Anti-Skating pre-stereo arms and tables?

In the mono only days was Anti-Skating adjustment included on the tonearms?

 

Depends on what you call "mono" only days are you being strict about that or do you mean when most people had mono but stereo existed?

The SME 3009 is a fairly old arm and it had it. I am sure there would have been others but most regular people would have never know that kind of tonearm existed. Most record players in those days were very crude changers and are not comparable to what became kind of normal after the mid 70's.

 

Many did not.
My TP13 tone arm,1967 came without.
Worked ok
I fitted an anti skate device which Thorens made available as an aftermarket addition..
Worked fine
It is needed as offset in arm causes arm to be drawn inwards.

 

Thorens turntables has anti skate on their arms back in the mid 1960s.

 

The RCA Victor Radiotron Designer's Handbook (which also covered turntable design) from the 1950s acknowledged that the skating force exists, but makes no mention of any devices or methods designed to counteract it. It wasn't considered to be worth worrying about in the pre-stereo era.