Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Three more photos today to give a better idea of the interior layout of this case.

The interior of the left section is remarkably free of most signs of use, probably because nothing really heavy, or with sharp edges, was ever stored here.

The main, central section definitely shows signs of the Remote Supply being placed in it over the years. It is a very heavy item, with most of the weight to the back of it. Even if you place the supply at the front of this section, its main weight sits behind the handle on the top of the case. When you lift the case up, it pivots slightly to the rear and you can feel the supply slowly slide up against the back wall of the case. When you next remove the supply from the case, some of the fittings on the back of the supply scrape the lower part of the rear panel of the case. You can see these vertical lines in the photo. Fully packed, this case is going to be a handful.

The KimPak installation for the righthand section follows a similar pattern to that for the Case, Spare Parts. A 9-inch wide strip would first have been fitted to the lid and the bottom of this section. Stapling of the KimPak was done in the same fashion as discussed with the Case, Spare Parts. A 7-inch wide strip of KimPak was then fitted around the walls of this section. This strip, as in the Case, Spare Parts, is set 3/4-inch below the upper lip of the case. However, because this case is not as tall as the Case, Spare Parts, it only reaches to 1/4-inch from the wooden bottom of the case, which means it rests nicely on top of the bottom KimPak pad. The wall pad runs from the left rear corner of the section, along the back wall, up the right side wall, across the front to the partition wall and back along the partition wall to the left rear corner where it rests on top of the rear pad.



David

[David Dunlop]

The handle, hinge straps and corner caps for this case are all identical to those used on the other two boxes/cases forming part of the 52-Set Kits. The thickness of the wooden lid is also the same.

The sole difference in hardware is the two latch assemblies, which although similar in appearance, are larger and of a much more robust design. The first two photos show the standard latch which is 1-3/8 inches wide by 2-5/8 inches long. The second two photos are of the latch used on the Cases, Operating, Remote Receiver. These latches are 1-3/4 inches wide and 3-inches high. Notice the wider clasp and the upper rivet set are installed further down the sides of the bottom assembly. The other significant difference is evident when the clasps are open. The lip of the clasp has a heavy duty tab that engages a corresponding slot in the back of the throat of the catch on the lid. Useful considerations on the part of the designers at Canadian Marconi to ensure this case stays closed when the Remote Supply Unit ZE-12 is inside and the case is being carried over uneven ground. The ZE-12 is a compact size at 8.5 inches high by 10 inches wide by 8 inches deep and yet weighs in at 26 pounds.

I am not sure yet if these two styles of latches, were made by the same company, but I will try and report on that later as more information is uncovered.


David

[David Dunlop]

At first glance, the CONTENTS Label on the inside lid of this case, apart from size, looked the same as the one that survived under the lid of my Tool Box, but when I had a closer look, there was one noticeable difference. The label in the Tool Box was plain paper. The one in this case is plain paper that has been given a spray coat of lacquer/schellac/varnish before being glued to the lid. It is still paper thin, but the outer surface is shiney and the entire label is very, flat, smooth and stiff. I am wondering now if this was an upgrade Canadian Marconi Company implemented following feedback about these labels being easily damaged when these boxes/cases were in use.

The other nice find in this case was a two page (Legal Sized paper) postwar version of the Contents Label using the new NATO Stock Numbers for all the contents of the case, so at least some of the parts for the 52-Set can be cross-referenced between the original VAOS Numbers and the NATO System.

Clearly, CMC had a standard format for their CONTENTS Labels used with the 52-Set, the interesting thing, however, is that neither of my Spare Parts cases had such a label fitted anywhere inside of them. The logical reason for that would be the presence of the KimPak padding on the inside of this case and the only free space that was all wood, meant any label fitted there would be very hard to read and subject to damage with items being placed in, and removed from the case. A small CONTENTS Label, similar to the other two, just sitting in the case, would have been very easy to lose, so perhaps CMC got around that problem by issuing a larger format list (8.5” x 11” perhaps), folded in half and placed in the case, probably on the valves side.

If anyone has run across an original surviving CONTENTS List for the 52-Set Spare Parts Case, please let me know.



