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@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.  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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