Found Dallmeyer Waterhouse stops...now what?

[tmcsweeney]

I was cleaning out the case that my Francais casket lenses came in and underneath the bottom of the upholstery in the case was a small brown leather case with Waterhouse stops from "J.H. Dallmeyer Optican London". There are 6 stops ranging from 7.5 up to 100. They are 35mm wide. The serial number 48076 is engraved on one of the stops. Are these stops lens specific? I don't have any lenses that use these so I am not sure. 192167192168

[karl french]

Well, the section of the Dallmeyer Archive that covers that serial number is broken. I'd guess they are likely from a smaller Rapid Rectilinear, but they can work in a variety of Dallmeyer lenses with the same diameter barrel.

7.5 is f8 on the Dallmeyer aperture scale.

[tmcsweeney]

Sounds good. If anybody here on the forum can use them in a lens let me know.

[Steven Tribe]

Like flanges, Waterhouse stop sets do sometimes cover a variety of specific lenses. I have even seen a list of which sets can be used on which lenses. This is especialy relevant for the larger sizes. This is probably why early Dallmeyer WHS usually have number stamps instead of F information.
If you get entry to the dallmeyer archive with the data set for this serial number, you have to guess the model AND size - then search and repeat for other sizes and models. There is no information in the archive about about shared WHS sets, unfortunately!