David

[David Dunlop]

It pays to be able to move ones lighting around on a work space.

For the most part, the work to date on this case has been with the lighting coming from the back portion of it. I moved the lighting around to the right side and front the other day and this damage suddenly showed up on the inner front lip of the lid. It looks impressive but should be pretty easily repaired. The torn piece of Pine still attached can be glued and clamped back into position and wood filler used to build the area back up where the wood chipped completely out.

A careful sanding down and repaint after that and it should be good as new.


David

[David Dunlop]

I started work on the repair of the big wood chip in the lip of the case lid this afternoon.

Wood glue was placed between the section of wood still attached to the lid, and the lid itself. I then slid a small piece of paper up against the side of the lip, where the clamp was going to go, and then applied the clamp. I do this simply to keep the clamp surfaces clean. Any paper that happens to stick to the wood after, is easily sanded away, at that stage of the restoration.

Tomorrow afternoon, when the 24-hour cure is up for the glue, I will start applying wood filler to the area where the original Pine board is missing.



David

[David Dunlop]

The repair to the lid has now been sanded down to blend in with the rest of the wood and the interior edge of the lid and case have had all the lumps and runs of NATO Green and Tan/Yellow paint sanded down, ready for a cover coat of the original factory Flat Olive Drab pint.


David

[David Dunlop]

I started the second can of Flat Olive Drab paint I had mixed at RONA last year for this case this morning. Once again it is an excellent match to the surviving factory original paint inside this case. I was not totally sure about this since the second can of paint was mixed about three years subsequent to the first one and I was not certain any of the current tints would have been from the same batch lots as the originals. Clearly I did not have to worry. This can should see me through the complete repaint of this case and the wooden case for the Coils, Aerial Tuning, when its turn for restoration work comes up.

A couple of weeks to let this paint hard cure and then on to the next step for this case.



David

[David Dunlop]

The removal of the post war paint from the case hardware was started today. The first step for the top has been completed. Just five more sides to go.


David

[David Dunlop]

While removing the post war paint from the two latches on the front of the case this afternoon, I was able to uncover the name of the manufacturer of these latches, and because of the larger size of these latches compared to the ones used on the Remote Supply Cover, Tool Box and Spare Parts Case, it was easily readable under cross lighting.

The manufacturer was THE EXCELSIOR HARDWARE COMPANY in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. Their major claim to fame was luggage locks and latches. they started out in 10 May 1910 working with Steamer Trunks and luggage but their hardware also shows up on tool boxes and cash boxes over the years. They were formally dissolved 04 February 1994.


David

[David Dunlop]

These two photos show the case with all the paintwork scraped from the metal hardware, and then after all the metal hardware has been cleaned with a small wire wheel on my Dremel and the eight metal corner guards removed and carefully catalogued for replacement later.

Note the corners of this case have all been trimmed back in the same manner as the ones on the tool box and spare parts case, and the fact these corner guards were always installed at the factory prior to the painting being done.


David

[David Dunlop]

This case has a very slight twist to it, when sitting on a dead flat surface. I thought initially that it might have been a result of the four bottom round head slotted wood screws wearing at different rates over the years, because they actually form the feet this case and the other box and case for the set sit on. But that was not the problem, as they all check out just fine. Furthermore, if I leaned hard on the top of the case, it would almost sit flat, and it still rocks a bit with all the metal corner guards removed.

While getting ready to start sanding the paint down on the case and seeing what it would reveal, I noticed the lowermost finishing nails on the front of the case, used to secure the two interior wooden partitions, were sticking out from the pine board about half a head length each. The other, upper three nails for each partition at the front of the case were just fine and puttied over. These nails should not back up like that over time unless the case was twisting back and forth. No sign at all anywhere that this case had been subjected to a chronic damp environment for an extended period in its lifetime. It is very solid.

Out of curiosity, I hauled the Remote Supply Unit off the shelf, a bottom one thankfully, and placed it in its middle section of this case. The case now sat dead flat. So best I can tell, at some point in the life of this case, the wood either gained, or lost enough humidity to twist, but the 26 pounds of Remote Supply Unit is enough to level it all back out when stored back inside. It is the longest case of the bunch so that extra length, may have just been enough to let a twist set up in the wood. For a nearly 80 year old case, it is entitled, I think.


