Stratton & Company Limited of Birmingham, UK, produced a series of high stability communications receivers at their Eddystone Works. The Model S880, built in 1960, was one of the last vacuum-tube based models produced at this factory. Later models were mostly transistor based. The Model S880 operated over the frequency range from 500 kHz to 30.5 MHz in thirty, equal, switched ranges. This unit, which is housed in a ~50 cm square chassis that is 24 cm high, was purchased in 1960 by Dr. W.B. Lewis, the Scientific Director of the Chalk River Laboratories, for his home usage. Dr. Lewis, who had an electronics background, was not fully satisfied with the degree of sensitivity of the lowest range (0.5 MHz – 1.5 MHz). In a letter donated with the unit, he interacted with the engineers at the factory to alter the circuits so as improve the sensitivity in that range of the spectrum.
