Some Notable Wiltshire Quarrymen - download link

Royfellows

Royfellows

Active member
I have finally completed this task, if anyone spots errors please advise.
This and some other documents are linked from the homepage on mineeplorer.com. Direct link is http://royfellows.uk/mineexplorer/notable_wiltshire_quarrymen.pdf

My methodology was to use an old software application Omnipage Pro but to paste directly into MS Word. I scanned the original pages, opened them in Photoshop, converted to greyscale as RGB colour is the default regardless, cleaned them up and enhanced the contrast. The OCR then went reasonably well regardless of the original script being poor quality type writer reproduction. I think this was done using some special paper that would then be put on some kind of roller and inked. I dont know. Anyway, I have kept it as original as I could. I left out an index as its really irrelevant to the pdf, but included the plates. There are some interesting notes by its author Roger Tucker who I never had the pleasure of meeting, what he would make of the state of things today I dread to think. There is also an interesting and useful glossery of terms used in the stone quarrying, some of which I was unfamilar with.

I think that I have done a useful job here. It really is very interesting reading.

I also have Scripta Legenda. Digitalisation will have to be all scans as the layout will really screw up in Word. However, the OCR route in Quarrymen has worked out very well as it presents a very clean appearance and uniformity. See what you all think.
 
If you want I can advise on how you can produce a pdf comprised of the original page images, but with an underlying layer of the ocr-ed text. Then it has the feel of the original document, but is fully searchable.

Look at https://archive.org/details/novacon-20-convention/Programme Book/page/3/mode/2up?view=theater and ask your browser to do a search for "chairman" when looking at page 3, or use the internet archive search against all pages. Or download the pdf, and search every page that way.
 
Hello Roy,
The last time I spoke to Roger Tucker about reproducing his work and making it digitally available, the answer was a firm and emphatic "no"! He was a gentleman and very polite about it but also very protective of his work. This was around three years ago and he was in the process of re-producing hard copies in a revised format.

If you've spoken to him then fine but if you need to I can DM an address if he is still in residence. I appreciate your intentions are good as were mine, but I did get my knuckles gently rapped although he did appreciate me seeking him out and asking. They are his copyright after all and he was kind enough to post a few remaining copies of SL2 for a very low cost.

Best wishes
Tony
 
Its a difficult issue. I spoke to him on other matters many years ago, but not on this. I am heartened that he is still around and wish him very well.
The legal position is rather grey in that what I have done is very much a "not for profit" venture and the book carries no copyright notice. It is also very conveniant for Roger to do a reprint of his book as the original was done on a sort of typeset hand print thingy. I have a vague memory of them.

It is probably a good idea to speak to him about it and if he so wishes I will withdraw it from availability, while at the same time making it available to him, which it is anyway.
 
It's not difficult, nor is it a grey area. It's a breach of copyright regardless of whether there is a copyright notice within the writings or not. You'd be doing the correct and moral thing in contacting him. We had already done very similar to your self including re-typing everything out and believed we were in a position to proceed and to make available freely. Then I asked for permission, which was politely declined and one needs to respect that. I wish you well in your endeavours.
 
Royfellows said:
... as the original was done on a sort of typeset hand print thingy. I have a vague memory of them.
Click to expand...

Slightly off topic - mimeograph? Used a stencil version of the type on a roller, like screen printing. Remember my mum using one and the smell of the ink rathee than the details of the device.
Mum says it was a 'Banda' and the smell was alcohol ;)
 
ilt said:
Slightly off topic - mimeograph? Used a stencil version of the type on a roller, like screen printing. Remember my mum using one and the smell of the ink rathee than the details of the device.
Mum says it was a 'Banda' and the smell was alcohol ;)
Click to expand...
The much famed Banda machine - 50 copies in no time, a staple of most school staff rooms/offices, all the rage in the 1960s'/70s', Sheffield Poly still had one for trainee teachers to produce handouts in the mid 1980s' and as you say a memorable niff.

Jim
 
SteepleFlyer said:
It's not difficult, nor is it a grey area. It's a breach of copyright regardless of whether there is a copyright notice within the writings or not. You'd be doing the correct and moral thing in contacting him. We had already done very similar to your self including re-typing everything out and believed we were in a position to proceed and to make available freely. Then I asked for permission, which was politely declined and one needs to respect that. I wish you well in your endeavours.
Click to expand...
I dont have a clue where he is. If you know and can conact him please advise him of situation and my offer to remove. But I need an instruction from the man himself.
 
Quarryman said:
Surely the download should be made unavailable until you have permission, not the other way around?
Click to expand...
Well, the way I see it I am being asked to do something by a third party acting on behalf of someone who is currently not even aware of the situation.
Really glad the author is alive and well though, it was written about 50 years ago.
 
I can understand that, but let's say someone wanted to do a repro of one of my books, but couldn't contact me, I would be pretty miffed to discover they had gone ahead regardless. I understand the frustration, but copyright law is pretty clear. You can't just assume it's OK without gaining explicit permission, which from what I read here you don't have.
 
There was no copyright in the book, just the authorship and date.
If the complainant has contact with the author who may not be in a position to make direct contact with me, with an instruction to remove, I will be happy to take the gentleman at his word and do so.
If someone did a repro of one of your books without your permission, I am pretty sure that you would have something to say to them about it, and then they would be required to act accordingly.
 
BTW, full marks for doing this sort of thing purely for the love of it - I am just wary of the possible consequences. If not legally, then reputationally. I recall a long time ago that NMRS unknowingly published a "British Mining" that was a blatant plagiarism of a Croydon CC booklet on Surrey Mines. It was all rather embarrassing, I suspect!
 
Roy, you need to stop. Copyright exists without assertion of rights, and you now know your position is untenable. demanding the copyright holder personally asks you to desist in writing imposes an unreasonable burden on them,
 
And I digitalised a PDMS book and was asked in no uncertain terms to remove its availability from AN, which of course I immediately did. Then we have PDMHS digitalising past books and making them universally available ontheir website.

Mr Vicarage - I have said nothing at all about "In writing" and disagree with you completely as no one else is in a position to make any demand.
Suggest we leave alone and wait for something positive. The work in question has been available for months so I struggle to see waiting a couple of days makes any difference..
 
I think it’s best if we all just 🍻

Breath, we don’t need every thread on here with tension .
 
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