Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

These are the last parts of the Type 10 Headgear I wanted to document.

All of the ones I have were fitted to Type 10 Headgear and all were made by Philco and stamped as such on the rear bodies. It is interesting, however, that two distinct versions exist when one looks at the front cover plates fitted to them.

Some of these receivers have a thin, brown phenolic front cover fitted. All but one of these I have on hand show some degree of bulging out of this cover from the front of the receiver. It is almost as if some degree of moisture worked its way into the brown phenolic and caused it to expand. Because the entire rim of the phenolic is crimped in place, the expanding material had nowhere to go but bulge outwards in one or more locations. It does not seem to have any negative impact on the performance of the Receivers. It is just…noticeable.

The other Receivers, Watch, LR I have are all fitted with a thin black cover that is either Bakelite, or black anodized metal. All are dead flat smooth and all work as intended.

Where this all gets interesting in my mind is when I start grouping the oddities in the Type 10 Headgear together. What I find is:

Some of the headgear all have, brown, phenolic Receiver, Watch LR covers, a classic cloth loomed with tracer Jumper Wire fitted to the Insert Holder in the Mic and rubber coated Contact Spring backs across from the Insert rim.

The second bunch of headgear have smooth, black covers on their Receivers, Watch LR assemblies, a black vinyl covered Jumper Wire fitted to the Insert Holder and the backs of the Contact Springs are clean with the Insert Rim opposite them sporting a black strip of tape.

I cannot help but think these two sets of differences probably reflect the start and end points in production of the Type 10 Headgear. There are probably headgear out there with just one or two of these changes evident, but they would all fit a linear trend of problem solving throughout the production run of these headgear.

David