"
After Ford 214" :
year in
Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World in which
hypnopaedia is first used.
"After Ford" refers to the number of years after Henry Ford produced his first Model T (namely from October 1, 1908). Ford became something of a God-figure to the techno-standardized citizens of the society which developed after the Nine Years War. Ford as a symbol of automation, standardization, technology, sterilization, increased production, etc. was the perfect replacement for God. All crosses had their top piece cut off and became T's - the new quasi-religious symbol. A common exclamation was "oh, Ford".
In the book, there does appear one non-Ford based reference to a date : 1770, the date on which the highest C was reached at the Ducal opera of Parma by Lucrezia Ajugari. I'm not sure if Huxley intended the slip, but I was kind of sad it wasn't converted into A.F. (or as a nice noder pointed out, B.F.; B.F. 138, in fact, assuming A.D. 1907 is B.F. 1)