Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

While the Handles No. 72 and 80 continue curing, I decided to move ahead to getting the three switch knobs along the lower portion of the Sender front panel cleaned up and ready to go.

These are all the above noted KNOBS, Phenolic, Pointer No. C1 and this is turning out to be great practice, as there are 5 each of these same knobs also on the Receiver panels and I now want to go back and restore their luminous marker slots.

The attached photos show the original condition of the knobs, what they look like cleaned up and lastly with the base coat of flat white paint applied to the marker slots.

Tomorrow, I shall fill in the marker slots with a new layer of Neutral Luminous Green paint.

David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Great work Dave. I only hope when you are all done and need to give it that final authentic 'patina' you can find a room full of chain smokers to blow tobacco smoke at it!!

[David Dunlop]

Indeed, Bruce! That could be a real challenge these days.

I possible backup plan, however, would be to find a Blacksmith's Shop where I can place the set beside the forge for a few months.

David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to infill the marker slots on the three knobs with Neutral Luminous Green paint this morning.

Once they have dried for 24 hours I can put the knobs away until needed.

David

[David Dunlop]

Two NOS pairs of these cables arrived in this morning's Mail.

These are the interconnecting cables between the two 6 Volt Wireless Batteries that sets them up in series to provide the 12Volts DC needed for the wireless set.

One pair of these cables was issued with the basic Wireless Set No. 52 and served as the working set for the wireless. The second set was issued with the Remote Receiver Kit and when not in use, were stored in the Case Operating for the Remote Receiver.

There is an interesting production history with these cables. The ID collars on two of them have three lines of information in large font as follows:

CONNECTOR,
SINGLE #3
CMC 110-317

The other two cable ID collars read in four lines in a smaller font:

CONNECTOR,
SINGLE No. C3
CMC 110-317
ZA/C 2270

I am assuming the second set is a later production run from Marconi than the first set.

The slotted copper lugs on each end have been zinc plated and stamped on one side with:

S-90-A



David

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Often when you see a "C" in front of a number it is a 29 set part.

[David Dunlop]

Ah, Bruce. You have touched on another of the Great Mysteries in Life: Military Nomenclature. It never ceases to amaze me!

For starters, one practically trips over the letter ‘C’ in Canadian Army communications. In researching my 52-Set, I have seen communications between Canadian Marconi and the Canadian Army where Marconi identifies any wireless set they are referencing by its full name. In the return correspondence from the Army, these names invariably become,’C9’, ‘C9 MkI’, ‘C9 MkII’, ‘C52’, ‘C19’ and on and on it goes. One would think it was to denote the word ‘Canadian’ because the sets were designed and built in Canada, but they were still doing it in the 1960’s when the Plessey 42 Set came over from England for use in the Canadian Army and became the C42. But nothing about the 42 Set was ever built in Canada to my knowledge.

Then you have the British VAOS Directory, which adds a whole new spin.

Take this battery connector for example.

In a copy of the 1940 edition of the VAOS Directory I have, ZA 2270 is indeed a Connector, Single. But the similarity ends there. In 1940 it was a 12-inch cable of lighter gauge and the two end lugs were single hole items. Not at all like this heftier CMC product for the 52-Set.

The 52-Set Manual identifies this cable in the Parts Listings in the back of the manual as ‘Connector, Single #3 ZAC 2270’.

However, in the illustrations in the manual, this same part is identified as ‘Connector, Single No. C3’.

The 1945 and 1948 Master Parts Lists for the 52-Set both identify this part as, ‘Connector, Single No. C2A’ and make note that earlier ID of ‘Connector, Single No. C3’ should be ignored. No mention of the ‘#3’ version at all. But then to add insult to injury, this same part has a new VAOS Number, ‘ZA/CAN 4268’.

I am assuming the ‘C’ in all these part numbers probably refers to ’Canadian’ What I do not understand is if there is any real significant difference at all in the part if it has, or does not have the ‘C’ in its name. Usually, if something is changed significantly, it gets a brand new VAOS Number, and in this example, perhaps that is recognized by this heftier cable getting a new number moving from 2270 up to 4268.

One final stir of the waters with a stick.

The VAOS Directory is a British thing, with quite a long history. Typically, if you see a number like ZA 2270, it tells you it is a British Army part at the very least. What is not clear to me is what a number like ZA/CAN 2270 means. Is this an identical part manufactured in both England and Canada?

If so, then what relevance to parts do listings have such as ZA/CAN/BR 2270? If it started out being made in Britain, and then Canada got involved, why did they bother going back and mentioning Britain again?

Very confusing. But on the bright side, after reading the VAOS Directory for a while, I always feel like going for a drink afterwards!

David