Interchangability of Military Tools

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

FIRST POST SUBTITLE: Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian Tool Box Items
...

The Boxes, Tools, although identified as intended for the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian specifically, at this point in time seems to be the odd man out.

Of the three mentioned boxes, the Boxes Tools is by far the least known today. I can find examples of the other two scattered across Canada, the UK and NW Europe. To date, I have found nobody who has, or has seen a 52-Set Boxes Tools. That has always struck me as being a bit odd. Just recently, a friend in Quebec informed me that back in the 1980’s, he visited a large storage facility for 52-Set equipment full of everything related to the set, but the Boxes Tools were completely absent. That struck him as very odd back then.

When I first had a look at the list of tools that came with the Boxes Tools, it seemed like a logical list of items for maintenance of a wireless set. The fact that all the part numbers for the tools were Canadian Marconi Company part numbers simply played into the overall idea of the tools being wireless/electronics related. Even more so with the presence of a DC soldering iron and a spool of solder being in the list. And then I found a photograph of the items actually in the tool box. I was initially drawn to the soldering iron and the hydrometer case, but then started looking more closely at the rest of the tools. What then struck me was how similar they all seemed to be to things you would find in a CMP tool box, or any other vehicle tool box for that matter. At that point, the only thing odd about them was their CMC part numbers.

I am now trying to assemble the available pieces of this puzzle regarding how few Boxes Tools for the 52-Set have survived today and the help of the MLU Forum members at large, particularly MV members and current or past military members who worked with tools and are familiar with military supply chains and thought processes.

First question is whether or not the bulk of the tools listed and shown in the posted attachments are a match for vehicular or other tools in the military system?

Second question is whether or not the past, or present military, ever used wooden tool boxes for any equipment tools, other than wireless sets?

The last two questions assume the tools in question test positive as being vehicular, or capable of servicing other military equipment.

Third question is would the military have taken advantage of a large supply of unused 52-Set tool kits, pulled said kits from storage years ago and reassigned them as complete tool sets to other functions wooden boxes and all?

Fourth question is would the wooden boxes have been deemed not worth keeping, but the tools themselves recycled into the supply system for other purposes and the boxes simply tossed out?

And final question for the moment is whether or not anyone has ever run across tools with a Canadian Marconi Company, CMC Part Number stamped into them?

My suspicion is that the "Box, Tools, Wireless Set No.52" was withdrawn shortly after WW2 when the end users were no longer expected to do their own repairs - just swap the faulty item out with one of their "unit spares" and return the failed one for overhaul (R(C)EME Light Aid Detachment and then further up the workshop chain as required). The British WS19 spare parts kits were severely thinned out in terms of contents from the original "all the bits that might break or get lost/wear out" (connector clips, flick locking screws, fuseholder caps and dynamotor brushes) and were reduced to one or two of each spring clip, the fuses and lamps plus (maybe) a fuseholder cap. The dynamotor brushes didn't wear out in normal use and were an early deletion.

Apart from that...

Answer 1 - the answer is that they're all "Hand Tools", and except where noted on the parts list (ZC or WB stores codes) would appear in section 'FA' of the store vocabulary.

Answer 2 - Wooden tool boxes were a common item, especially in Canada which exported vast quantities of timber. (Canadian equipment used wood and aluminium in place of rubber steel for a number of items - Wireless Remote Control Units had wooden cases where the British equivalent was pressed steel, Telephone set 'D' Mk.V (Canadian) had an aluminium case (that corrodes like crazy), and the WS19 aerial base and variometer spacers were originally rubber (later steel and bakelite) in British production or plywood with cork gaskets and machined wood in Canada.

Answer 3 - Probably returned to Ordnance Depots and emptied into general stock when withdrawn. Unwanted items might have been disposed of as surplus to save space, or the boxes repainted and used for other things. Surplussed kit tends to be scavenged (either by the army or the surplus dealers) for useful items - I have never seen a 34-ft Steel Vertical Aerial kit (the sectional one with 'D' rods) that still contained the 8-oz ball-peen hammer.

Answer 4 - CMC part numbers would only appear on specialist tools made by (or for) CMC. Anything generic would be most likely to have the Government Property mark (to prevent theft) and possibly the stores vocabulary code for WW2 equipment. (The numbering system doesn't appear to have started until the late 1930s.)

Chris.

[rob love]

David

The only number on your list that is still valid is the US NSN for the lightbulb on the very bottom. They are a trade number 1446 bulb. Some of the US numbers change up to new numbers....the Cdn NSNs are long gone.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks for taking the time to check those numbers, Rob.

Since that entire kit was so specific to the 52-Set, it doesn’t surprise me everything short of the bulbs are long gone.

I have since run across a couple of other photos of the empty Receiver Boxes with the tan overpaint. They showed inspection dates of 1966 and 1968 that must have been very close to the end of service for the 52-Set.

Be nice to find a NATO Stock List for the Boxes, Tools items but if stocks in the supply system were reassigned in or around 1962, that would have left only the Boxes in service with issued sets surviving and I do not know how the Military would have dealt with that issue if replacement items were needed.

David