It'd be nice to get a definitive answer but so far it's defeated me. There was an on-line Canadian Museum that said the wheel in the hole was the earlier one and I think a lot of folk might be simply quoting that, rather than having any actual proof.
I've found one on-line reference to Hardy's full bail patent being extended by 7 years in gratitude for War work and that would take it to September 1954. I don't have3 a copy, but Rupe Attwood's book ( Ambidexman on the TFF) apparently says that Ted Young thought his two piece full bail, the 'flexible pick-up', or FP would get around the patent. Hardy said it didn't and refused permission for it until their patent expired.
Now J W Young had already breached their other Altex patent on a worm drive for the rotor in their Ambidex and Hardy had allowed that to go through provided the early Ambidex reels displayed the Hardy patent number. They also apparently took out adverts in the angling press reminding anglers that they held the work drive patent.
As stated above, I don't have a copy of Rupe's book, but he has been kind enough to confirm all of the above in e-mail correspondence.
What has been discovered by all this is that a pre-War patent lasted for 15 years....apart, it would seem, for that Hardy full bail patent and also I believe the worm-drive one, which were extended. This seems a little hard on J W Young as they made a huge War effort ( as it was called at the time) too...most notably the Spitfire firing button!
Young's 'wheel in the hole' patent, called a 'compensating drag' by Garry Mills, was granted in 1905, so it would have expired in 1920!
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publica ... cale=en_EP#
It's remarkable that no one ( as far as I am aware) copied it sooner......
Even this 1911 patent adaption would have expired in 1926:
https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publica ... cale=en_EP#
As to Hardy reel parts being made by J W Young, Moley has some pals who are ex-J W Young employees and they tease him by telling him little snippets implying whole reels might have actually been made for Hardy.
What we need now is a slightly earlier Hardy Super Bottom Fishing Tackle brochure to see if the Conquest was offered earlier than 1955....and hope there's an image! Unfortunately, they are like Hen's teeth and were only printed every few years so I have no idea what year an earlier one might come from....if it pre-dates Conquest production I'm stymied.........
![Brickwall :Brickwall:](./images/smilies/icon_brickwall.gif)