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