WE 500 L/M ringer sounding a little 'weak'

[Victor Laszlo]

2.12  (snip) Even numbered  gongs 52A, 54A, etc
                              have concentric mounting holes and
                              are to be mounted on movable mounting
                              post. The odd numbered gongs 53A,
                              55A, etc, have eccentric mounting
                              holes and are installed on fixed
                              mounting post.

Once again, either the Bell engineers had a sense of humor, or just serendipity, when assigning numbers and letters to equipment. I vote for a sense of humor.  Can you imagine the conversation in the Labs when they talked about which way to number the gongs?  Eccentric = "odd" numbers.

[Holtzer-Cabot]

2.12  (snip) Even numbered  gongs 52A, 54A, etc
                              have concentric mounting holes and
                              are to be mounted on movable mounting
                              post. The odd numbered gongs 53A,
                              55A, etc, have eccentric mounting
                              holes and are installed on fixed
                              mounting post.

Once again, either the Bell engineers had a sense of humor, or just serendipity, when assigning numbers and letters to equipment. I vote for a sense of humor.  Can you imagine the conversation in the Labs when they talked about which way to number the gongs?  Eccentric = "odd" numbers.

Okay, thanks for the info! And yes I vote for sense of humor too! I noticed that most Western Electric part numbers have the 'A' at the end. Did this mean anything?

[unbeldi]

Okay, thanks for the info! And yes I vote for sense of humor too! I noticed that most Western Electric part numbers have the 'A' at the end. Did this mean anything?

Good question, really.  There does not seem to be much (or any?) primary documentation about the part numbering methods, other than what we can derive from finished products in catalogs and Bell System Practices.

We know that Western Electric designed many parts for a long service life, 20 years in some cases. Such long time frames make it inevitable that parts need modification to account for material changes, change in manufacturing methods, or adaptations for similar applications.

So, it appears that they in general assigned the A suffix to the first version, or in cases when multiple version are planned, for the most common or simplest variety of the part or apparatus.

But some parts were indeed initially introduced with just a number.  To mind comes, for example, the 101-type induction coil used in anti-sidetone subsets and later in the 302 telephone.  The first version was documented as the 101 induction coil, but by 1933 it was already designated as the 101A, despite there not being a 101B yet at that time, as far as we know.  I think the same applies to the No. 46 induction in 1918 or 1919.

Subscriber sets usually were conceived in several versions, as they knew in advance that they had to accommodate multiple types of telephone service (Local battery, common battery, tip party identification, message rate, etc.)

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Good question, really.  There does not seem to be much (or any?) primary documentation about the part numbering methods, other than what we can derive from finished products in catalogs and Bell System Practices.

We know that Western Electric designed many parts for a long service life, 20 years in some cases. Such long time frames make it inevitable that parts need modification to account for material changes, change in manufacturing methods, or adaptations for similar applications.

So, it appears that they in general assigned the A suffix to the first version, or in cases when multiple version are planned, for the most common or simplest variety of the part or apparatus.

But some parts were indeed initially introduced with just a number.  To mind comes, for example, the 101-type induction coil used in anti-sidetone subsets and later in the 302 telephone.  The first version was documented as the 101 induction coil, but by 1933 it was already designated as the 101A, despite there not being a 101B yet at that time, as far as we know.  I think the same applies to the No. 46 induction in 1918 or 1919.

Subscriber sets usually were conceived in several versions, as they knew in advance that they had to accommodate multiple types of telephone service (Local battery, common battery, tip party identification, message rate, etc.)

That makes sense! I figured something like that! Thanks for the info!