Every Bendix radio compass had a separate box that controlled the dynamotor power supply, the band switch motor, tuning, and the antenna connection (loop or trailing wire). For the SCR-269 radio compass, Argus made the BC-434 control box. For the MN-26, it was the MN-28. Argus also made the C-4 and MR-9 control boxes for the AN/AR-7 and RA-10 radio compasses, the MN-52 antenna azimuth rotator control, and a small test box for the Bendix SCR-522 (the “King George” transceiver, which was installed on tens of thousands of Allied aircraft during the first part of the war).

The images in the 1946 Argus report show a wide range of military radio products, but the picture that emerges in wartime Argus Eyes articles is different. To start with, references to radio production in the wartime Eyes are rare. We examined every monthly Argus Eyes issue published during the war and found only 32 such references. Of these, ten were generic, such as “Bendix” or “radio line” and 22 referred to specific components. The most common specific reference was the word “dial” (as in “the dial line” or “the Dials” bowling team), 8 in all. There were 3 references to other control box components (“box” and “tuning crank”) and 8 to specific control boxes (such as “BC-434” or “MN-28”). The other 3 specific references were to the MP-28 power supply and “RC-186” (AZON component) production. The Argus Eyes articles containing these references can be found on 2 hanging boards in the exhibit.

So of 22 total references to radio components in wartime Argus Eyes, 19 were to control boxes or parts of control boxes. In addition, one of the three radio items found in Argus’s WWII magazine ads was the tuning crank assembly for an MN-28 control box, and the only photographs of radio production in wartime Argus Eyes (2) show control box housings.

Considering this data and assuming that the wartime Argus Eyes reflected the balance of Plant 1 activities somewhat accurately, it is likely that a very large fraction of Argus’s wartime radio production consisted of control boxes for radio compass systems.