Rebuilding my AE-34 dial card assy

[flingwing1969]

I've done some poking around on the forum for a comprehensive how to on rebuilding the dial card assy - ring and backer plate - on an AE without success.  I am getting a ring and backer plate and would like to know the proper way to piece them together - any help would be appreciated.

[stub]

flingwing1969,
                     Go here and  download this from TCI Library.    stub
                                       
                                      http://tinyurl.com/7zcpp9z

[flingwing1969]

Thank you.  That should help me get the orientation correct.

[flingwing1969]

Anyone know the history behind the numbers on the dials?  My 24 has only numbers on it, but I've seen 24s and 24A136s with numbers and letters - some simple a - b - c and others ABC - DEF - GHI etc. 

[AE_Collector]

If you were in a small town and served by an automatic exchange you likely only were calling other subscribers within the same exchange. If you were calling or being called from other towns or cities it all went through the operator and they ususally just asked for your number at your town.

On the other hand larger cities quickly grew above one single exchange so unique names were given to the exchanges. You needed the letters on the dial to call them particularly when these calls were local calls.

So Cosmopolitan dials for use in larger cities had letters on them as well as numbers while rural dials didn't. In the early years of automatic exchanges, some Telco's used other variations of dials where sometimes just the first letter of a named exchange resides on each digit. Eventually the arrangement that we are all familiar with became the standard.

Terry

[flingwing1969]

Ah, reasonable explanation, thanks Terry.