Wireless Set No 52 Canadian Production

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

I think Jacques has mine, thus explaining the high 9006 serial.

Sender 8342
Supply Unit 8253
Receiver 5824
Coil, Aerial Tuning No.2A 9006
Has the carrier

[David Dunlop]

He does indeed, Bruce, and thanks so much for contributing to this Data Base!

David

[David Dunlop]

Several decades ago, Chris Bisaillion, ordered a number of copies of microfilm reels from the Public Archives of Canada, related to wartime wireless set production, and also obtained a microfilm reader. His main interest was the Wireless Set No. 19 at the time, but reading the films was a challenge because a lot of the image quality was so poor. He eventually transferred all the microfilm to DVD’s in the hopes of improved readability via computers but eventually gave up on the project and the DVD’s sat filed away.

Chris recently sent the DVD’s to Jacques Fortin, and Jacques has been busy in his spare time in lockdown going through the reels, trying to make sense of them. A lot of the images are too poor to work with, even with the help of modern computer software: either too dark, or too washed out. Adding to the problem is nothing is grouped by wireless set. Reel contents list only what is on the reel. But information on all sets listed is randomly scattered throughout the reel and each reel contains several thousand images. Jacques is starting off by going through the reels searching for documentation on the Wireless Set No. 52. It does not help matters this set was referred to as No. 9 Mk II, Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian, 52-Set and C52. And then there is the problem of a number of different date codes applied to the Military documents that make deciphering the actual dates a bit of a challenge. This impacts getting the proper chronological order sorted out to make sense of ongoing communications between various parties.

At the end of each reel of film, there is an image of an Affidavit completed by the person who scanned the documents. Most of the files Jacques has looked at so far were microfilmed in 1954, and it has become evident processing quantity was the driving force behind the project, not quality. For example, one Affidavit showed just over 3,000 file pages scanned in just over 5 hours. To get those kinds of numbers, individual camera adjustments for each page were kicked to the curb. The camera was set to ‘average settings’ and the scanning commenced regardless of quality.

Another issue that has come to light with Jacques work so far. Many of these files contained supporting photographs or negatives in glassine envelopes. At the time of scanning the files in 1954, these images were removed from their envelopes and sent to a photographic archive. The empty envelope was then so marked and returned empty to its original file. It is not clear if the photo archive, wherever it may be, has the ability to reference back any of these images to their original files, or if that link has been lost forever.

All that being said by way of qualifying what is being done, and file size permitting, I am going to attempt posting some of these documents here, as they become available from Jacques. Some posts might be one or more individual documents. Others might be small, acceptable PDF files that are self-contained, I am still thinking about how to handle the much larger PDF files. This seemed like the appropriate thread to use as all the documents relate in some way to the production of the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian. So stay tuned.

David

[David Dunlop]

To get an idea of the scope of this project Jacques is working on, here is a list of the Microfilm Reels Chris obtained copies of years ago from the Public Archives of Canada, and the contents of each as listed by PAC.



C-5770 No 19 Set
C-5787 Webbing Canadian Manufacture
C-5815 No 9, 10, 11
C-5816 No 12, 18, 19, 22, 27, 29, 32
C-5817 No 33, 34, 38, 39, 42, 43, 46, 52, 53, 58, 62, 63, 1143, 4332, 78, 82, 86, 88
C-5818 Receivers VRL, 106, 107, AR88, R103, 208, 101, 109, 216, 209
C-5819 Batteries, Generator 300W
C-5820 Functional Tests 19 Set, Wavemeters
C-5821 Cipher Apparatus


Jacques is starting with the obvious reels indicating possible useful material, but will eventually end up checking all reels for any hidden information.


David

[David Dunlop]

Here are a couple of single page files dated 7 January 1944.


David

[Bruce MacMillan]

These files (and more) are available on the Canadiana Heritage website.
http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oo...c_mikan_133092

As David said each file can be 3000-5000 pages and there are about 450 files. You do the math. I've been trolling these for a number of months. They cover every facit of the army from war diaries to supply of materiel, even personnel selected for the SOE.

[David Dunlop]

There seems to have been a lot of communications activity around this time regarding the 52-Set.

Here are some files related to the Flick Drives.

David