Forms K 39-31 "Status of Standard Components Retouched during Assembly" (two blank copies)

In this document

These are two copies p. 7-8 of the same printed workshop form, titled "Status of Standard Components Retouched during Assembly" and referenced K 39-31, originating from the Repair Sub-Directorate (mention "P.D. – R.A.B. – O.S.", Division 1).

The form provides a header to be completed: workshop number, week "from... to... 193.", and foreman's name — fields left blank on both pages.

The printed table contains five columns: Date, File No., Component type, Potez serial No., Retouches performed p. 7-8. The mention "Potez" here designates a reference for a series of standard components, without further specification in the document.

Both pages are essentially blank. Page 7 features a red inked stamp at the top right, the text of which remains illegible, as well as a technical motif appearing as an overprint in the center of the table, and very faint handwritten traces in the "Retouches performed" column, which are not readable.

Page 8 contains some pencil annotations in the "File No." and "Component type" columns, explicitly marked as [illegible] on two lines, as well as a trace of an erased stamp and a small annotation in the bottom margin, also illegible. A rusty paperclip is attached to the top of the page.

Context

The acronym "193." in the dating box places the use of this form in the 1930s, a period when Citroën was notably developing quality control in its assembly and repair workshops. The reference to "Potez components" likely refers, in the industrial context of the time, to standardized parts from the aircraft manufacturer Potez, with whom collaborations or cross-supplies sometimes existed between the automotive and aeronautical industries — but nothing in the document details this relationship.

Paul Magès joined Citroën in August 1925, at 17 and a half years old (autobiographical notes); self-taught, he became a technical writer and then deputy manager of the Super-Control, which places him precisely in the quality control departments of the workshops to which this type of form relates. It was only from 1939-1940, with the braking limiter for the TUB van and then his entry into the design office, that he moved towards the work that would lead to the hydropneumatic suspension, the first plans for which date from 17 February 1944 (Hydropneumatic suspension plans with differential interaction (17 February 1944)).

Archivist's perspective

This document is primarily an administrative workshop form, which remained almost blank in the two preserved copies. Its documentary interest lies less in its content — which provides no usable technical information — than in its status as a management document, revealing the quality monitoring procedures in force in the repair workshops where Magès worked.

It seems that this type of form was reused or kept in series, as suggested by the existence of other similar copies in the same collection, for example the Workshop form "Standard Components Retouched during Assembly" (K 39-31) and the Blank form K 39-31, which bear the same reference.

The handwritten traces and the stamp, although illegible, attest to a real use of these sheets, without it being possible to draw more from them p. 7-8.