Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[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

[David Dunlop]

With the three boxes/cases finished for the 52-Set, the remaining details for them is to try and sort out how each was packed at the factory. Of these three items, the Tool Box comes closest to being self evident to where most of the tools were fitted. What is not clear is if each individual hand tool was wrapped in tissue when pack to reduce them sliding and rattling around during shipping.

For the two remaining cases, packing becomes more of a mystery. Since the Cases, Operating, Remote Receivers was the last of these items I finished, it has been on my mind the most. The easy bit, and most obvious is that the Supply Unit for the Remote Receiver must go in the central compartment. When located there and one picks up the case by its handle, the shear mass of the Supply Unit tilts the case to the rear and the Supply Unit ends up sliding to the back of the compartment, so it makes sense to snug it up, centred against the back wall, when you place it in the case. Once the Supply Unit is in the case, it becomes evident quickly that the cables to operate the supply are not all going to fit into the left hand compartment which already holds two sets of headphones and assorted aerial gear. That got me wondering about why the two internal partitions for this case stick up into the lid of the case and why both are notched back at both ends. Then I remembered a comment on Page 115 of the Working Instructions Manual which said:

“When space must be conserved, the Supply Unit may be used in the Case, Operating.”

Things started to make more sense after that. All the controls required to configure the Remote Supply Unit for AC or DC operation, are contained under its metal cover. When the cover is in place, this just leaves the terminals for the battery cable, the ON/OFF Switch and the socket for the power cable to the Remote Receiver exposed along the front edge of the Supply Unit.

The Connectors, Single, No. C3, used to jumper the two 6 Volt Wireless Batteries up to the required 12 Volts just slide nicely between the front wall of the case and the base of the Supply Unit. The Connectors, Twin, No. C1, which are the battery cables feeding into the Supply Unit remain connected to the front left corner of the Supply Unit and wrap around the notches in the left partition with the Meuller Clips coming to rest in the space in the central front of the Supply Unit. The Power Cable to the Remote Receiver says plugged in at the front right corner of the Supply Unit and wraps around the notches in the right partition with the connector plug also resting in the central front of the Supply Unit.

The photos in this Post and the following one will illustrate how all this comes together.


David