 The 32-volt system could also power other specially made appliances as well as electric lights around the farm.Other farm radios, especially from the late 1930s to the 1950s, reverted to using a large "A-B" dry cell that provided both 90 volts for the tube plates and 1.5 volts for the tube filaments, as did most tube-based portable radios of that era.World War 2 created widespread urgent need for radio communication, and foxhole sets were built by people without access to traditional radio parts.