[Milsurplus] Crystal history book

Bob kb8tq kb8tq at n1k.org
Sun Jul 31 12:28:39 EDT 2022


Hi

Do a search for “Virgil E Bottom” as the author and you will turn up
various books and articles on crystals. One of them dives into how 
he discovered and solved the problems with FT243’s in WWII. 

Bob

> On Jul 31, 2022, at 8:05 AM, Gordon Smith <gfsmith at cox.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Charlie,
> Any chance you can find what the book title was?
> 
> 73, Gordon KJ6IKT
> 
> At 08:47 AM 7/31/2022, CL in NC via Milsurplus wrote:
>> I know there is a movie out called 'Crystals go to War', but there was also a book about the subject with a different title.  The crystal industry in the 1930's was almost a home cottage industry that had to be ramped up during WW II.  In the book, all the crystals  problems were explained and how they were overcome.  But one of the biggest, the one that caused all the FT241 type failures, and the book reported that crystals in newly manufactured equipment packed and shipped to the ETO, were dead on arrival.  This problem was actually solved years earlier by AT&T (may have been GE, memory slip) , but they did not tell anybody about it because their primary WW II function was not building crystals.  It took independent discovery on part of the other crystal makers to solve the issue, and after the war,  AT&T (maybe GE) said, "Oh yea, we figured that out, why didn't you ask?".   I bought a manual from Tucker Electronics when they were selling off their inventory prior to shutti
>> ng down, the manual was for a piece of equipment I had and used by a manufacturer in crystal testing.  In it were several typewritten pages, just stuck in the book, from the Midland Company, describing a certain procedure to use during the night shift and the grinding of blanks.  So, at one time, crystals were made in-house at Midland, and in the '30's it was a mom and pop operation for the most part, so have wondered why it could not be restarted as a cottage industry again.
>> 
>> Charlie, W4MEC in NC
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