[ARC5] Crystals in WWII

[Jim Haynes]

On Thu, 14 Mar 2013, Robert  Eleazer wrote:

> Anyone ever hear of this book? Sounds interesting.
>
> "Crystal Clear : The Struggle for Reliable Communications Technology in 
> World War II" by Richard J. Thompson
>
Yeah, I've read it.  Perhaps more words than you'd want to read on a
small topic.  There was the decision to go to crystal control on a large
scale, requiring a big ramp-up in crystal manufacture.  The existing
crystal manufacturers were small companies, often having designed their
own production machinery and methods.  It took a lot of work to help
them increase production and to get other companies into the business
when it had been such a craft type of business.  The problem of raw
quartz supply from Brazil was another factor, when it was being mined
by fairly primitive methods.  Finally production reached the needed
level, and then another problem cropped up: crystal aging.  That too
was successfully overcome by some hurry-up research.  And there was
some use made of crystal-grinding laboratories in the field to supply
sufficient numbers of crystal units on the time scale needed.

Jim W6JVE