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!

[Thomas Day]

Thanks for compiling and publishing this information. 

Thom

[Angelo]

Ken great information thanks for doing this helps a lot to.

Angelo

[David Melin]

I just brought home a "barn find" (or in this case a "basement storage find"..) radio!

It's an E.H. Scott Allwave 23 with Tasman cabinet and all hardware / knobs (minus one rectifier tube from lower amplifier chassis which was broken years ago).  Its still a little dusty but under the dust I found beautiful chrome! BONUS: With the radio came all original paperwork including a personalized and hand signed letter of thanks from Scott to the purchaser dated Feb. 1937.  In addition to the letter, I received the owners manual, and an E.H. Scott catalog.  Since it came from a family friend, I can trace ownership the factory all the way to me!! (I am the fourth owner.)

I will be sure to get you that serial number for the list!

[Keith Darge]

Hi Ken

Thanks for this wealth of information.

I have a 7 knob AW23 Serial Number A-797 with the power supply/amplifier chassis in my collection here in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It is in poor condition but complete except for the loudspeaker.

I believe that the original cabinet was converted for cocktail use years ago.

[Kent King]

Keith - Thanks for sending that serial number, it is a new one for the list (now at 1639 and counting). We know that Scott sold sets in many other countries, including South Africa. What is your power there? Are you 220 V? If so, if your set is configured for local power, then it probably was originally sold to a buyer there in SA. Thanks again!

Kent

[john stafford]

i just bought a scott 16a ser # 701 what year was it made

john

[Kent King]

John -

I only track the pre-war serial numbers. That is a very low number however (I've seen serial numbers on 16A sets up in the thousands). I'd guess it was one of the first, so probably 1947 when they came out. However, its all a guess, since we don't have enough information to say.

Kent

[Norman S Braithwaite]

John:  Inspection date stamps indicate the entire production run of Scott Metropolitan 16A chassis had been in the period from August 1947 through December 1947.  There were approximately 2000 chassis sets built.  The Metropolitan 16A was offered by Scott Radio Laboratories for several years after the production run had completed.

Norman

[john stafford]

thank you it is hard to find info for the 16a could be company winding down

john

[Kent King]

There is some material in the Scott Info Archive -> Set Folders -> 16A. I have some other materials that are not yet scanned too. The company wasn't "winding down" at that point, they had almost another decade to run until the bankruptcy (1956). The 16A is certainly the last "classic" Scot set, in terms of the quality and design. The sets built during the 1950s don't compare.

[john stafford]

thanks ken your info is very usefull

john

[palegreenthumb]

Kent, I keep coming back to this update, it contains lots of useful information.

However, there's something I keep wondering, so I'm going to ask.  Can you post your estimate of production numbers for each model, and how many of each model you have serial numbers for?

Thanks!

Rodney