Wow. Sometimes you never know what will be hiding, miscatalogued, in some library's historical collections. I stopped by the Texas State Library and Archives today to examine the family papers of one William Lindsey, who in 1837 worked at subdividing Galveston Island and later served as County Surveyor of Bexar County (and District Surveyor of Bexar Land District).
The Lindsey family papers didn't have much pertaining to the Galveston survey, but there in a couple of folders were some tiny notebooks cataloged as "diaries" that are the actual field books of his son, A.M. Lindsey, from his work between 1852 and about 1855 as Deputy Surveyor of Travis Land District. Apparently they've been hiding more or less in plain sight all these years.
I have to wonder how many other early surveyors' field books are boxed up in some folder at the archives.
cool
Nice
Dear Diary
Dear Diary,
Oh my, what a wonderful day. I was up and out on the job by 7:00 a.m. The sun was shining. It was 65 degrees and there was a light breeze. The pressure was 29.95 and falling. We began by setting up the instrument over a found 3/4" iron bar marking the southwest corner of our client's tract. I was running the gun while Charley pulled prism pole duty until noon, then we switched places. Charley was in fine form today as he nearly ran from point to point allowing us to make 233 observations before stopping for lunch. The soil in the area was second class with some potential limitations for common residential construction. We made a minor adjustment to the instrument settings after lunch when we realized it had warmed up to a cozy 73 degrees......................................................
BTW I'm planning to return to spend the time that photographing the field books will require. Some of them are going to be very difficult to image, being light pencil on paper that has darkened a bit with age, but if I can get decent photos of them, I'll probably post some of them as examples of Texas surveying practice ca. 1855.
Over the years I've recovered some of the corners that Lindsey describes finding or establishing about 160 years ago, and it will be interesting to see whether his field book explains some of the irregularities in his work as marked on the ground.
> BTW I'm planning to return to spend the time that photographing the field books will require. Some of them are going to be very difficult to image, being light pencil on paper that has darkened a bit with age, but if I can get decent photos of them, I'll probably post some of them as examples of Texas surveying practice ca. 1855.
>
Excellent, I was hoping.
repro trick for pencil
Kent,
A saw a trick in the reproduction department at ODOT some years back that you might try. This was a b&w copier, btw.
They had several sheets of clear acetate in varying shades of both red and blue, placed down on the copier bed, before the original was placed down. A little experimentation and, son-of-gun, it provided a clearer contrast for copies of old penciled field books.
It took some trial and error, but at times the copy was more legible than the original. The only drawback was the copy usually required darkening; making the image a little squirrely looking around the edges.
repro trick for pencil
> They had several sheets of clear acetate in varying shades of both red and blue, placed down on the copier bed, before the original was placed down. A little experimentation and, son-of-gun, it provided a clearer contrast for copies of old penciled field books.
That's a trick to remember, but in this case I'm pretty much limited to what can be done with a digital camera. So that probably means image processing in photoshop. I do wish I had a polarizing filter for the camera to see if that might increase contrast.
repro trick for pencil
On a semi-related note...
Back when I was taking a lot of 35mm Black & White pictures (Plus-X & Tri-X pan film), I used Orange or Red filters to increase contrast.
Just say'n
Loyal
Dear Diary
>>The soil in the area was second class with some potential limitations for common residential construction
That made me laugh out loud.
repro trick for pencil
I wouldn't hold a lot of hope for a polarizing filter helping, unless it is to overcome lighting angle problems. Non-glossy paper probably won't have much polarizing property.
With a digital image, you have an infinite array of RGB "filtering" options in the processing program. Unless there is a narrow spectral band that is light or dark in the original, that doesn't match up with an RGB component, and that you can compensate with an optical filter, is unlikely any optical filter will be better.
The color of the light source is another filtering operation. For yellowed paper, a yellowish incandescent light source may be better than daylight or flash since it is what will be best reflected by the paper. Positioning of the light can often have a significant effect on contrast, as you need to have it at a low enough angle to avoid reflections without being so low as to emphasize the grain of the paper.
repro trick for pencil
> The color of the light source is another filtering operation. For yellowed paper, a yellowish incandescent light source may be better than daylight or flash since it is what will be best reflected by the paper.
In this case, I'm going to be stuck with the ambient light in the reading room which comes from overhead flourescents. I think I'll take some test photos to see whether some of the images can be made legible before spending more effort on the project.
repro trick for pencil
My experience with ambient fluorescent light on documents is that it is hard to hold still long enough to get a decent exposure. Can you use a camera tripod?
repro trick for pencil
Kind of on a tangent, but...
The local recorder of Deeds office (Allegheny County PA) has most of its information in paper deed books, only the deeds since around 1980 something are microfilmed, not sure when the actual "digital" version became available.
So, when you need a copy of an old deed, you have to take the HUGE deed book to the desk, and they will take it apart and copy the pages you need.
There are large signs all over saying "photographing deed books is prohibited" or something like that. I wonder why that is not allowed?
repro trick for pencil
Likely they need the $ from the copying fees.
repro trick for pencil
At least two county recorder offices in Iowa prohibit cameras. As of a couple years ago, others still allowed them. I haven't been to those recently, so don't know if it is a state-wide thing or county-by-county.
The only explanation I can think of is revenue enhancement, although they aren't taking in huge amounts at the nominal prices they charge.
I think anyone should be able to photograph any public records, although some really fragile ones might need a prohibition from flash exposure because of UV degradation.
repro trick for pencil
If they will let you in with a camera they will probably let you in with a scanner and laptop.
Good luck in your endeavor.
repro trick for pencil
Biggest fear I have heard of in County/Parish offices concerning photography or scanning is the possible reproduction of Social Security Numbers often included into descriptions and conveyances.
This is an example from the field book of A.M. Lindsey from 1852. On the first page, he's recorded the date and time of passing of his father, William Lindsey, the surveyor who in partnership with R.C. Trimble subdivided Galveston Island in 1837 under contract with the Republic of Texas and who later served as Deputy Surveyor and County/District Surveyor of Bexar County/Bexar Land District.
The perfectly legible entry is in ink and the rest in pencil.
