Blank form K 39-31 "Statement of Standard Components Retouched during Assembly"

In this document

These are two printed and blank copies of the same administrative form, referenced K 39-31, issued by the "Repair Sub-Directorate" and bearing the acronym "P.D. – R.A.B. – O.S." as well as the mention "Division: 1" p. 13-14.

The printed title is "Statement of Standard Components Retouched during Assembly at Workshop No..." p. 13-14. The form provides space to enter the relevant week ("Week from... to... 193...") and the name of the foreman in charge p. 13-14.

The body of each page is occupied by a five-column table: Date, File No., Component type, Potez serial No., Retouching performed p. 13-14. No lines are filled in: both copies are completely blank, with no handwritten data p. 13-14.

The printed mention "193..." for the year indicates that the form was designed in the 1930s, without a precise date being set in the document itself.

Context

This type of workshop form falls under the classic industrial organisation of interwar automobile factories, where the standardisation of parts required rigorous control of adjustments made during assembly.

The mention "Potez" most likely refers, in this context, to a supplier or subcontractor identified by a specific serial number — a common practice when standard components came from third-party manufacturers before final assembly. This link with the Citroën world of the 1930s, a period when Paul Magès was already working on innovative mechanical devices, remains, however, a hypothesis external to the document, which provides no details on the exact identity of this "Potez" or the factory concerned.

Archivist's perspective

This document is not a writing by Paul Magès himself but a standardised administrative medium, probably kept among his papers because it came from his work environment in the workshop or repairs department.

Its documentary interest is modest as such: being a blank form, it provides no information on any actual retouching. Nevertheless, it illustrates the bureaucratic rigour surrounding the quality control of assembled components, a framework within which Magès's more creative work took place.

It should be compared with other copies of the same form present in the collection, some of which were reused for very different purposes: indeed, there are K 39-31 forms repurposed as sketch supports and an isolated copy used in the same way, which suggests that Magès sometimes recovered unused administrative paper for his own technical sketches — a valuable clue to his daily working methods, although the present copy has remained blank.