KC outer carton

[Leroy]

It may not be as easy as it sounds: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5600443.html

[MH184]

Can you determine the age of cardboard pre and post war within a fraction of a duration?

Well, what about if you were to use atmospheric radiocarbon concentration curve data to determine what was made pre 'bomb drop' and post effect?

I'm thinking along the lines of the ''clean'' steel and the U-Boats they once intimated an intention of salvaging.

Ink and paper of such recent times are a buggerence, there's no simple use this method and here's your result end of dilemma - far from it.

And even more so regarding this carton predicament.

I had to submit dozens of my packets and cartons as ''sources'' for determinations of several items I wished to have vouched for.

Like the CCC carton ''plural'' designation contention; the result: both the singular and plural are one in the same.

Regarding Eduardo's, there's a gamble element as to inconclusive results, but it's not a mono-technique process.

[MH184]

Where does it end; A POSTWAR CARDBOARD BOX....IF THE TREE GREW DURING THE WAR, IS THE BOX ANY GOOD.
________
Robert

It depends on the depth of and how many wartime tree rings it has

[Leroy]

For those who may not have heard of this, here is an explanation of the "pre-A-bomb vs. post A-bomb" factor:

"The world's air is polluted with minute traces of radioactive material from the nuclear bombs exploded since 1945.

During the steel making process large amounts of air are used and
very small quantities of radioactive material are then absorbed into
the metal.

Instruments used for measuring radioactivity must be free from background
radiation. Post 1945 steel is contaminated and when used in these
instruments will give a false reading.

More accurate instruments use only steel that was manufactured before 1945."

This is true, it is not fantasy, and there are ways to test an object to see if it incorporates, within its actual structure, radiation of a nature associated with post July, 1945 nuclear activity. This testing, regretably, is not readily commercially available, on any sort of cost-efficient basis, to anyone with an EKI they wish to verify as real. Also, according to physicists, the testing is notoriously unreliable for porous materials, including paper and cloth made from non-synthetic material. Additionally, testing on such materials requires partial destruction.

In other words, this testing is, from a practical standpoint, IMPRACTICAL.

Except for the use of blantantly, and easily provable, MODERN materials (i.e. not possibly in existence and use prior to 1945, whether or not patented), there is no way to determine in a practical scientific way, whether something was made in February, 1945 or March, 1953. Instead, that determination must be made by construction technique and appearance. In some cases, no one will argue (e.g. the Fuhrer's profile in the middle of an RK). In others, there can be a legitimate argument (fibers which react to ultraviolet light). All we do is form some sort of consensus on originality. In other words...opinions based on enough examples of KNOWN period pieces to have a fully reliable basis.

The trick is that last part, the "fully reliable basis" part. There is SOME of that in this hobby, but not nearly as much as we would like to think (or some would have us believe).