Better late than never with info from a 1937 G & E catalog, which looks like your vintage.
First the weight, 14" PLAIN TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL 3200# The TOOL ROOM variety was much lighter than the industrial variety.
As an example: 16" PLAIN TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL also 3200# but the 16" PLAIN INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL was 4200#
The tool room was not only lighter, it was faster and had finer feeds, using the same comparison of 16" as above: tool room 15-200 spm, industrial 11-140 spm
And the feeds, tool room .005-.090" in 18 steps, industrial .010-.180" in 18 steps.
On a G&E, "PLAIN" is best explained by this quote from the catalog " Table front support and guide are furnished with all machines excepting Plain Shapers"
G&E had a huge selection of shapers, in 1937 you could get the following:
TOOL ROOM PLAIN
TOOL ROOM
INDUSTRIAL PLAIN
INDUSTRIAL
If you wanted a shaper with a universal table, your choices were similar:
TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL PLAIN
TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL
INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL PLAIN
INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
I gets more convoluted when you see that there were a total of 12 differen 16" shapers. The lightest of these was the 16" TOOL ROOM PLAIN at 2950# and the heavies was the 16" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL at 4350#
In total, there were 28 different shapers available. In addition to that you could also get extras like a supplemental table top, tool lifter, table front had feed, moldmaker's vise, index centers and a jib crane.
What the heck, just for kicks and grins, here were your shaper choices:
14" TOOL ROOM PLAIN
16" TOOL ROOM PLAIN
16" TOOL ROOM
16" INDUSTRIAL PLAIN
16-20" INDUSTRIAL PLAIN
16" INDUSTRIAL
16-20" INDUSTRIAL
20" INDUSTRIAL
20-24" INDUSTRIAL
24" INDUSTRIAL
28" INDUSTRIAL
32" INDUSTRIAL
32" INDUSTRIAL HEAVY
36" INDUSTRIAL
14" TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL PLAIN
16" TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL PLAIN
16" TOOL ROOM UNIVERSAL
16" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL PLAIN
16-20" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL PLAIN
16" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
16-20" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
20" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
20-24" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
24" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
28" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
32" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
32" INDUSTRIAL HEAVY UNIVERSAL
36" INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSAL
And if your head is still attached, there was also another table option called a " TILTING WORK TABLE " This was a combination of the universal's semi-cylindrical seat on top of the table that allowed 15 degrees of adjustment in either direction, but was missing the other axis ( no trunnion on the cross slide )
ME