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AECo 34A3 Desk & 35A5 Wall Telephone Base Coding Discussion

Started by AE_Collector, February 11, 2016, 08:41:26 PM

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AE_Collector

Okay, lets give this a go. I have talked about it on several occasions and so have others. In an effort to try to further clarify the coding on the bases of many AE sets and to see if we can identify features of any given telephone set that would help date a particular phone in someones possession lets talk about them here.

Ultimately I think the goal will be to try to crack the more complicated base of the coding on the AE 40/50 models but I think that may be a larger challenge so lets start small.

The 34A3 desk model and the 35A5 wall model both followed the AE 2 desk model that I think we all agree was at least AE's first self contained telephone, IE: all in one package, no subset required.

I would say that the AE 2 was produced from about 1928 to 1934 before the replacement 34A3 was introduced likely followed soon after by the 35A5. As much of AE's model numbers of that era suggest, these two models were designed or released in about 1934 and 1935.

The 34A3 desk phone was a natural evolution from the AE 2 being somewhat more compact than the AE 2 and was likely very fashionable for the time. The 34 and 35 didn't have a long production run though as by about 1939 the 34 had been refined even further and introduced as the new AE 40 and the same fate met the 35 being replaced by the new AE 50.

This also seems to me to be the point in time where AE started to drift from its numbering of models based on the year of introduction. The 40 was most likely numbered roughly based on the year 1939/1940 following the old standard but model 40 could also have been derived from the 4 in AE 34 and the model 50 which was released years before 1950 could have been derived from the 5 in AE 35. All just my speculation, none of this is based on anything that I have ever read anywhere.

To start this off, here are some links to info already here on the forum.

Here is a post by Unbeldi with a link to download the 4055A catalog:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2959.msg153898#msg153898

Here is the list of known AE Catalogs at the beginning of the same topic:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2959.msg40198#msg40198

And here is the topic called "More AE40 Coding Data Guesses" where we decided to start this new topic:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=14553.0

And finally a link to the AECo Bakelite Era Phones - Base Codes & Patent Numbers Survey:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5514.0

Terry

AE_Collector

#1
Here are some screenshots concerning the brand new AE 34A3 desk phone from the AE 4055 Catalog dated June 25, 1934:

Terry

AE_Collector

#2
Here are some screenshots concerning the AE 34A3 desk phone and the AE 35A5 wall phone from the AE 4055A catalog dated June 1937. The 40 and 50 had not yet been designed or released at that time.

Terry

RotoTech99

Thanks, I found the 4055A catalog in the TCI Library, too.

unbeldi

Quote from: AE_Collector on February 11, 2016, 08:41:26 PM
This also seems to me to be the point in time where AE started to drift from its numbering of models based on the year of introduction. The 40 was most likely numbered roughly based on the year 1939/1940 following the old standard but model 40 could also have been derived from the 4 in AE 34 and the model 50 which was released years before 1950 could have been derived from the 5 in AE 35. All just my speculation, none of this is based on anything that I have ever read anywhere.

Car makers start selling their products by model year pretty much by the third quarter of the previous year. I don't know whether this practice dates back to before WWII, but Automatic Electric may have realized the marketing edge this provides when introducing the Type 40 Monophone.

However, I do find your speculation most intriguing, because as you alluded to, the Type 50 was in the catalogs already by 1944, rending the model year theory most unlikely.
The Type 43 Compact still fits the paradigm, and there was also a Type 42 and Type 44, around that time.  Before 1950, however, they added the Type 60 already.

Thanks for that idea!