Sheet 5: sketch of a threaded axis mechanism, dated "14-8"

In this document

The sheet bears, at the top right, a sequence number circled: "(5)", followed by a handwritten date in pencil "14-8-[uncertain: 63]" — the last element (year or other indication) remaining uncertain upon reading p. 43.

The main sketch

In the centre of the page is a technical cross-section sketch representing a mechanical part: a vertical axis threaded at its top, extended downwards by a cylindrical body perforated with two columns of small aligned holes, inserted into a housing shown in cross-section (hatching indicating solid metal). The base of the body ends in a V-shaped flare, evoking a fitting or a fork, with a visible thread p. 43.

At the top of the axis is drawn an articulated mechanism with two arms (connecting rod/rocker), connected by a pivot, with a small rectangular piece in the centre and a circle at the right end of the horizontal arm p. 43.

A second, sketched drawing

On the left of the sheet appears a smaller, sketched drawing, which seems to present a variant or a detail of the same assembly: two divergent points or branches, with partial hatching, but without the upper two-arm mechanism p. 43.

No legend, part dimensions, or explanatory text accompany these drawings; the exact nature and function of the mechanism are not specified in the document.

Context

Paul Magès devoted a large part of his work at Citroën to fluid regulation devices (oil, air) for mechanical components — engine casings, reservoirs, gauges — before arriving at the hydropneumatic suspension. Many sketches of this type, mixing threaded axes, perforations, and articulated mechanisms, fall under this continuous research into air/oil circuits.

The partially legible date "14-8" evokes an August, a period sometimes favourable, in the design workshops, for tests or adjustments before the September resumption — but this remains a general hypothesis, not a fact attested by the document itself.

Archivist's perspective

This sheet probably belongs to a series of numbered sketches (the circled "5" suggests a sequence), typical of Magès' work notebooks where each mechanical idea is sketched quickly, without text, to be taken up or discarded later p. 43.

The presence of a perforated body and an articulated mechanism recalls, by its design logic, other parts related to oil level regulation kept in the same collection, such as the sketch of the oil reservoir: needle, seals and attachment or the handwritten sketch of an air/oil tube replacing the oil dipstick. It is, however, impossible, as it stands, to affirm a direct link: only the formal kinship of the drawings invites this cautious comparison.

The dating remains uncertain: the number following "14-8-" is not certain upon reading, and nothing in the document allows a decision between the possible decades of Magès' activity.