As I've acquired several Motorola sets using one of the TS-4 chassis variations, I noticed they have a serial # stamped on them and usually a date. Assuming that date is the production or assembly date, I starting accumulating data from wherever I could find it. Some kindly provided by Videokarma members, some from eBay photos, some from restoration diary websites.
Here's what I have so far including some TS-18 (TS-4 successor) data. The TS-18 serial numbers seem to start with 300,000 and the dates were reduced to 1M50, 2M50, 3M50 etc towards the end of it's life.
It's a shame the earliest TS-4 examples don't seem to have a date anywhere on them.
TS-4 serial # 2425 ( ??? ) My set
TS-4 serial # 4703 ( ??? )
TS-4 serial # 5680 ( ??? )
TS-4D serial # 14025 (Mar 10, 1948)
TS-4D serial # 16368 (Mar 17, 1948)
TS-4D serial # 23149 (???, 1948)
TS-4D serial # 23723 ( ? 24, 1948)
TS-4D serial # 24969 ( ??? )
TS-4F serial # 29295 ( ??? )
TS-4F serial # 32608 ( ??? )
TS-4G serial # 42021 (Jun 24, 1948)
*** TS-4G serial # 20430 (Jun 25, 1948)
TS-4H serial # 38641 (Jun 20, 1948)
TS-4H serial # 43109 (Aug 4, 1948)
TS-4H serial # 45354 (Jul 26, 1948)
TS-4H serial # 48691 (Aug 13, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 52186 (Oct ??, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 52575 (Oct 11 1948)
TS-4J serial # 53152 (Oct 19, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 53608 ( ??? )
TS-4J serial # 54402 (Oct 6, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 57234 (Dec 17, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 57280 (Nov 10, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 57466 (Nov 22, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 58966 (Dec 6, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 61454 (Jan 5, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 63638 (Dec 2, 1948)
TS-4J serial # 65152 (Jan 7, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 66171 (Feb 4, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 67607 (Jan 10, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 68262 (Jan 26, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 70500 (Feb 11, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 72008 (Feb 14, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 72421 (Feb 25, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 76785 (Mar 15, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 79677 (Mar 22, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 84425 (Apr 12, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 86923 (Apr 23, 1949)
TS-4J serial # 87897 ( ??? )
TS-4J serial # 98728 (??? 9, 1949)
TS-18 serial # 301795 (Jun 2, 1949)
TS-18 serial # 311370 ( ??? )
TS-18 serial # 313552 ( ??? )
TS-18 serial # 319580 ( ??? )
TS-18 serial # 328490 ( ??? )
TS-18 serial # 330103 ( ??? )
TS-18 serial # 333570 (Nov 11 1949)
TS-18A serial # 338581 (Nov 29, 1949)
TS-18A serial # ??? (1M50)
TS-18A serial # 341372 ( ??? )
TS-18A serial # 342687 (2M50)
TS-18A serial # 344106 (2M50)
TS-18A serial # 348629 (2M50)
TS-18A serial # 351406 (2M50)
I weeded out the data with incomplete info and created this graph. I was quite surprised at how linear it is. I really expected it to be non-linear with production picking up steam over time, but that's just not the case.
I'd be happy to add more data to my list if anyone has some to offer.
