Turret board

Turret boards were an early attempt at making electronic circuits that were relatively rugged, producible, and serviceable in the days before printed wiring boards. As this method was somewhat more expensive than conventional point to point techniques it was generally found in the more expensive applications such professional, commercial, and military equipment.

Turret boards consist of a thin (generally 1/8th inch) piece of non-conductive material drilled in pattern to match the electronic layout of a set of components. Each hole drilled will have a turret positioned in it. Components are suspended between these turrets and soldered to them to create a complete circuit board.

Most of the military electronics used in WWII used this technique. If you look at Altec professional gear of similar vintage, it has the same construction. On the other hand, if you look at the underside of a consumer Zenith 1A10 console radio circa 1940, it is a nightmare array of "flying" components (electronics suspended but not tethered down that could move unexpectedly) that was intended to keep your friendly neighborhood radio repairman in work throughout all his days. Using turrets and turret boards dramatically improves reliability and serviceability.

Turret boards allowed some degree of "engineered" construction. That is, an engineer could design a loaded turret board with wire listed interconnects that could be assembled by someone skilled only in component recognition and soldering. A schematic was never needed for assembly.

Up until reliable high temperature printed wiring boards were developed, turret board construction was consider the best available technology.

For those who lack the design software and financial resources to layout PWBs for hobby projects, turret board wiring is still the best, at least in my opinion.