Probably long over due here, a separate area (Child Board) of the "Technical Stuff" board dedicated to the numerous discussions and attempts to decode all of the codes stamped on the bottom/back of AE telephone sets, primarily AE40, 43, 47 & 50.
No one has ever been able to figure out very much about these codes yet they all must indicate something relevant to the features of the phone that they are stamped on.
A discussion that RotoTech99 started a week or so ago about these codes finally got a discussion going that is making progress at deciphering some of the codes. Unbeldi has started a topic on the gold decal/paper label/ink stamp labels that have the patent numbers on them. This will help narrow down the manufacturing dates of any particular phone based on the parents on the label.
I've collected up some of the topics in the subject and moved them here though there are likely more of them lurking in the corners of CRPF!
Dedicated to "Cracking the Codes"!
Terry
Nicely done, Terry.
Lot of work went into what you ended up with. Now, it's all in one place.
Thank you, Terry. Nice idea and nice job!
These practices of trying to figure out what A/E or WE were thinking is a real problem. Isn't anyone still around that was actually their to help decipher the coises. How would we start a search for employees. We still have many World War two era people, so there must be some that worked for the telephone companies.
D/P
I've thought that myself. Many people in their 20's or 30's who would have worked in these plants in the 40's and 50's are still around and some may remember some of the details still. I have no idea how one would track these people down now and the numbers will be quickly dwindling.
If Automatic Electric were still in business I bet there could be retiree magazines that might allow an "advertisement" looking for information. But of course if AE we're still in business they might still have records somewhere!
Terry
You would probably have to get lucky and find the persons that actually adjusted or used the stamping equipment, or the management that directed them, to get any useful information from employees. The vast majority of workers probably wouldn't know a thing about it.