The Owlvark, who, after copious amounts of tea and sleep is feeling much better today, has been tinkering away on the old Philco radio, and it's quite fascinating to watch. My knowledge of electronics is limited- I can make LED's light up with some wire and a battery, but that's about it- but he's good at explaining things, so I'm learning a little about how it works. Currently he's replacing the old capacitors with newer models, which are about an eighth of the size. He took apart a couple of the old capacitors, and they appear to be just rolls of paper and foil, which apparently worked perfectly well for many years, and is kind of amazing when you think about it. The first idea was to save the old capacitors and hollow them out and use them to disguise the new ones, but they're in such bad shape (the wax is degrading and they're very dirty and delicate) that it doesn't seem worth the trouble. Still, he says that once he's finished it should work just fine, which I am quite excited about. I worked hard on refinishing the case (although I have to do some more work on the veneer; the bits that didn't need fixing when I worked on it last now need some attention) and it'll be so nice to see it back in working order. They just don't make 'em as aesthetically pleasing as they used to.