52-Set Receiver Data Plates
An interesting bit of 52-Set information made a surprise arrival this week.
I had asked a friend in Edmonton to document the data plates on his 52-Set for me whenever he had a chance, so I could pass the information on to Jacques Fortin, in Quebec, who is assembling a database of known surviving 52-Set components. The set in question was on a pallet on a high shelf in his shop with an array of M20 parts in front of it.
A forklift finally brought the 52-Set down to earth and photos of the data plates were received and sent on to Jacques.
The big surprise was the data plate on the Main Set Receiver, photo attached.
Not only is it unlike any other 52-Set data plate I have ever seen, the serial number is unlike any other 52-Set serial number I have run across. The composition of the plate is thin Bakelite, with the white lettering painted on the Bakelite. It is completely devoid of any references to Canadian Marconi and it’s part-numbering system, and it is not the normal four-digit number between 5000 and 9000 that one would expect.
My first thought was the plate was a fake, so I asked my friend to pull the receiver out of its Carrier No. 4 and check to see if a Mod Card was located in it, to see what it had to tell us. Indeed there was. Notice the second photo. The modifications to this set were not done until 1964. The modifications performed have been in existence since November 1945, when Modification 1 came into being: The Installation of the Modification Card Holder inside the component.
So my thoughts are that this 52-Set Receiver was build around the same time as all the other 52-Set pieces known so far, 1944, boxed up and stored somewhere in the Army Supply System, until it was put into service in 1964. When requisitioned in 1964, it was unpacked and the modifications needed were performed and the receiver delivered to whatever unit needed it. With this data plate in place from the start.
The other pieces of information my friend has about the history of the set are that he purchased it directly from the Crown Assets facilities in Edmonton when it was surplussed out and that the paperwork he got from Crown Assets confirm all the components he has were the complete set Crown Assets sold as a single unit.
Bakelite seems a very fragile medium to make a data plate out of, especially when it is thin. And the serial number looks very odd. It is almost like it identified this receiver as the 25th out of an unknown number built for an Order or Contract Number 4075.
I now wonder how many other 52-Set components are out there with similar Bakelite data plates. I cannot recall thin Bakelite ever being used for data plate material on anything before now. and why such a vague and fragile plate?
David
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