Does anyone know about AE40 cords?

[ntophones]

I was just wondering if anyone knows when the AE40 had straight cords vs. the curled cords?
I'm just curious, as I haven't been able to find out.

[Phonesrfun]

I suspect the AE40 was issued originally with either a straight fabric cord or an extensicord.  I don't think they came out with the coiled cords until later.  An extensicord is kind of expensive to find, but is a fabric braided cord that has kind of a bungee down its center.

If they did ever put a coiled cord on the AE40, it may have been similar to the fabric coiled cords that originally came on the WE 302.

Handset cords were routinely replaced, since they are very susceptible to use and abuse, and were, after all, just made of fabric and some tinseled wire for flexibility.  Often they were upgraded with the vinyl covered coiled cords.

Oldphoneworks.com has replacement fabric cords.  Steve Hilsz did have some original AE extensicords.

Your current coiled cord does not look bad, however.

[JorgeAmely]

Extensicords were patented by AE in 1933.

[Phonesrfun]

Jorge:

Do you think AE would have originally put a coiled cord on a #40 or #50?  I am thinking it would have either been a straight fabric or an extensicord.

-Bill

[ntophones]

That's what I was thinking, though I have seen many pictures with the coiled cords on an AE40. They do look out of place to me. I'll have to keep mine for a while, since I'm going pretty far overbudget on my phones! =)

[Dennis Markham]

For the survey, I've had four or five of them and they've all had coiled vinyl cords.

[JorgeAmely]

I think the progression would have been straight fabric covered cords, then straight smooth rubber cords. For customers that paid premium prices, the intertwined cords and Extensicords would have been next in the scale. When manufacturing processes improved, (we are talking mid fifties here) curly cords (first all black) then colored, would have been the latest to be fitted into phones.

My 2 cents.

[ntophones]

That's what I think, too. Do you think that all the phones with the curly cords were late phones?
I wonder how you date an ae40 phone?

[foots]

Steve Hilsz is away on a trip to a government auction and will return on the 11th. Hopefully with some cords for me  . He is a very nice guy, btw.

[JorgeAmely]

nto:

All the plastic and rubber curly corded phones I have are from the mid fifties on. There are some very elegant cloth covered curly cords (and you can still buy reproductions of those), but unfortunately, I don't own one, so I can't tell you the date those were manufactured. I have seen them on WE phones, therefore, I am sure there is a data stamp on the original ones.

Bad joke alert: Dating an AE40 in tough; those girls are not around anymore. 

Seriously, you have to look at the patent dates, dials and other components installed in them to more or less pinpoint when they made. If the dial ratchets or not is an indication of the dial in them. For patent dates, I use Google patent search. For components (such as networks), some dated catalogs are available with part numbers that could be used to date internal components. Gary Goff, a member from one of the clubs has a site with lots of AE40s. You could try a request for dating a phone based on pictures, but again, with AE never dating components, there will be a +/- 5-7 year uncertainty.

This is his website:
http://telephonecollector.info/

[ntophones]

Oh, wow. Thanks for the information. I will do some research, which, to me is half the fun of the phones--learning about them.
I appreciate the info.

[dsk]

Waking up this thread.

How does this look?

I just covered a curled cord with cloth material.
Recurled it by wrapping it around an 8 mm bolt, putting it in the oven, heating to 100 deg C when 100 are reached. reducing the heat to 50 deg, and turn off after 10 min to let cool.


Curled cords are sometimes preferable, but not always. On this, my daily driver it seems to be practical.

dsk

[JorgeAmely]

The straight portion before the curled section starts it usually kept tucked inside. However, that is just my opinion.

Your AE40 looks very nice.