Thomas Martin wrote The tome of The Mechanical Arts back in 1813. Unfortunately for Thomas, shortly thereafter Peter Nicholson came out with his Mechanic's Companion, a volume of smaller dimensions, fewer pages and most of all, bearing the name of a more well known author.
Still and all, at the time of it's publishing, The Circle Of The Mechanical Arts met with much praise and approbration by the learned community of learned folks, or at least of those folks who wanted to appear to each other as being learned. Some things never change.
I've been prepping my copy for publication. In doing so, I found that a few of the plates were nigh on impossible to reproduce by any means. Not many, just two. Being the resourceful type of bloke that I am, I ordered a copy from Kirtas Books. Kirtas Books is the sales arm of Kirtas, the people who make the machinery that powers Google Books and many university driven book digitization projects.
Before you raise your arms high and shout: "Woa, there! Those Google Books are messy!", I have to set the story right and say that it's not the equipment, it's the operators. Most are paid minimum wage, barely trained, unsupervised and the outgoing product is, as we all know, not exactly checked for quality.
Back to the copy I ordered. I wanted to see if another copy of the book would produce a decent image. Unfortunately, Kirtas had to refund my order price as they were unable to digitize the book. Rats. Mice and other furry critters. So Google Books could pull a copy but Kirtas couldn't.
I could always go ahead and publish with the two plates as blank pages with a note on each page stating: "Don't Stop Here! Keep Reading!" or something to that effect. Or add the two nearly illegible plates with notes of abject apology. It's these decisions that keep publisher committees up late at night. Luckily for me, I am a committee of one. We'll be discussing this vexing issue late into the Leap Night in pursuit of a reasonable answer.
Happy Leap Year, Gary





