cherished traditions of domestic life.

How, for example, might it affect conversation? Cartoons offer us a fascinating insight into how interwar Britons addressed questions like these. In the first panel of this before-and-after cartoon from 1923, guests at a Victorian dinner-party are engaged in animated conversation. In the second, each of them is isolated in their own world, all interaction stifled as they listen to the radio. In the early days, problems with amplification meant that almost all listening was through headphones, making them the must-have accessory of the 1920s, just as they are again today. Even the butler is wearing a set, on the verge of catastrophe as he stretches the wires to their full extent whilst carrying out his duties.

These images represent a wealthy fictional gathering, but real-life versions were soon playing out in homes across the country. Radio uptake was sensationally swift: when broadcasting began in 1922, just 150,000 people were able to listen; by 1939 the number had risen to 34 million.