Serial Numbers - July 2015 update

[Kent King]

The Basics

Scott began to put serial numbers on his sets beginning with the Allwave 12 sets around 1932. The first (or early) serial numbers are a single letter followed by a number, such as E-542. Contrary to numerous opinions, the prefixes do not appear to correspond to anything identifiable so far. The numbers are never less than 10, and do not exceed 999, the lowest known number is T-52, while the highest known number is E-845. Within each prefix, the numbers were clearly assigned chronologically, as the earliest numbers are Allwave 12 sets working up to Philharmonic sets in 1937 within the D, E and F prefixes. In addition to D, E and F including Philharmonic sets, the only other oddity in the early serial numbers is that there are several prefixes (U through Y) with no Allwave XV sets in the series. Finally, there are no I or O prefixes, probably to avoid confusion with 1 and 0.

The later serial numbers were constructed of two letters and a number, such as RR-359. These were also issued chronologically, but instead of models advancing through a prefix, each prefix may only contain one or two models. As examples: prefix RR is always Philharmonic sets, and prefix EE begins with the model 16/18 up to about 250, then the remainder are Phantom sets. Prefixes JJ and XX are unique in that they each have 3 models represented. The lowest recorded late serial number is CC-11, the highest is SS-539. Certain low production models appear in limited prefixes, for example, the Super XII sets are all within QQ, TT or WW only. Finally, like the early serial numbers, II and OO are not used.

Methodolgy

Over the past 20+ years, I have managed to collect over 1600 serial numbers. From these, we can calculate quite a bit about the production of Scott models. The first premise used is that everything within a certain prefix range will be the same model. For example: The Allwave XV sets go from P-263 to P-431, so we can calculate that there were at least 169 sets in that prefix, based on just 3 known serial numbers for Allwave XV sets with the P prefix. Similar calculations can be done for the various models using the late serial numbers. These calculations do have one challenge: how do we “Mind the Gap” as they say in London.

The “gap” numbers are fairly significant throughout the data. A gap occurs within a prefix between the previous high number and the next model’s low number. As an example: DD-227 is the highest 16/18 set in the prefix. The next recorded number begins a group of Phantom sets at DD-258. How do we count the 30 “missing” sets between these two numbers? For various reasons, I have simply kept a separate count of the “gap” values and totals. As of this writing (July 2015), the missing chassis account for roughly 2500 sets, or about 10% of the total expected production. This means we have workable information for about 90% of Scott’s set production from 1932 until WWII.

By the Numbers

The previous paragraph ended with a tantalizing statistic. Based on the serial number calculations, we know that Scott produced approximately 25,000 chassis from 1932 to early 1942, when the war stopped consumer radio production. Some set statistics: the top three production sets in order are the AW23, AW12 and AW XV. The lowest production numbers include: the Special Communications receiver, the FM tuner and the Masterpiece. The survival rate (ratio of known serial numbers to expected production) gives us almost exactly 7.5%. From that, we see that several models are “over-represented” with existing chassis, especially the Philharmonic sets at over 10% survival. Conversely, the Laureate is under-represented, with fewer than 4% of these sets in the hands of collectors today.

There are still mysteries associated with the serial numbers. A very small number of Laureate sets have been found with prefixes of different letters, specifically FA-# and FB-#. Another mystery is the grease pencil serial numbers found on many power supply chassis. These do not correspond with a tuner number (and many overlap!). Chassis that are known to have been together all their life have numbers that do not appear to be related. And a further mystery, a few late power supplies have a 3 letter prefix, such as PPP. For the production calculations, only serial numbers on tags of existing tuner chassis have been used.

Thanks!

I hope you have found this interesting. I appreciate everyone sharing their serial numbers with me, it is a huge help in this research. If you have questions, or would like additional information, please reply to this post/thread. I’d be very happy to get any additional insights folks might have. Thank you!

[Kent King]

Rodney -

I haven 't shared that before...no one has asked. Here you go, its ugly as a cut/paste from Excel.

Set Estimated Known
AW23 5239 476
AW12 3868 193
AW15 3238 218
Phantom 3167 256
Philharmonic 2936 310
16/18 1359 85
Laureate 799 32
Super12 612 47
Masterpiece 512 41
FM Tuner 132 8
Special 21 10

[palegreenthumb]

Cut and paste or not, that is wonderful information to have available.

Thanks so much for all the work you've done over years to compile this, and thanks for sharing it!

[jimmie o. ashabraner]

   what can you tell me about my philharmonic by the serial number, when made, how many, etc. It is probably a 1940  as it is the beam of light dial ( AM only). Serial number  GG314, thanks, jimmie ashabraner, EH Scott member in arkansas

[Kent King]

Well...we can infer a little bit. GG-281 was built March 6, 1940, so your set was built after that date. Now, although it is only 33 apart from yours, we can't put a good timeline on the rate they used serial numbers from a given prefix...we just don't have enough data. IN fact, this prefix probably sat dormant for awhile: GG-19 to GG-237 are all 16/18 models made in 1937 and early 1938. It then appears to sit until they start building Philharmonics in 1940 or so. Despite all the stuff I've said here, I'd say it is very likely that your set would have been built in the 2nd quarter of 1940.

Kent

[ken gosnell]

I have what I assume is a 16A chassis serial #1815.....however see nothing on it that indicates its a 16A. have just looked at the few pics I could find on the internet that seem to be it. no short wave band, one eye etc. The amp # is 11239...which I could find nothing on however I did see pics of a very few that looked identical......any info appreciated and also might you recommend a person who would be willing to go through this unit for me