A SMART SUSPENSION

Shock mounts, which protect microphones from mechanical vibrations, can take all sorts of forms, as this vintage device illustrates.

- MANDY J WATSON

THIS PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN IN 1948, IS OF A MICROPHONE FROM THE END OF THE 1920S and the early days of Czechoslovakian radio. Československý Rozhlas was established in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) on 18 May 1923 as Radiojournal, a private company. It initially broadcast from a tent borrowed from scouts that was set up on the outskirts of Prague and was the first continental European broadcaster. It just lost out on being the first European broadcaster as the BBC, in the UK,