| Type | Personal letter |
|---|---|
| First recorded | 14 October 1998 |
| Status | Cabinet location unknown |
Williams Cabinet
From: Philip To: Ruth Calder Date: 14 October 1998 Subject: The grey cabinet
Did you leave the blue casserole dish at our house on Sunday? I have the lid, and Helen says the dish went home with you under Anna’s coat. If Harry is coming this way on Friday, ask him to take the smaller roads past Coignières. The bridge works added forty minutes last week.
I found the envelope you wanted behind the boiler instructions. The photographs are still curled, but none has stuck to the tissue. I recognise your father beside the Marron van. The other man may be Pell, though he seems too young.
I shall ring after eight on Thursday.
Philip
P.S.
The notes about the Williams cabinet were in the envelope, folded around the photographs. I had copied them in 1976 from an older pad, probably your father’s. My handwriting is clear enough. Several abbreviations now mean nothing to me.
The cabinet was waist-high, with a round viewing port and a drawer for the film packet. Marron Laboratory hired it to schools for demonstration days. The operator placed prepared specimens above the film, closed both latches and made one exposure. Radiation time was governed by a sealed dial. The dial had no figures, only five white divisions and a red stop.
On 11 May 1964, at Barden Infant School, the prepared specimens were four baby teeth belonging to Esther Vale. Her mother had kept them in a pill box and lent them for the afternoon. My note says that the first film showed four crowns, while the second showed six. The teeth remained on the glass between exposures. I cannot tell whether six refers to images, teeth or divisions on the dial.
Your father’s photograph shows the drawer open. There are four objects on the plate. The two pale marks near the lower edge may be damage to the negative.
I also copied the operating notice. You asked whether the final instruction was added later, but the lettering is uniform.
Safety procedure
1. The cabinet shall be operated only with both latches fully engaged. 2. Hands shall be removed from the film drawer before the indicator lamp is tested. 3. No exposure shall be repeated until the red stop has returned to its resting position. 4. In the event of glass fracture, the room shall be cleared and the cabinet isolated from the supply. 5. If knocking is heard from inside the cabinet while the supply is disconnected, the viewing port shall remain covered. The supervising officer shall be summoned. 6. Used film packets shall be deposited in the marked metal container. Specimens shall be returned separately.
There is no supervising officer named anywhere in my notes. Marron’s invoices charged for an operator and a driver.
The cabinet went back to the company on 13 May. A later entry gives its destination as the Entrepôt de la rue des Fresnes, bay 4, but the warehouse receipt describes one photographic enlarger weighing thirty-eight kilograms. Williams cabinets weighed at least sixty. The serial number on the receipt ends in 81; the number visible in your father’s photograph ends in 18.
The final line on my pad reads: “Vale set retained for comparison, collection after second service.” Marron had no evening kitchen, as far as either of us knew. The collection date is 16 May 1964.
See also
- Avis déplacé — Entrepôt de la rue des Fresnes
- Bath fitting return — Entrepôt de la rue des Fresnes
- Journée du 14 juin à Coignières — Entrepôt de la rue des Fresnes
- Lettre à Mme Recasens — Entrepôt de la rue des Fresnes