A Mechanical Radio, Sort Of

[The Mike Stuff] has an interesting proposition. He asserts that ancient people like the Greeks could have built a form of radio that was purely mechanical. We aren’t sure we ….

We aren’t sure we agree, but even if it were possible, we are sure it would have sounded awful. The idea is that you can compress air with a waterwheel, blow it through a rotating disk with slots in it, and a valve to amplitude modulate the airflow through the disk. Horns like an old gramophone speaker would amplify the signal at both ends.

The demodulation is straightforward and doesn’t even require power, like compressed air. This is a fun idea, but even [Mike] notes it wouldn’t be very good. On the other hand, this would be pretty easy to build if you wanted to test it.