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Wheatstone Ledgers Sixth Column From 1933 .


Geoff Wooff

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In the Wheatstone ledger covering the years 1923 to 1937 there are five columns which show(from page left to right) Date, Model number, Description, Job Number and Serial number. That is untill page 127 when a sixth column appears for the first time.

 

This Sixth column is inserted between the Description and the Job Number and contains just one letter; either an O , an R or an M.

 

Does anybody know what this means ? It is probably obvious what this implies but I have not worked it out yet.

 

Geoff.

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No idea, Geoff. A bit later on, they do away with the separate column, and place the letter at the beginning of the description. In addition to the letters R, O and M, they now include N and E! Also,from page 137 onwards, there is an extra date column on the right, which I presume, is the date the concertina was finished and the first column now contains the date the concertina was started.

 

Chris

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In the Wheatstone ledger covering the years 1923 to 1937 there are five columns which show(from page left to right) Date, Model number, Description, Job Number and Serial number. That is untill page 127 when a sixth column appears for the first time.

 

This Sixth column is inserted between the Description and the Job Number and contains just one letter; either an O , an R or an M.

 

Does anybody know what this means ? It is probably obvious what this implies but I have not worked it out yet.

 

Strictly a wild guess, so quite likely wrong, but if final tuning/setting of reeds was done was done out of house, could it identify the individual doing that work, and therefore the location of the instrument while awaiting its return?

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Another guess.........The letters predominately appear next to the word gauze.............perhaps the colour or type of gauze?

 

Interesting guess, Zak, but I don't think so. Note that a diagonal line instead of details through several entries indicates that all the details (unless otherwise marked, which is quite rare) are the same as for the entry above the diagonal line... including "gauze" (if present) and I presume the initial in that "new" column. Therefore, we sww that every entry has one of those initials. So on page 127, all entries have initials, though 4 out of 25 don't show "gauze". In fact, on page 146 -- where these initials have been subsumed into the details column and "gauze" is now abbreviated as a capital script "G" -- only 7 of the 25 entries have the "G" but all still have the initials.

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By no means universal but there does seem to be a tendency over several pages for those letters to go most often with certain models, or at least descriptions. Instruments described as black most often have R; rosewood most often crops up with O; and NS/NP (nickel silver/plated?) instruments are more likely to be marked with an M in that column. It also seems to be the case that, where a diagonal line is used (to indicate a series of identical instruments, as Jim has commented as I've been typing!)), that column is one of the things the line covers.

Not sure if that's significant. Maybe some element of manufacture/materials or, as Jim has suggested, the identity of a craftsman. It would make sense that certain people were given certain models to work on, perhaps.

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Another guess.........The letters predominately appear next to the word gauze.............perhaps the colour or type of gauze?

 

Interesting guess, Zak, but I don't think so. Note that a diagonal line instead of details through several entries indicates that all the details (unless otherwise marked, which is quite rare) are the same as for the entry above the diagonal line... including "gauze" (if present) and I presume the initial in that "new" column. Therefore, we sww that every entry has one of those initials. So on page 127, all entries have initials, though 4 out of 25 don't show "gauze". In fact, on page 146 -- where these initials have been subsumed into the details column and "gauze" is now abbreviated as a capital script "G" -- only 7 of the 25 entries have the "G" but all still have the initials.

 

Oops! Or at least, "curious". Pages 147 and 148 both contain anomalies. P. 148 has one entry with two different initials, while p. 147 contains two entries -- one for a group of instruments -- without such initials... unless "C.P." and "R.N." are meant to be such, but neither "C" nor "P" has appeared elsewhere, nor do there seem to be any others with trailing dots. (In fact, I'm pretty sure the "C.P." stands for "chrome plated", just as "N.P." regularly stands for "nickel plated".)

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I would suggest that the letters O, M or R refer to the type of external labels fitted e.g. Oval, Metal or Ring.

 

This suggestion is based on consideration of the previous practice of annotating the label type fully and at right angles, vertically in the last (number) column.

Examples of this can been on page 123 – Metal Labels, p124 - Oval Labels and p125 - Ring Labels.

 

However, on page 126 it will be seen that only some individual entries contain the label type fully e.g. 32887 Oval Labels, 32888 Ring Labels.

 

If the above suggestion be correct, it seems that the practice of including the label type ceases after 33102 (page 135).

 

Geoffrey

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I would suggest that the letters O, M or R refer to the type of external labels fitted e.g. Oval, Metal or Ring.

 

This suggestion is based on consideration of the previous practice of annotating the label type fully and at right angles, vertically in the last (number) column.

Examples of this can been on page 123 – Metal Labels, p124 - Oval Labels and p125 - Ring Labels.

 

However, on page 126 it will be seen that only some individual entries contain the label type fully e.g. 32887 Oval Labels, 32888 Ring Labels.

 

If the above suggestion be correct, it seems that the practice of including the label type ceases after 33102 (page 135).

 

Well noted, Geoff. This does make sense. And when such initials later seem to reappear at the left end of the details column, I think they mean something quite different.

 

In particular, I suspect that in most cases they indicate the material of the ends: "R" for rosewood, "E" for ebony, "T" for tortoise shell, "M" for mahogany, "N" for nickel-plated. There are at least a couple of entries (p. 143) with "N" but also the designation "Rose"; I might assume that these have nickel-plated ends but supporting woodwork of rosewood.

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