Our December 2019 Photo of the Month was this rack of instruments taken sometime in 1967 or 1968. We did not have any more information about it and asked for input in the November newsletter.

A reader responded with this information on both the location and the cards. Another mystery solved.

I know exactly where this photo was taken. It is the shipping dock on the first floor of building 39 Assembly East at the building south end (facing Karl Braun Drive).

These just-finished instruments are awaiting shipping packaging, which is sealing them in a internally padded (Styrofoam) cardboard box. They are then picked up by a truck from the dock and moved to the shipping warehouse on SW Millikan Way.

As instruments moved from Final Assembly, to Test and Calibration, to Inspection and QC and to 24 hour operation at elevated temperatures, the cards showed the respective people who worked on them at date and time by serial number. This way if there was a quality issue with an instrument we know exactly who to talk to per the defect. As strange as it might sound, these cards prevented an instrument inadvertently slipping from just finished Final Assembly moving directly to Shipping packaging without ever being turned on.

The trailer card recorded also shows that the date and time the instrument left the building 39 Assembly East shipping dock and that it should be in the shipping warehouse.