Given TIGHAR's own experience with how the media gets things miscombobulated I think Gary deserves the benefit of the doubt here.
Some examples from the KC Star article...
"One theory is that Earhart spent World War II in a China prison camp."
China? Japan maybe. Or Saipan. But China? That's a new one.
"Another theory holds that she resumed her life under an assumed name in Long Island, N.Y."
I think Irene Bolam lived in Princeton, NJ.
My guess is Gary's remarks were meant to reflect the dating of the "ALCLAD" font rather than Alclad's origin. Although I disagree with him I always appreciated what he added to the forum and I do miss his knowledge and wit.
First of all, I'm not trying to put words in Gary's mouth, or even to give him a hard time - but the article says what it says, and that's what I have to deal with if I choose to address it.
That said, his comment rang a bell from the past - and I found an old message from Gary about this very thing. Perhaps it can shed a bit of light, and since he apparently intended it as helpful information to what we were doing with 2-2-V-1 (either way - supportive of Earhart provenance or not, it feeds research), I'll share it. Perhaps you are be right, you be the judge:
Here is a link to the entire report.
http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1942/naca-tn-842.pdf
and the original report.
http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/reports/1939/naca-tn-736.pdf
gl
Note that these links, provided by Gary, are to much later reports than the one I just found. Gary elaborated in an accompanying message -
If you look at those reports you will see that the word "alcad" was used in both reports so this pushes back to 1939 the use of that word.
gl
Thanks! Now if we could just 'push it back' to say, 1937? "That Word" ("alclad") seems important to Gary in his missive; it is in fact a definitive word, attaining 'household word' generic usage in the industry, in fact. Yes - it has been identified as "ALC" and "CLAD" and "ALCLAD" that we know of, and perhaps by other means - and in more font styles than I care to think about (saw many in Dayton that I haven't seen elsewhere).
Now, I fully realize the difference between a 'household word' in the industry, and what winds up in print on metal. Somehow I took (and still do) Gary's point in that discussion as having to do with 'when clad material evolved' - and as I look back, yes - use of 'that word'; provenance of the fonts, etc. was another matter (there were other exchanges).
So, for the moment having taken the article at face value (I realize the peril) then -
- 'This material (clad aluminum) has been with us since before Earhart's time' -
established;
If instead, we apply the assumption that Gary intended something along the lines of what he sent me back in late April 2014 (above two messages), then -
- The 'use of the word 'alclad' extends not only to 1939, as Gary suggested (and demonstrated), but in fact to 1927 - as evidenced by the later find posted up-string by my own hand.
That leaves "fonts", or the use of "A L C L A D" in lieu of "A L C" - which seems your point.
Which takes us back to the land of "see the pictures of pre-war and wartime fonts / ALC vs. ALCLAD pictures" - which has been pitched too hard as "fact", frankly, as I see it.
I would not disagree that it remains 'open-ended' as a potential up or down issue with regard to dating the metal (but can never prove an Earhart tie, BTW). The question is relevancy, then - and at the moment it is secondary to some other considerations, despite the 'press' here and there: there is other evidence regarding Amelia's window patch that is of more promise for the moment - evidence that could yet prove 2-2-V-1 is tied to the Electra.
If one wishes to focus on 'disproving', then by all means - one should go do the dust-mite laden boots on the ground effort I've come to believe it will take to pinpoint when Alcoa (or others, perhaps even) changed fonts on their rolling printers: it does not emerge so far on the net. Sorry, but the nice picture web - with all the pictures gleaned from the web here and there, and despite being sweetly persuasive to the onlooker, just is not definitive enough to disprove; and again, this point can never prove an Earhart tie.
I will unabashedly focus on the things that have potential to 'prove' - including continuing the search, as best I can.
So I hope this answers in full, as best I know how to do, Gary's assertion in the Kansas City Star: 'ALCLAD' was a staple of the industry by 1937, having been around since at least Lindbergh's scurrying across the Atlantic; the TERM 'ALCLAD' has been with us not just since 1939, but since 1927.
Beyond that, the 'fonts / ALC vs. ALCLAD' markings are another matter - and hardly the only one with bearing here.
But, you be the judge.