A mate has taken to repairing and refurbishing old valve radios and amplifiers to keep his mind active in retirement. He recently bought a Murphy radio and complained about the Magic Eye being missing. I'm not certain I'd ever heard of one before although I do have a vague memory of a sort of greenish-yellow light on the front of a radio.
The Magic eye wasn't missing, it was laying in the bottom of the case, and he tells me after fitting new valves and capacitors it works very well.
My granddad worked in a small shop in Watford repairing TVs and radios from the late 40s until he sort of retired at the age of 70 in 1970. I've absolutely no idea how he learnt how to do it, he was a carpenter at Scammell Lorries until the shop owner head-hunted him to change careers.
He supplied all our TVs and radios until he retired, including an old, possibly HMV, valve radio we had for some years.
I was a bit disconcerted on visiting the Science Museum in the very early 60s to see an identical model on display. We were still using ours.
Although I don't remember it - I was very young - apparently the first TV I ever saw, Granddad made. I was told that in typical Granddad style he never finished it to put in a case - it took up three to four feet of the top of the sideboard.