Order Book #5

[Pa SxS]

Yes Rick, if you see a number that resembles a serial number on the barrel flats, that is the order number and would match the order book order number.

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Chuck Bishop

Yes Rick, if you see a number that resembles a serial number on the barrel flats, that is the order number and would match the order book order number.

ok - then- if we include that number in the search request-

would it give us any more data?

or just more work for you?

[George M. Purtill Member #28]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

ok - then- if we include that number in the search request-

would it give us any more data?

or just more work for you?

I don't think we have the records digitized or indexed by order number. But we should. And a scanner that can read numbers would do that?
All our stuff should be cross indexed.
So if you wanted to know every gun sold to Bishops Hardware, you could.

[Bindlestiff]

Originally Posted by George M. Purtill

I don't think we have the records digitized or indexed by order number. But we should. And a scanner that can read numbers would do that?
All our stuff should be cross indexed.
So if you wanted to know every gun sold to Bishops Hardware, you could.

Sounds like a good idea. All YOU have to do is process about 160 books with say 150 pages to a book and maybe 25 or 30 entries to a page to generate the cross reference. But, don't expect any computer help, these books are hand written in classic long hand script. Its hard for a person to decipher the writing, so I would not expect any scanner to have OCR capability that could help.

Not to say it couldn't be done but it would take many, many man hours at, I suspect, a considerable expense. It could be quite an accomplishment for someone but not one I would want to sit at a computer table to attempt.

[George M. Purtill Member #28]

Robin- I'll get working on it. As soon as I retire.

[Bill Murphy]

I will volunteer to do it, as I have many times before. I'll be waiting for the call. 301-972-0740 My home is about 90 miles south of Chuck's.

[Pa SxS]

Originally Posted by George M. Purtill

I don't think we have the records digitized or indexed by order number. But we should. And a scanner that can read numbers would do that?
All our stuff should be cross indexed.
So if you wanted to know every gun sold to Bishops Hardware, you could.

Why should the order numbers be indexed? Nothing would be gained by doing so except in the case where an order number found in the old order book number 5 can also be matched up with an order number in stock book number 1 and I showed an example in my first reply on this thread. Let me emphasize this is a very rare case because most of the order numbers in stock book 1 are not there.

Some order numbers are found on the barrel flats of hammer guns. This is the same order number found on the original order in the new order books. The new order books are indexed by serial number and when viewed, it also shows the order number. Parker based everything on the serial number, not order number. Nothing would be gained by searching by the order number.

Bishop's Hardware was not assigned their own order number so that every order they placed would have the same order number.