[Milsurplus] Crystal history book

[Dave Merrill]

One of the many companies mentioned in this paper is the Good-All Mfg. Co.
of Ogallala, Nebraska.

Some years ago my wife and I were passing through Nebraska and stopped in
Ogallala for lunch. We discovered there was a local history museum in an
old Victorian house once occupied by the town doctor, so of course we paid
a visit.

Upstairs, tucked away in a small room, was a display case with items that
had been made by local companies. My eye caught a familiar object: an
FT-243 crystal unit marked 'Good-All.'

They had been a small-time maker of paper capacitors and became one of the
hundreds of crystal manufacturers once WWII loomed.  IIRC, a card in the
case made the dubious claim that Good-All had discovered the method of
finishing crystal blanks to their desired frequency by etching with acid.
It's more likely that the QCS shared the technology with all the companies
making crystals for the war effort.

Dave N9ZC

On Sun, Jul 31, 2022, 10:43 AM Gordon Smith <gfsmith at cox.net> wrote:

> I was looking at the article when your email popped up Al. I think the
> book is listed in the article and all of Charlie's observations are listed
> in the article.
>
> 73, Gordon KJ6IKT
>
> At 09:39 AM 7/31/2022, Al Klase wrote:
>
> There's THIS from the IEEE
> <https://ieee-uffc.org/about-us/history/uffc-s-history/a-history-of-the-quartz-crystal-industry-in-the-usa>.Â
> But, I do think there is another book.
>
> Al Klase - N3FRQ
> Jersey City, NJ
> http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
> On 7/31/2022 11:47 AM, 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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