My AE40 collection - AE40FAN

[dsk]

I had a cloth covered coiled cord, and did some cleaning.
Now I have to decide if I should change my desktop telephone.  


dsk

[AE_Collector]

Pretty hard to date them beyond their manufacturing run which was about 1939 through the late 1950's. It seems that production of the AE 40 overlapped the AE 80 by several years. Cloth covered wiring inside versus plastic insulated wires woul help determine if it were an early one rather than a later one.

Terry

[poplar1]

Dsk, maybe you can provide some pictures of the inside.

The older ringers are larger and have terminals instead of soldered wires. Also, I think a phone marked 41xx is newer than one marked 40xx.

Notice that the wiring diagram is Issue 7, and shows both the colors for the braided cotton cords and the newer rubber cord colors.

[AE_Collector]

Yes one day I would like to determine what caused the jump from 40xx  to 41xx. Then the next step will be figuring all the other letters and numbers!

Terry

[dsk]

Dsk, maybe you can provide some pictures of the inside.

The older ringers are larger and have terminals instead of soldered wires. Also, I think a phone marked 41xx is newer than one marked 40xx.

Notice that the wiring diagram is Issue 7, and shows both the colors for the braided cotton cords and the newer rubber cord colors.

The handset caps has only one ring (indicates later version?)
The internal wiring is cloth covered (indicates earlier version?)
The SL ringer has soldered terminals, small hammer and 2000 ohms coils (later?)
The handset plungers are metal, not bakelite (earlier?)
The original dial label has Arecode 314 GIbson
The base is galvanized, not painted black
The dial has no letter Z at zero

[HowardPgh]

My guess is that your 40 may be a later version or a refurbished one.
The diai is mounted to the case by molded baklite supports rather than mounted on a seperate metal plate.
There is one two section condenser rather than two seperate ones. (One on the base and one mounted to the bakelite shell.)
The ringer is shorter than the earlier ones.
The paper wrapping the coil is brown rather than black.
Earlier 40s have no screw terminal "5".
Again this is just my guess.-Howard

[AE_Collector]

Howard is correct as far as I know.

Quoting dsk:
The handset caps has only one ring (indicates later version?)  YES
The internal wiring is cloth covered (indicates earlier version?)  YES
The SL ringer has soldered terminals, small hammer and 2000 ohms coils (later?)  YES
The handset plungers are metal, not bakelite (earlier?)  Not Certain
The original dial label has Arecode 314 GIbson
The base is galvanized, not painted black  Most Common Scenario
The dial has no letter Z at zero  Not Certain

I have never really figured out when or why some plungers were black bakelite while most were chromed brass.
Also, I am not sure of the scenario where the Z is or isn't included...someone remind me.

The thing that stands out to me with this one is the cloth wiring inside. I haven't been able to determine when the switch to plastic insulated wiring happened on the 40 and 50 but with this example there have been lots of "later improvements" other than the wiring.

Terry

[AE40FAN]

I'll have to take pictures of the inside of my AE40.  I always assumed it was a very end production model due to it most likely never being put into service (It looks that new).  It also has rubber cords.  However, if your theories are true.  The cloth internal wiring, large bell hammer, and non-soldered coiled capacitors make make me think it may actually be earlier....

[dsk]

I didn't know this was so popular, but as they say to be copied is a great honour:
http://tinyurl.com/9t8s722
But this is a quite bad copy and expensive copy $25-30?

dsk

[poplar1]

Yes one day I would like to determine what caused the jump from 40xx  to 41xx. Then the next step will be figuring all the other numbers and numbers!

Terry

Terry, is it possible that the 4123 has the small ringer and the 40xx has the large ringer?

[poplar1]

Also, I am not sure of the scenario where the Z is or isn't included...someone remind me.


Terry

The Z on WE dials existed from about 1934 or 1935 (149B number plate) to 1953. Maybe earlier if anyone has seen a 132B with Z.

I have no idea if AE dials followed this pattern. Can someone check the AE catalogs?

[AE_Collector]

Terry, is it possible that the 4123 has the small ringer and the 40xx has the large ringer?

Yes it could be the ringer or maybe the change in capacitors from 2 seperate to 1 combined. I don't know if there were any other significant changes to the circuit through the life of the 40 & 50. Maybe Stub has studied the circuits? That would seem like a potential for the numbering change. But in reality it isn;t just the 40xx to 41xx as there is no end to the 3rd and 4th sigit variations as well. It is possible that they hit 4099 and caried on from 4100! Not sure if the 3rd & 4th sigits represented features like trim, color, cords etc or not. There are the other groups of letters and numbers that follow the 4xxx number that more likely represented those sort of features. The one thing from those additional codes that does seem to represent something is the ringer type as far as frequency or SL. And the AE coding sort of followed on in that direction on the later type 80 and 90 coding as well. Its a puzzle that I always hoped to get enough info on to unravel at least some of it before I die.

I started an AE code data base thread here but haven't worked on it for awhile now. I enter all the info into a data base and one day will study it to see if I can find any patterns to the codes and the way the phone is equipped. Anyone feel free to contribute to it when ever they like.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5514.0

Terry

[stub]

Terry,
         The only thing I can find on the Z on the number plate is in the AE 4055 C  June 1940 Catalog ,pg. 34  and calls it a AK-32 . You could order any of the 3  - AK-30  Numbered  1 to 0 in black
                                             AK-31  1 to 0 and Operator - with "operator" added over "0" space. Letters and figures in black
                                             AK-32   Black letters and red figures "Z" over "operator" and "0"     stub

[AE_Collector]

Have you ever noticed any significant differences in the wiring (schematic) between older and newer 40's and 50's Stub?

Terry

[stub]

Terry,
           Back to the dial plates- It seems like AE started out calling the plate with operator over O a D-53196 in 1934 and changed to AK- 32 in 1937 and in 1940 added the Z and still called it a AK-32 and they are clearly different. What's up with that?  Ever seen a AK- 31 ? Numbers and letters all black.
          All of mine seem to be wired the same.    stub