Victor VV-XI Motor EXPORT??

[CDBPDX]

I'm working on a 2 spring motor from a Victrola VV-XI and found something interesting on the underside of the motorboard, the word EXPORT poorly stenciled in white. Anybody know what that's all about?

Thanks! Cliff

[EarlH]

I was told by an old piano guy once, that if I saw that mentioned in old pianos to wear rubber gloves while I worked on it, because there was no way of knowing what they might have treated the glue and felt with to keep insects in tropical climates from eating all the wool and glue out of the pianos! He was pretty serious about that (I had bought an Export model player piano that came off an old cruise ship that got scrapped in the late 1950's) and said that was the only reason they marked the pianos as "Export Models" as they were the same in every other way. But who knows in a Victrola why they would do that. Maybe something was done to keep the motor from rusting or the glue could also have had something added to it to make it more damp-proof. Some piano makers even used plated strings to keep them from rusting in very damp climates. It's a curiosity, that's for sure. At least they didn't stamp it that way under the lid!