David

[David Dunlop]

Sanding back the layers of paint on this case has revealed the most complex set of stencil markings I have ever encountered on a piece of Canadian Army equipment from the World War Two era, either vehicular or signals equipment related.

The attached five photos highlight the major finds as I worked my way down through the paint with both power and hand sanders and damp cloths.

Starting from the factory to most current:

On the factory Flat Olive Drab paint is the 1/2-inch stencil in six lines starting one inch below the lip of the case and centre justified. Lead line is the CMC part number for the case and the second line is the CMC version of the ZA/CAN Number.

On NATO Green, a 1/2-inch stencil in six lines starting 1/2-inch below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. Here, the CMC ZA/CAN Number has been replaced with the actual VAOS Number for this case.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in six lines starting 1/2-inch below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. This stencil also uses the actual VAOS assigned number for the case.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in six lines starting 2 inches below the lip of the case and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. Again, the actual VAOS Number was used.

On NATO Green, a 3/4-inch stencil in five lines starting 2 inches below the lip and left justified 2 inches inside of the left hand latch assembly. The actual VAOS Number was used but the CMC Part Number was deleted.

On the tan/yellow layer of paint, the final black stencil using the NATO Stock Number data as shown in the photo in Post# 1030.


In addition to all of this, a free floating 1/2-inch stencil of just the actual VAOS ZA/CAN Number was found on either side of the front of the case, centred below each latch assembly, 3.5 inches below the lip. I could not match these up with any other surviving stencil lines on the front of the case, but they were both on a NATO Green background paint, and appeared to have been a one time only application.

What is interesting is the use once again of 3/4-inch stencils. They were also found on one of the two Spare Parts Cases I restored earlier this year; the one that also had traces of tan/yellow applied to the front.


David

[David Dunlop]

After sanding down the paint and checking for the history of stencil markings on this case, the holes, chips and cracks were filled in and it is now curing for 24 hours prior to a final gentle sanding.


David

[David Dunlop]

Final sanding of all the fill work has been completed, straightening of any of the corner guards needing it done and all the corner guards reinstalled.

The case is now ready for priming of all the metal hardware.



David

[David Dunlop]

The metal hardware on the case has now been primed.

If the household chores go according to plan this coming weekend, I should be able to get the finish coat of Flat Olive Drab applied.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to get the first coat of Flat Olive Drab paint on the case this afternoon. With luck, I will be able to apply the second coat tomorrow, along with the touch up of the paint in the hard to get at parts of the metal hardware.


David

[David Dunlop]

A second finish coat of Flat Olive Drab has now been applied and a major hardware touchup completed. The case will now sit for two weeks for the paint to hard cure and I can then start work on applying the stencil to the front panel.

Easy enough to carefully handle the case at this point, but the paint definitely has a soft feel to it.


David

[David Dunlop]

I managed to get the stencil done on the front of this case this afternoon. This was the largest of the ID stencils for the 52-Set boxes/cases, at six lines of text and that meant more surface area to get the paper cement applied to as quickly as possible, before the cement started to set up. The oil board stencil also had a bit of a curve to it towards the bottom right, so I went into this expecting a lot of paint bleed under unsecured portions. Turned out to be the best of the four stencils I have done. No bad bleeds at all and just four clean but fat characters to give a slight touchup to on Thursday.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to touch up the handful of fat characters in the stencilling this morning with a fine tip paint brush to finally complete the paint work on the three boxes/cases which were issued with the Wireless Set Canadian No. 52.

I took some time after I had finished to line all three boxes/cases up for a photo, as it has probably been a long time since any have appeared together in original factory finish from the Canadian Marconi Company.



David

[David Dunlop]

Now that the original paint work and stencilling of the three boxes/cases for the 52-Set has been done, I am left with one lingering mystery with this part of the project; why there is no trace at all of a Contents List having been glued somewhere inside of either of the two Spare Parts cases I have on hand. The minty case came out of Quebec and the one with a hard working life came out of Alberta. For the Tool Box and Remote Receiver Operating case, both have the List glued directly to the wooden surface inside the lid so they are readily visible and readable when the case is opened.

