Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

While I was mucking about with the reinstallation of the Covers assembly for the supply unit Blower Motor today, I made yet another discovery regarding production of the 52-Set.

When I shifted one of my desk lamps to get better illumination of the upper left mounting post of the Covers assembly, the lamp lit up the top of the front end of upper MG1A HP Dynamotor. I had noticed a yellow C-Broad Arrow mark there earlier when looking at the data plate for this dynamotor, but above this stamp I spotted a yellow Philco Stamp and above it a square, yellow, ‘TESTED OK” Stamp. I have run across that latter stamp on a couple of other components of the 52-Set so far, but what intrigued me here was finding further involvement by Philco with production of the 52-Set.

These dynamotors were built by Robbins & Myers, and all produced in 1945. To date, no surviving components of a 52-Set have been found with a production date of 1945. All have been dated in 1944. So the entire production run of 52-Sets, pushing somewhere close to 5,000 sets, probably ended sometime late in 1944 at Canadian Marconi Company, while the contract for upgraded dynamotors for the 52-Set took place in early 1945 at Robbins & Myers. Based on the Philco Test Stamp, is it possible Canadian Marconi was preoccupied with finishing off any wartime contracts it could while also trying to switch gears back into new military or civilian production, possibly also reducing staff, and did not have the capability of testing the replacement dynamotors, so had Philco do it for them?


David