Interchangability of Military Tools

[David Dunlop]

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


There is quite a diversity of interests and expertise on this Forum. Some individuals are very focused in their particular interest and some, on the other hand, have a very broad spectrum with their interest. Much of this comes from the skill sets and training we all bring to the table as individuals and collectively, I think it is this factor which makes this Forum such a formidable information source.

Sooner or later, regardless of our individual areas of interest, we all run across mysteries for which we cannot readily find answers. In most instances, we eventually find the answers within the area of interest we were working in. Sometimes, however, the answers may be somewhere else completely. It is this latter phenomenon, which is the tricky one to work with, and the area in which I now find myself.

From the title of this thread, and the sub-title of this initial post, the core topic is clearly ‘military tools’. Doesn’t seem like that big a deal at first. Pretty much any piece of military equipment, for any branch, came with a tool kit. Sometimes more than one kit for the same piece of equipment, depending at which level the item in question was being serviced. Sometimes the tools are very specific to the item being serviced, many, not so much. It is this latter set of tools – the common, standard items – I am trying to sort out here. The hammers and wrenches kind of things.

This new thread has arrived in its place directly from my Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian Project thread, as a result of a number of dead ends that have turned up researching a particular item related to the Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian: its Boxes, Tools.

This particular box is one of three types issued with the 52-Set. All three differ in overall size, and each serves a particular purpose, but they are all constructed in a similar manner out of ½-inch wooden board, with a style of finger joint referred to as a ‘comb joint’ as the fingers resemble the teeth on a comb.

Two of these boxes are very specific to the 52-Set: one designed to carry just the spare valves and electrical parts needed for the main wireless set itself, and the other designed to carry the Remote Supply and the items needed to operate and maintain the Remote Receiver component of the overall set.

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?


David