As Bev Parker carefully polishes the rare wireless radio he feels he has a lot to thank Harry Stevens for.

Stevens was the man who convinced Wolverhampton manufacturers AJS to turn their attention from motorcycles to radios.

Now Bev has managed to get his hands on an AJS Type F pedestal, which is being loaned to the Black Country Living Museum, at Dudley.

In the early 1920s, AJS was going from strength to strength and they were expanding their Graiseley Hill and Lower Walsall Street factories. Stevens, the company’s leading designer and inventive genius, had been an amateur radio enthusiast since before the First World War.

Bev, a Wolverhampton historian and wireless renovator, says: “Harry had a large mast and aerial in his back garden at 25 Oaklands Road, and made frequent transmissions to fellow enthusiasts.

“During the war, private use of radio transmitters and receivers was banned. Afterwards, components and valves soon became readily available, and it took him two years to build his radio station.”

Bev says Harry’s call sign was 5SY and he joined the committee of the Wolverhampton and District Wireless Society, which was created on March 1, 1922, in a room in King Street.

“By 1922 commercial radio had taken off in America and early in that year the BBC was formed and regular broadcasts began before the year ended,” says Bev, aged 63, who lives in Penn.

“Harry envisaged a large new market for wireless receivers and so he pressurised the AJS board into agreeing to manufacture wireless radios.”

New buildings were added at Lower Walsall Street for wireless manufacture, and it became known as AJS Wireless and Scientific Instruments.

“Harry soon designed a four valve TRF receiver and four models were launched in 1923, all aimed at the top end of the market,” says Bev, who is helping the museum set up a 1930s wireless shop.

“The cheapest model, the Sloping Panel, sold for £30 17s 6d and the top of the range model, the Pedestal, sold for £75.”

A mainly female workforce was employed, as they were more suitable than men for the delicate, repetitive work, and were cheaper to employ.

Despite the increase in competition from abroad, following the scrapping of BBC wireless manufacturing licences, AJS wireless receivers proved popular all over the world. Dealers in Australia, New Zealand, India, Siam (now Thailand) and South Africa as well as London sold the wireless radios and they gained a reputation for quality and reliability.

In 1925, the number of models increased to 10. But AJS struggled to keep up with the developments in radios and ceased production in 1928.

AJS sold the business for just £15,375. Today, a rare model can cost £2,000.