1940 Allied catalog online

[discosdecorte]

Hi!

I've just accidentally found this complete 1940 Allied catalog: https://issuu.com/98517886/docs/allied_catalog-1940. Very interesting devices (and prices!), specially around page 90: Presto recording machines, cutting needles, blanks...

Best regards,
Fer

[MEGAMIKE]

WOW amazing find..
and one would order a lathe then find out it was sunk by a uboat

[Stevie342000]

How does the sunk by Uboat work when the item would have been shipped across mainland USA? The UK lease lend was not this lower end stuff from Presto and it was leased to the BBC. Who assessed it did not look on it favourably and then modified their own equipment and sticking the Presto stuff back on a boat pretty sharpish, some of it did remain in outer regions but not in the main London offices for long. It was superseded in or around 1945 with the DR5n series I think it was called which was based on the Watts original from the early 1930s and modified remained in service right into the 1960s modified again for microgroove and built like tanks.

The link suggests that you need to pay for the item. All the Allied Catalogues are on the American Broadcast history website under Catalogues and Allied which can all be downloaded for free.

Have a nice day y'all

[MEGAMIKE]

my apologies i had thought allied meaning US made products for the allies ..i know that Australia used presto gear in ww2 i own 2 lathes used during the war and have seen( supplied by you" thankyou") that the bbc where right into them..id love to know the contracts between the commonwealth and presto co during the war..

[MEGAMIKE]

i just found this
http://www.orbem.co.uk/repwar/wr_recorders.htm

[Stevie342000]

I know I know I do word blindness as well and often go back to read something post it and then after see the mistakes it happens.

There were BBC reports on the Fairchild, Presto heads and the BBC heads - the BBC heads got updated to Feedback type.

The BBC did make good use of the equipment because there was a shortfall during the WWII and served a purpose but my general perception is they did not rate them but did use I suspect to come out with the new DRD5 (I think it was), the RCA heads and machines I think they had some of those as well were not rated along with the Presto I think it was 8D or 8DG the latter I think but not sure from memory.

The discs suffered with Jitter and Moire on the Presto I am pretty sure, the Fairchild head was marginal, the BBC had high standards and the equipment only just met them. The BBC answer had as did the Cecil Watts a 60lb platter it was direct drive to rim or at least one of them was but sheer mass resulted with this being less of an issue. There are BBC Reports possibly on here but out there on the web on the BBC as well as the BBC Technical Archive which has nothing to do with the BBC either.

The site you have just listed is one of the sites that has some of the information mostly about what was used and when from the people that used it. The others along with the American Broadcast history site are a mine of information - good luck you will get lost for days....I did.....

[MEGAMIKE]

thankyou i love all the old stuff..

iam always proud of my family back then and what they/ all went through and how life is easy now..

[Stevie342000]

Well here you go then:
https://worldradiohistory.com/index.htm
Good Luck see you in about a month's time.......not kidding.....you can google BBC Technical instructions to find some of the BBC stuff. The other BBC reports are on the BBC technical website googling BBC technical Reports should get you the old papers from the 1930s onwards they are not all there, I suspect it is a work in progress and of course a lot will have been ditched already.

Good Luck