The entire inner lid of the Spare Parts Case is lined with KimPak padding. There may be something about the presence of this padding that did not allow Canadian Marconi to glue a Contents list to it. But logic says there must have been a list included with the equipment when it was packed at the factory. How else would the operators know they had all the equipment they were supposed to, and in the correct quantities? I have started to take a closer look at the two Contents Lists that have survived to try and understand them better.

The Box, Tools Contents List is beyond any shadow of a doubt, paper. Light reflecting off it screams paper. It smells of musty paper. It is torn and missing pieces, just like 80 year old acid content paper behaves. You can see where it was pressed down into the slather of glue applied to the inside of the lid and where the glue has run a bit around the edges and up onto the paper before setting. You can also see where the paper picked up enough moisture from the glue to swell and pucker in places when it dried. The items on the list are not in alphabetical order, but for the most part, the list is arranged in rising numerical order based on the CMC Part Numbers. In the lower right corner, the Part Number for the list is located, 114-424. When you compare this Content List to the list of items provided in the Operators Manual, both lists are in the same order. It is a lot easier to read the list in the box, however.

At first glance, and for the last two years of looking at it, for that matter, the Contents List in the Remote Receiver Case appeared to be paper as well, laid out in the same style and format as the list found in the tool box. For it, however, the CMC Parts Numbers have been abandoned for the sequence of the parts listed. Instead, a mix of VAOS Numbers and ‘Interim VAOS’ Numbers has been used, in roughly ascending order. The part number for this list is still in the lower right corner, ‘CMC. 114-553’. Once again, the sequence in which the parts are listed is identical to the listing found in the operators manual.

It is only just recently, while I have been taking a closer look at these two Contents Lists, that I suddenly noticed a fundamental difference between them. The Remote Receiver Case list is dead flat smooth and shiny under light. There is not a flaw on the printing anywhere and no trace of any of the damage you would expect on a paper product over 80 years a good portion of which was spent in military service. The upper left corner of this list has pulled away from the surface of the about a half inch, curling upward from the lid enough you can feel the material is thick. About half the thickness of a classic high gloss manila file folder. I stuck my neck out and applied a small drop of water to this edge. 15 minutes later, the bead of water was still sitting there with no sign of absorption by the material. If it is not paper, it must be some form of 1940’s ‘plastic sheet’.

For a current reference, these two lists are shown in the photos in Post # 1023.


David

[David Dunlop]

Does anyone know if this 1960's era Canadian Armed Forces Envelope had an earlier equivalent Canadian Army Envelope?


David

[David Dunlop]

Back in Post #1023, I had commented about the lack of a Contents List glued to the inner lid of either of my Cases, Spares and speculated at top why that might have been.

In the meantime, I received the attached photo the other day from a friend in Edmonton of the aluminum Tuning Chart he had found for his 52-Set. Note the background. That is part of the CONTENTS LIST for his Case, Spares which is still happily glued to the KimPak padding under the lid of his case.

Needless to say, I have asked him for more photos.


David

[David Dunlop]

I asked for some detail photos from my friend, Reg, of his Case, Spares Contents List label to see if they would help in identifying the font Canadian Marconi Company used in printing these labels, They were a big help!

First, one photo was of the CMC Part Number for this list which turned out to be sequentially right behind the Contents List label for the Remote Operating Case: 114-554 versus 114-553.

After a close look at groups of identical characters in these three photos, the realization also dawned on me I was not looking a traditional, typeset printed characters at all. these labels were actually hand drawn by professional Artist/Illustrators. Probably the same team of workers responsible for the amazing detail in the illustrations in the Master Parts Lists for the 52-Set.

For any given character, there are no identical duplicates. when one looks carefully enough, you start to actually see the subtle variations in line thicknesses, heights, widths, curves and end points of each character. Their work 80 years ago is truly unique and amazing.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Draughtsman with technical pens and lettering guides. Still an extremely skilled job, now almost completely replaced by computers. I remember drawing boards.

If you can find the matching lettering guides and/or enough text samples it might be possible to re-create it as a font for modern DTP software.

