[Arran]

That standardized things after a while here too, particularly after the Radio Manufacturer's Association was formed, it's now known as the EIA. After the RMA came into being a lot of the whacky and non standardized schematic drafting came to an end, along with oddball capacitor and resistance values. The difference is that the RMA was the private radio industry coming together to agree to some standards rather then by government mandate. The automotive industry had a very similar organization called the Society of Automotive Engineers, or SAE, they are part of the reason why we have one standard of machine screw threads. Either way works I suppose but it shows that mutual interests can often accomplish the same goal. I'm not surprised about hair pulling over an early 30s set, they used some rather whacky ideas at times.
Regards
Arran