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Post by fleaster34 on Jun 18, 2005 23:19:16 GMT
Hi guys,
Been lookin at you for years, tried joining numerous times but nothin arived in my email acount, i know thats a bad excuse but i have recently got a job and hence could not help shareing my privaliged position with you.
I have been working in the British Library and thought, hey i wonder if the have the first ever printing of War of the Worlda, so i looked. They had it, Pearsons magazine in two volumes for 1897, so i ordered it and some time latter it arrived on my desk in a padded, well secured envelope, you do not get mail like that every day. I opened it and there they were, in my hands, in better condition than this weeks TV times, perfect.
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Post by EvilNerfherder on Jun 19, 2005 0:25:48 GMT
Welcome to the board Fleaster, you lucky bugger you!  So what do you do at the BL? |
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Post by fleaster34 on Jun 20, 2005 18:16:29 GMT
I'm Working on the JISC project, which is puting 2 million pages of Newspapers from 1800-1900 onto the web. My job is to check the newspapers, repair the damage and log it on metadata sheets so the computer can read the gliches. Bottom line is i get to read 100 year old newspapers and take care of them and yes i do feel a bit Indiana Jones. It should be up in a few years, and for a historian like me there is tons of interesting stuff. I am particularly intersested in London, Millitary History and the Railways'. I have read about Brunel building everything from the Thames tunnel to the GWR and Great Eastern (ship, BIG ship.) and yes, i have seen adverts for H.G. Wells war of the Worlds in 1898 for other newspapers and the first book. I would like to get some pictures on here of the book as the quality is amazing, i did not realise it was printed with illustations first time. I will get some pictures up when i have worked it out/have the time. It is a grest place to work, could not resist holding and reading the original War of The Worlds, my fave book of all time; Jeff Wayne has a lot to answer for.
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Post by fleaster34 on Jun 20, 2005 18:46:51 GMT
Guys, I'm a bit stuck, how do you put pictures on here? Sorry, my friend does call me the most inteligent idiot he knows.
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Post by Gnorn on Jun 20, 2005 20:45:26 GMT
Hi Fleaster. Wow! That sounds like one hell of a job. You're very lucky! :-) How to put up pictures? First you need a website / homepage where you can upload your picture. Then you have to link to that picture from here. That goes like this: <img>http://www.website.co.uk/image.jpg</img> Replace the < and > with [ and ] That should do it. -Gnorn |
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Post by fleaster34 on Jun 20, 2005 22:21:37 GMT
Cheers, i'll get on it
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Post by Carioca on Jun 21, 2005 16:27:19 GMT
Be wary of scanning original documents, as the light source in the scanner can take up to 7 years of life from the material with each pass. You should ask the archives department at the British Library or a museum to obtain the images for you using less damaging equipment!
Cheers!
Carioca
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Post by fleaster34 on Jul 7, 2005 14:15:23 GMT
dont worry, we never use scanners at work, its all microfilm, i dont think i have seen a scanner in the library. The Rapid Copy department use these cameras and photo copiers
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Post by Carioca on Jul 8, 2005 17:56:23 GMT
Brilliant!
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Post by insidethecylinder on Jul 27, 2005 1:56:53 GMT
So, when's this happening? I'd love to see them. I've been trying to find a copy from the Antique book dealers here and on the web for years, but to no avail. If any of you guys can suggest something, I'd appreciate that. I'm not really one for conditions on first editions if they're over a hundred years old, so no problem there...
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Post by Mr Death Ray on Aug 23, 2005 14:16:40 GMT
Wow! i'd love to see them! To upload the image: Go to www.imageshack.us After you have the image uploaded copy 'hotlink for forums' and paste it here! |
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Post by timeship2 on Sept 20, 2005 14:10:09 GMT
fleaster34, the project sounds awesome. You know it's amazing to think that the concept behing the guide in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is basically becoming a reality. Once all the worlds important documents are all scanned into a the various computer databases, I will have with my wireless PDA (or phone!) the ability to access almost any piece of information from anywhere on the planet (within reason of course) without all the hassle of physically having to go to these various institutions. Of course I have already seen the project at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/ but that itself is just a very tiny part of vast potential knowledge base that is the internet. |
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