Hi Ringkirk and ring readers,
Yup, an "antenna tuner" doesn't tune anything, rather it fools a solid state transmitter into thinking it's looking into a 50 ohm load for which it's designed resulting in maximum power transfer. The old "boat anchor" tube type transmitters employed a tunable pi network output circuit which would load anything from about 25 to 600 ohms. In any case a tuner does nothing for a receiver besides introduce signal loss and may severely attenuate signals outside it's range eg. the Amateur bands.
Now if you want to tune in shortwave more effectively you may use a preselector. These babies have tunable amplifiers (some with variable gain) that "pre select" a somewhat narrow range of frequencies and amplify them a bit while tuning out everything else. I don't need to go into more detail, you can see the obvious advantages.
K.R., early radio antennas, most notably those for crystal sets used "lead in" wires which were simply insulated wires that connected the bare antenna wire to the antenna input terminal of the radio. As you can see it's simply a radio term, later twinlead was commonly referred to as TV lead in wire because it leads in the signal. When you work behind the counter you have to tactfully talk down to non technical people in such a way that they understand and don't think you're calling them idiots. At Rat Shack the situation is often reversed or equally idiotic and comically chaotic.
Historical note;
In the early days of Amateur wireless nothing was known about SWR and antennas were random length wires for the most part so the tuning unit was simply adjusted for maximum antenna current. Often a light bulb was used during initial adjustments and when it reached maximum brightness it was shunted out of circuit. Coax? Never heard of the stuff, transmission line was paralell open wire strung up the wall and across the ceiling much like the knob and tube electrical wiring of the day. Ladder line? Well, sort of but not quite, check out some really old houses, Edison's labs or pay attention to wires on ceramic insulators leading to surface mounted light switches in old WW2 movies. That's how they wired castles along the Rhine, you can't wire inside stone walls. (;->)
Hysterical note;
What is "impediance"? (;->)