Next I'll try to enumerate what I've found a practical means of measuring and presenting the size of the lens/shutter/flange. Their seem to be 3 categories of threads used on vintage lenses and their mounting flanges: Imperial, US and Metric.
Imperial (Whitworth) Thread sizes could be presented as follows:
Specifications mounting ring:
1. material: brass
2. OD (outside diameter): 2,420"
3. ID (inside diameter): 1.734"
4. TPI: 36
5. 3 screwholes
6. visible threads (groves): 6
However for our means/listing we only need the info mentioned under 3 and 4. After a match on these two data, one can always asked the owner of the flange to provide the other data.
In short the above ring could be described as 1.734-36, which means the ring has a diameter of 1.734 inch and there are 36 threads per inch. It appears that this ring matches the following vintage lens: Perken, Son & Rayment Portable Symetrical 5x7 'Optimus'
Metric Thread
The description for a Metric thread is a little different, since it counts the number of rotations to lift the ring one thread to the next. For example: 40,00mm-M0.9, which means that the flange has an inside diameter of 40 mm and has a metric pitch of M0.9. It happens that this retaining ring matches a Compur #2 shutter which can hold a Tessar f4.5 150mm lens.
US Thread was standardized in two ways: normal/coarse tread denominated as UNC and US fine thread denominated as UNF. They are presented in inch, but have a pitch angle and form that differs from the Whitworth thread: US have a 60 dgr angle and truncated crests whereas Whithworth has rounded crests at a 55 dgr angle.
For our means it would be best to describe the thread as done with the Imperial, and if we find a truncated crest, to mention it is UNC/UNF. So e.g. 2.500-30 UNC is the size of a flange which would fit a Ilex #4 shutter.