Dallmeyer 2B Lens info help...trying to decipher handwriting

[terryk67]

Hello all...I have a Dallmeyer 2B serial number 10066. Ive found the info about it in the Dallmeyer archive but I can't decipher the the writing in the quantity column...it's something like "longstaf RA" or something along those lines. Please see attached photo.

Does anyone know what the words are?257338

Link to the log is here: Page 96

http://www.thedallmeyerarchive.com/Records/Volumes/stockbook1/Portrait%20Settings/Quick%20Acting%20Settings/2B.pdf

[newt]

Looks to me like Longshaft Rote. might that be telephoto or infra red?

[peter brooks]

I think it is a man's surname - Longstaff.

A name in the 'qty' column first appears on page 5 of that PDF (lens number 6606), and in earnest on page 9. The surname Longstaff is repeated many times.

The letters following the surname are also repeated after other surnames - it looks something like 'R & G'?

It could record which man did a particular operation - on the 'Workers' page of the Dallmeyer Archive site it says


'The stock books give us the names of many of them, listed as turners, framers, finishers and edgers. Putting a face to any of the names is another matter however.'

[Steven Tribe]

Mr. Longstaff lived up to his name and was perhaps the most prolific named person in the Dallmeyer production register - especially in connection with the modified Petzval series.
I think this surname has almost become extinct.

[terryk67]

I think it is a man's surname - Longstaff.

A name in the 'qty' column first appears on page 5 of that PDF (lens number 6606), and in earnest on page 9. The surname Longstaff is repeated many times.

The letters following the surname are also repeated after other surnames - it looks something like 'R & G'?

It could record which man did a particular operation - on the 'Workers' page of the Dallmeyer Archive site it says


'The stock books give us the names of many of them, listed as turners, framers, finishers and edgers. Putting a face to any of the names is another matter however.'

Im sure you are right about the name being Longstaff...but the first notation of the letters after the name starts on page 89 and Jan 1865...and just him....then eventually everyone had the notation after that....

So I guess the question is what do those letters stand for? I think the letters are "Roa" or 'RoA".....and there seems to be a few 'RoC" and "RoL".

[terryk67]

Ive also found a few "a" annotations after the names as well in other logs...but all seem to start in Jan 1865

[peter brooks]

A quick search on freecen.org.uk for people in the London area (Kent or London (City) or Middlesex or Surrey, due to boundary changes over the years) brings up a few people with the surname Longstaff.

Of interest could be these two, both in the same family at 20 Elm Road (St Pancras Registration District) in the 1891 census:

LONGSTAFF John Head 42 Brass Finisher(Em'ee) (=employee)
LONGSTAFF John Son 18 Brass Finisher Asst.(Em'ee)

No details of who the employer is of course, the census is always view of a household rather than a workplace.

Intriguing though. Father and son could account for the longevity and frequency of the surname in the records.

[terryk67]

Great work! I might have found the grandson, also named John, who was born in 1897 and is listed as an apprentice brass finisher. But he was from an area way north of London named Salford.