[ajgriff]

Until now I’ve resisted the temptation to post again in this thread as this is rather like playing 3D chess where the opponent's knights have been disguised as pawns. However, a few years ago I wanted to fill the gaps in my motley R&TVS collection of early volumes so that, within reason, all possible models were covered up to about 1962. After many hours of research and head scratching (banging?) I came to the view that RN Wainwright really did know what he was doing when he structured his overall index around the very first editions relating to receivers up to and including 1952 and the Molloy & Poole 1955 five volume set. As a result I came up with three rules to assist in my quest:

Rule 1 - The majority of receivers up to and including 1952 are covered by the earliest two volume R&TVS edition for radio and television respectively. These are readily identifiable by the manufacturer listings which are in random, rather than alphabetical, order. It is worth noting that these two books are the same as the slightly earlier Newnes editions with blue covers entitled Radio Engineers Servicing Manual and Television Engineers Servicing Manual.

Rule 2 - Some early receivers are only covered by the first four volumes of certain early editions.These can best be identified by the manufacturer listings in each book as follows:

- Radio Part 1, Ambassador to KB
- Radio Part 2, McCarthy to Vidor
- Television Part 1, Alba to KB
- Television Part 2, McMichael to White-Ibbotson

Rule 3 - For 1953 and subsequent receivers ignore the volume number printed on the spine. All that’s important is the model year ie, 53/54, 55/56, 56/57, 57/58 etc as indicated inside the book. Note that there wasn’t a 54/55 volume of any description.

Referring to Wainwright’s index, the books defined in Rule 1 are (a) and (b). Those in Rule 2 are (c), (d), (e) and (f). Any book dealing with 53/54 sets is (g), 55/56 is (1) and so on. Volumes which don’t conform to one of the rules can be considered to be abridged versions of the early editions and therefore incomplete in terms of model coverage. All very straightforward!

One of the attractions of this approach is that there is no need to worry too much about editors, specific volume sets, indices or number of pages. However, please accept that this analysis does not attempt to deal with charts, supplements, general servicing information, minor editing variations or a few errors in Wainwright’s index.

Alan