Toolemera Blog

Old Books v The Stanley #55

I ask you, what does an old book have in common with a Stanley #55? Or even a #444??

The answer is, drum roll please... lots. Sorry if that was a letdown in the excitement department. Hey, you made a choice in reading this blog post. I just write the stuff when the spirit moves me.

Lately I've been researching authors of 18th, 19th and early 20th century books on the trades. Mostly on woodworking, but also on leather, bookbinding, textiles, and even design. What surprises me most are the number of authors and titles that are never mentioned in our current crop of literature on trades, crafts and the use of tools. There are authors whose names pop up over and over again: Hasluck, Hodgson, Jones, to name a few. This short list got me to wonder'n... weren't there more authors, titles and publishers and what happened to them all? What happened to all the copies of the currently famous titles? Many were reprinted for anywhere from 20-50 years, some even longer.

They were used up. Bought, read, sullied with the grime of working hands, dipped in coffee or tea, marked with heelprints and generally abused as any working tool would be. When the hinges failed, the binding threads rotted out and the pages become fodder for the compost pile (where there compost piles in the 18th C? Or just pig troughs?), the books were tossed. Now how does this relate to the Stanley #55, #444? Use begats compost. Disuse begats a long shelf life.

I contend that many of the better books on trades and crafts of the past centuries have been used up past their life spans. Sure, the influx of acidic paper beginning in the mid 1800's introduced an auto-destruct cycle worthy of Dr. Strangelove. Yet I find that authors and titles that were in print for a good many years are now either rare or in such poor shape they barely qualify as books. Some authors, in my humble opinion, surpass the much bally-hooed works in reprint today. And that brings us back to the #55 and #444. Made a tool with all the bells and whistles, and what do you have? A possible member of the Hall of Hand Tool Infamy. And a tool that continues to be found in such a miraculous state of preservation to make the heart of any tool auctioneer swell with dollar signs.

Firmer Chissels, Revisited

Back a while ago I discussed the question of why are Firmer Chisels called Firmer Chisels. There have been all sorts of discussions and opinions, some of them mine, some of them not mine.

On occasion, an answer to a question is supplied at the most unexpected time. I've been adding navigation features to the digital copy of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises. Yes, that one. Now that the EAIA Chronicle project is complete, I am back to a raft of stuff that has been on my to-do list. Beginning with Moxon, first in a digital production and then in regular old print.

Back to the Firmer mystery. Which is no longer a mystery. I quote directly from Moxon:

And so, Moxon has the last, or first, word.

Till next, Gary

You say tomato...

It's peculiar how the world is changing. The digital bandwagon seems to be overtaking us faster than we can run away from it. Over at work, we are all hellbent now on digitizing a major section of our collection. Space is needed for research and the Library has to give up a whole lotta square footage. Of course, we had proposed digitizing material en mass a few years ago...

Now that researchers are used to getting their stuff in PDF, they want everything in PDF. Books, journals, old reports, new reports, cafeteria menus, you name it, it's now distributed in PDF format. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking the whole digital library movement. There are a lot of things going for it. At the same time, some people seem to think that once in a digital format, the item is permanent. Or they simply don't care.

Meanwhile, us Librarians and Archivist types are trying to figure out how to preserve a bunch of magnetic particles for posterity. One idea is to print a master copy and store it. For the moment, it's a matter of creating three versions of a file: uncompressed TIFF images; PDF A/1a; PDF with OCR. That PDF A/1a thing is a supposedly archival quality document that contains all the data needed for reproduction, irregardless of whether or not your computer holds the correct fonts or other material to reproduce the file. We hope.

What does this have to do with tools and ephemera? Seems I am now receiving notes from people asking when and if PDF versions of books will be available, along with the much delayed Moxon reprint as a Print On Demand offering. Check out Ebay and you can see an onrush of vendors selling all kinds of stuff in PDF format on CD. My suspicion is that, much like the Stock Market, there will be a rush to cash in on the supposedly easy money, followed by a rush to close shop as people discover just how much work is involved in creating a decent PDF, followed by the creation of the new Black Hole DVD format, which will work from the heat cast off by dormitory hot-plates.

POD. PDF. And I really don't like tomatoes all that much either. After a year of upheaval and change in our lives, we at the Roberts Residence are working on getting back to what passes for normal in middle age. Not Middle Ages, middle age. The Chronicle project is nearing completion, which will allow time once again to get on the POD, or PDF bandwagon. I may run a survey and set up a bell curve to assess what people want. Hard copy or PDF. Or just sit here scratching my head for a while procrastinating...err... deciding on which way to go. Or to go both ways. Not that I am making any judgements upon gender preferences.

Till next, Gary