[David Dunlop]

This amazing piece of equipment arrived safe and sound in this mornings Post, complete with its cotton bag of mounting hardware. Its a heck of a lot larger and heavier that I expected. I have only ever seen photographs of one in various wireless manuals over the years with absolutely no reference of scale to go by.

A number of interesting questions have arisen since its arrival, however.

I know production of this item did not start in Canada until sometime in 1941 and it was probably a direct copy of the British version. I have only ever seen phots of Canadian ones made by RCA Canada Limited and either bearing no date, or any of 1942 to 1944. This one is dated 1944, which ties in nicely with my 52-Set, but it was manufactured by Rogers Majestic Limited, which I believe was based in Montreal. It shows a Product Code of “R M SA 3897” and a Serial Number “C253”. So the first question is whether Rogers Majestic was brought onboard to augment the production of these switchboards, or did they take over completely from RCA Canada to allow them to focus on other wartime production?

Second puzzle is this switchboard is identified as:

SW/BD CHARGING NO5C MK I

I never knew a Mk I ever existed until now and am now wondering what exactly changed in the design to warrant the Mk I status?

The other interesting bits are a 1/4-inch C-Broad Arrow stamp and possible part number stamp for the wooden frame on the lower right mounting post and the larger 3/4-inch C-BroadArrow stamp on the centre bottom of the wooden frame.

There is the remains of a piece of tape that was once over the ID info for the two Charger No. 2 terminals on the lower right and the panel markings areall stencils in either white or yellow paint. The yellow seems to focus on the four main switches, the rest being white.

Lastly, the cotton bag for the mounting hardware was made by The Canadian Bag Company Limited in Montreal.


David