(That is also a skilled job for an expert, unfortunately.)

Best regards,
Chris.

[Chris Suslowicz]

You may be in luck, the font looks like Copperplate Gothic.

May need to search for a version that has oval zeroes, the one on this Mac has them nearly circular.

Chris.

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

At first glance, and for the last two years of looking at it, for that matter, the Contents List in the Remote Receiver Case appeared to be paper as well, laid out in the same style and format as the list found in the tool box. For it, however, the CMC Parts Numbers have been abandoned for the sequence of the parts listed. Instead, a mix of VAOS Numbers and ‘Interim VAOS’ Numbers has been used, in roughly ascending order. The part number for this list is still in the lower right corner, ‘CMC. 114-553’. Once again, the sequence in which the parts are listed is identical to the listing found in the operators manual.

It is only just recently, while I have been taking a closer look at these two Contents Lists, that I suddenly noticed a fundamental difference between them. The Remote Receiver Case list is dead flat smooth and shiny under light. There is not a flaw on the printing anywhere and no trace of any of the damage you would expect on a paper product over 80 years a good portion of which was spent in military service. The upper left corner of this list has pulled away from the surface of the about a half inch, curling upward from the lid enough you can feel the material is thick. About half the thickness of a classic high gloss manila file folder. I stuck my neck out and applied a small drop of water to this edge. 15 minutes later, the bead of water was still sitting there with no sign of absorption by the material. If it is not paper, it must be some form of 1940’s ‘plastic sheet’.

It may well be thin card/pulp board that has been printed and then treated with anti-fungal and waterproofing varnish to improve its lifespan in the field.

The original SLIDEX cards and wallets were produced without any thought of this - the wallets were oilskin covered strawboard with aluminium fittings and steel springs secured by brass rivets, and the code cards were ordinary 4-sheet card (240 gram?). OK in the desert, but in the jungle? (Expect a 14-day life as the strawboard dissolved, the metal fittings corroded like mad due to the dissimilar metals (Aluminium against brass, really?), and every single fungal spore took one look at the card sheets and said "Yummy!".

The case content lists would be expected to last (especially for the replacement items/consumables cases), so I'd expect good quality labels to be fitted in the lids.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

Hello Chris.

Thanks for the tip about the Copperplate Gothic font. I did some quick research on it last evening and apparently three individuals worked on developing that font around 1903. It is classed as a 'Serif' font because of the small point details at the ends of the characters; an easy detail to miss on these labels.

I do not yet understand the sizing codes for this font and only about a half dozen could be found on-line last night, but Copperplate Gothic Std 29 BC seems to be a reasonable match to what was used by the team at Canadian Marconi. One thing I did notice is that from the number '29' back to '27', the number '0' gets narrower. By the numbers '30' and '31', the '0' becomes circular and by the number '33' the number '0' gets wider than taller. Not at all sure what the two letter combination at the end of the name relates to.

Hopefully I can dig up more information and fine tune the exact version of this font. It looks very promising. Of course finding a correct match does not equate to a version of it being available for use on our home iMac.

The other possibility is that when I get photos of the full original label, the label is clean enough to be directly replicated. So far, the partial images show some serious dark spots.

When I was a Geology Undergrad at University, the Department had their own Illustrator and his workshop was impressive. That was where all the maps were created for the various publications coming out of the Department. You could help part-time there as students. The huge drafting table was impressive, as was the chair in front of it that had two long pads you rested your chins on. The result was a seated position in which one was tipped forward over the table. It looked uncomfortable but was actually a great work position for extended periods.

Once the artwork was done, we often had to take it to a shop that specialized in Blue Prints and White Prints done from them. An interesting process, the only thing I remember of being the smell of ammonia in the shop. Good times!


David

[David Dunlop]

A photo of an original list, still in place on the KimPak lid padding of the case.


David

[James D Teel II]

The lettering does indeed have tiny serifs.

[David Dunlop]

Reg sent along another photo of his list after carefully unwrapping the curled lower right corner to reveal the CMC Part Number for the list and regluing the corner to the KimPak padding on the lid of his case.


David