While the civil defense
instrumentation group had plenty of money for procurement, relatively little
was available for research and development (R&D). What
R&D did occur was often handled by folks such as Frank Manning and
Robert Maples at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and Stanley Kronenberg with the Army (New Jersey).
One of the ground rules in the R&D contracts was
that no contract money could be spent on packaging. Hence, the prototypes often
used the yellow cases from old CD V-700 or 710 instruments.
It was also necessary that the prototypes conformed
to specific physical dimensions as well as chamber and calibration control
locations so that they would be compatible with calibration units such as
the CD V-794.
| Designation |
Description |
| CD V-711BX |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
"remote Reading Fixed Station Radiation Monitor. Began
development February 1961 and completed in FY 1962. It became the CD
V-711. |
| CD V-715BX |
Bendix Corp. began
development on this "remote reading survey meter" in April
of 1961 and completed development in FY 1962. This became the CD
V-717. |
| CD V-716X |
Victoreen prototype of what became the CD V-715.
Project completed in FY1961. |
| CD V-726AX |
Anton Electronic Laboratories
(aka Lionel Electronic Laboratories) began development of a
"citizen survey meter" in August of 1959 and completed
this work in FY 1962. This meter employed a standard GM detector and
it had a logarithmic readout with a range of 1 - 100 R/hr. See photo
below. |
| CD
V-726BX |
Bendix Corp. began working on
this "Citizens Survey Meter" in October 1959 and completed
its development in FY 1962. This was a quartz fiber pocket dosimeter
that operated in the rate mode 1 - 100 R/hr. |
| CD
V-726DX |
Lionel developed a
prototype citizens survey meter that consisted of a CD V-726AX type GM detector
incorporated into a portable radio. Under development in 1961. 0
- 100 R/hr. |
| CD V-731X |
A quartz fiber dosimeter (a
modified CD V-730) with
built-in piezo-electric charger under development by Bendix in 1961.
0 - 20 roentgen. See photo below. |
| CD V-746X |
The 1962 annual report of the Office of Civil Defense and an
article in a 1962 issue of Nucleonics refer to a self charging
dosimeter developed by Victoreen that was designated the CD
V-746X. According to the OCD annual report, the development of
a "citizens dosimeter V-746-X" was initiated by the
Victoreen Instrument Company in November of 1959. This work was
completed in FY 1962. The Nucleonics article indicated that the
range of the CD V-746X was 0 - 600 R. |
| CD
V-746BX |
A prototype dosimeter in the
ORAU collection is identified as the CD V-746BX. It is a self-charging
quartz fiber pocket dosimeter with a 0 - 600 R range and is very
similar to the descriptions of the Victoreen prototype designated the CD V-746X.
The catch is that the
appearance of the ORAU CD V-746BX prototype is more similar to that of a
Bendix dosimeter than a Victoreen dosimeter. A photo of what is
definitely a Victoreen version of the CD V-746BX is shown below. |
| CD V-750BX |
Randam Electronics Co.
produced loudspeaker attachment for CD V-700. It became the CD
V-705. began in March 1961 and completed in FY 1962. |
| CD V-781X |
In November of 1959, Oak
Ridge National Laboratory began work on an "aerial survey
meter." This work was completed in FY 1962. This is what became
the CD V-781. |
| CD V-794X |
It seems that Anton
Electronic Laboratories began development of this "radiation
instrument calibrator" in July of 1959, and that the work was
completed in FY 1962 when the company name had changed to Lionel
Electronic Laboratories. |
|
According to the 1962 annual
report of the Office of Civil Defense, Lionel Electronics
Laboratories began development of "special purpose
Geiger-Mueller Tubes" in July of 1961 and completed this work
in FY 1962. This is almost certainly the OCD-D-101 extended range
tube used to modify CD V-700s. |
|
In September of 1961,
Southwestern Industrial Electronics Co. began work on an
"automatic radiation monitoring system." Work was
completed in FY 1962. I do not know what became of this effort. |
|
Trionics Incorporated began
development of a "10-day Water Radiation Standard" in
April of 1961 and finished this project in FY 1962. This never seems
to have gone into production. |
The photo below left shows the Bendix prototype of the CD V-731
self-charging dosimeter while the photo below right shows Victoreen's
version of the CD V-746BX self-charging dosimeter. Unfortunately, neither
of these is in the ORAU collection. Both photos provided courtesy of Carl
Siebentritt.
