boonton: 100-A; Boonton Q-Meter and general information

There is a good article (PDF) by Henry P. Hall with the title: A History of Impedance Measurements":
ietlabs.com/pdf/GenRad_History/A_History_of_Z_Measurement.pdf

It begins with the early experimenters from 1775 to 1915, follows with the first commercial instruments 1900 to 1945, where in 2.5 can be found the following:

"Other Early Ac Instruments: Perhaps the most famous RF measuring instrument was the Boonton Radio Company's Type 100A "Q Meter" designed by C.J. Franks and W.D. Loughlin and introduced in 1934.
This popular instrument went through many revisions over the years with the BRC types 160-A appearing in 1939 (see figure 2-36) and 260-A in 1953 being the best known. Hewlett-Packard, who bought BRC, listed the type 4342A Q meter in its catalogs through 1993. In this circuit the unknown inductor is resonated against a variable capacitor whose dial reads inductance directly at certain frequencies and the inductor's Q value is proportional to the resonant peak voltage and is read on the scale of a vacuum-tube voltmeter."

You find this on page 25. The design was in 1934, but the first ad seems to appear May 1935. We believe this was the market introduction. Here you also find that the market introduction of the follower, the Type 160-A, was in 1939 but it could have been the design and introduction was later.

We would be thankful if you could send us some examples of ads or other information about the introduction but also about the follower instruments. We should be able to slowly get proofs by primary sources for such dates - including the end of a production - which can be seen in catalogs.

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