What say you ?

[unbeldi]

I found this date stamp on the bottom of a 304 telephone set.

The set is from 1948, and was clearly refurbished last no earlier than 3rd quarter 1954 with new cords (III 54) and refurbished transmitter (754R).
It was subsequently installed in Elizabeth, New Jersey.   The set was found 15 minutes west from there in original 1960's condition, cut-off from the wall.

The Bell System operated service centers in the area in both New York, NY (since 1904) and in Newark, NJ (since 1926).  So, most likely it was refurbished either at Newark, which is adjacent to Elizabeth, or it was refurbished directly by New Jersey Bell Telephone in company shops. The headquarters of NJ Bell were also in Newark.

This probably precludes the "circle S" being a location.   Could this be an inventory mark rather than a refurbishing mark?
What does the (S) mean?

What say you?

[Victor Laszlo]

Shreveport? There was a huge WE refurb plant there.

[unbeldi]

Shreveport? There was a huge WE refurb plant there.

Thanks, but I thought Shreveport was a factory. The factory didn't open until 1967 or so.
The service center for that area was in New Orleans, I believe, opened in 1912.

I don't think a NJ or any northern telephone company would ship equipment all the way to Louisiana for refurbishing. The service centers usually serviced equipment for the associated companies in their territory.

The letter "S" is known to have been used by the St. Louis service center established in 1902. Later they used the designation ST, when the single letter designations were changed to two-letter codes at some time—I don't know the transition year.

[unbeldi]

Here is perhaps another clue.  This is the transmitter of that set.

It shows its refurbishing history, going back to manufacturing in 1939.

I think there is a clue on this transmitter that it was in fact refurbished not by NJ Telephone, but by the regional Bell service center.  It has a green splash of ink or paint, which I interpret to mean that the transmitter was marked as belonging to the local telephone company, and could not be resold to another as used equipment.

Often equipment would be stamped in green ink reading,  "Telephone Co. Property" or similarly,  but that would likely be hard to stamp onto a transmitter.   Why not a splash of green ink instead?