Posted By:
Craig Whttp://www.ibiblio.org/dukehome/family.html
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-6805(196921)43%3A1%3C59%3AOOTATC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2
http://supreme.justia.com/us/221/106/case.html
None of these links provide an answer to the Factory 649 question, but they do have some good general info.
The first link is about the Duke family and the formation of ATC.
The second link says there were 5 original companies, and then ATC acquired another 250 companies. In my opinion, it's possible that one of these companies had a factory in NY that ATC decided to name as #649, but as for their number system, we still don't know why.
The third link is about the supreme court anti-trust case against ATC.
Regards,
Craig