Anyone know the story behind this?

[Czechmilan]

34216-42 4.jpg

We came across this very interesting tag. As you can see, there are strategically place cut outs, Part #, ID and the company name. We were interested to know the history of this company which clearly displayed advanced technology for the time and were being used to manufacture parts for the motor company. Does anyone know anything?

Milan Podsednik
306-717-4149
CANADA
http://www.milansmotorcycles.com
info@milansmotorcycles.com

[1950Panhead]

34216-42 is a gear shifter cover for a Harley xa
GM is General Motors, they had parts depot during the war which apparently had Harley parts.

[Steve Swan]

reminiscent of fortran cards..... that's high tech for WW2 era

[Rooster]

Couldn't the punches have been added at any time after the war? Perhaps it was a later inventory system.

[Steve Swan]

Couldn't the punches have been added at any time after the war? Perhaps it was a later inventory system.

yeah. i just looked up fortran, 1st appeared 1957

[exeric]

Those slots are for a keypunch computer system. IBM had those back in the 1930s, and Indian used the IBM system for their parts inventory during WW2. According to Jerry Hatfield, it was one of the reasons Indian lost money during the war as they fell victim to computer myopia, and lost sight of simplicity. Also, I believe the top line on the tag is QM, which would be an abbreviation of 'Quarter Masters'.

[Chris Haynes]

That is a QM tag, not a manufacturer. QM = Army Quarter Master. They ordered and supplied all the motorcycles and parts for the military.

[Steve Swan]

Those slots are for a keypunch computer system. IBM had those back in the 1930s, and Indian used the IBM system for their parts inventory during WW2. According to Jerry Hatfield, it was one of the reasons Indian lost money during the war as they fell victim to computer myopia, and lost sight of simplicity. Also, I believe the top line on the tag is QM, which would be an abbreviation of 'Quarter Masters'.

very interesting. i had no idea, my lazy wiki search indicates key punches first started being used in the 1890's and then as Eric said, ibm in early 1930's. i remember using fortran cards to record data in a chemistry class i took in the early 70's. did not know key punch was used long before. learn sumthin' new every day.

[vph-d]

The part number is the post 1951 5 digit style.
VPH-D

[Czechmilan]

Wow...thanks everyone. We thought it was a company now we know it was Quarter Masters. And yes we were so impressed with this hi tech inventory control system for the era. Thanks for the input. We knew the part # because we have this part in stock but have never seen a tag like this. Pretty cool stuff!