Old Books and Charts (pics)

[kcrane]

Knowing of my interesting in boating, a friend gave me a box of old charts and books they'd found in the attic, previously owned by her father, who died quite some years ago.

Turned out they were from the 1970's. It's fascinating to look through them. They're a window into the world of coastal sailing when I was pottering around in dinghies.

The impression is that they reflect a world closer to sailing in the 1800's than to the 2000's (bar the mention of engines, radios and beacons of course).

The books are full of complex pre-calculated tables, for example here is how to judge distance off.

How about this easy to use approach to converting barometric readings in inches to millimetres?

For those who can remember the days when there were more than a dozen engine manufacturers there is "Points for the Owners of Marine Motors" from Prices, the Oil People.

The introduction text is lovely:

The primary concern of this little manual is naturally lubrication. That is a subject we can confidently tackle in its every aspect. The fact that the majority of marine engine builders in this country use and recommend our lubricants is evidence of our ability to advise you well on matters of lubrication. For the rest, to everybody interested in the marine motor, we recommend these pages as an unambitious series of informative hints. The field is so wide that nobody could venture to try to illumine it completely. We shall be very pleased to had shed a little light into but a few of its obscurer corners.

“…illumine…’ what a wonderful word to find in an oil catalogue.

Here’s a page with a few names from the past:

There were also a couple of large scale charts “Stanfords Coloured Charts for Coastal Navigators” by Captain O. M. Watts. Price (folded) £1.25. Most of the books seem to have ex-military men as their authors.

They’re not old enough to be any value and not current enough to be of use, but they kept me interested for a few hours.

 

[tillergirl]

Any East Coast charts?

 

[Searush]

I love the pre-plotted courses between ports for cross-chanel trips on the chart.

 

[BlueLancer]

What ever you do please don't dispose of them. They are part of our sailing history

 

[fergie_mac66]

stanfords

you can still buy stanfords got some of east coast and bristol channel still use em occasionally!

http://www.sailgb.com/p/stanfords_standard_charts/

 

[kcrane]

Any East Coast charts?

No, sorry, I guess he was a south coast sailor

 

[kcrane]

What ever you do please don't dispose of them. They are part of our sailing history

There's even an old dry smell about them that signals something older than my normal "I'll hang on to it just in case..." stuff that's around the house. I'm not sure SWMBO will buy the idea I have to personally preserve half the output of the RYA's printing division from 1970!

 

[kcrane]

you can still buy stanfords got some of east coast and bristol channel still use em occasionally!

http://www.sailgb.com/p/stanfords_standard_charts/

Ah, interesting link. I don't have the old charts to hand, but I swear that diagram on the web site of which charts are available is the same one, 40 years later.

Reminds me of an incident that flagged up to me how the pace of change has increased.

When I was doing some work with NCR at their then HQ on Marylebone Road they decided to alter a floor layout, which meant open a cupboard that had been locked for years (or knocking down a wall, can't remember which) and they discovered the archive of the company magazine, dating back to between the wars. The thing that struck me was these magazines had been produced every month for years and years, and yet they were all identical in paper type, branding, binding, typeface, b&w pictures, editorial style and type of content. They were even bound together into yearbooks, and each year had the same outer cover, just embossed with a new date. Can you imagine nothing changing for years like that today?

PS: the content was quiet eye-opening as well, as they simply assumed that employees were men, all of whom had wives who stayed at home and whose major concern was this year's hat style.

 

[fergie_mac66]

still miss the old YM

Ah, interesting link. I don't have the old charts to hand, but I swear that diagram on the web site of which charts are available is the same one, 40 years later.

Reminds me of an incident that flagged up to me how the pace of change has increased.

When I was doing some work with NCR at their then HQ on Marylebone Road they decided to alter a floor layout, which meant open a cupboard that had been locked for years (or knocking down a wall, can't remember which) and they discovered the archive of the company magazine, dating back to between the wars. The thing that struck me was these magazines had been produced every month for years and years, and yet they were all identical in paper type, branding, binding, typeface, b&w pictures, editorial style and type of content. They were even bound together into yearbooks, and each year had the same outer cover, just embossed with a new date. Can you imagine nothing changing for years like that today?

PS: the content was quiet eye-opening as well, as they simply assumed that employees were men, all of whom had wives who stayed at home and whose major concern was this year's hat style.

I still miss the old YM specially the covers and the dec' edition used to to have loads of reading . So nothing changing for years might well be a good thing sometimes !

But exclude the changes with regard to women ... but there still are a lot of them out there who's major concern is this years style, the tabloids are full of them !

 

[tillergirl]

Ah, my dad worked for NCR and I visited the HQ a couple of times with him (only the foyer) on a couple of occasions when we all had a trip to London. The company had rigid American controls on branding and work practices. Their demands for performance were huge. And all the managers were men! They had annual conventions which were strictly for men. Mum could never go.

I remember my father's pa was immaculately dressed like a Vogue model and whilst she was very competent she could never be in the management stream. Just wasn't allowed. When Dad had a near fatal heart attack, she did great things in easing the pressure by taking on a lot of his role until my brother and I were old enough to fly the nest and Dad could retire. She never achieved the reward due to her skills. I am pleased to say my Mum aged 99 still draws an NCR widows pension.

 

[kcrane]

Ah, my dad worked for NCR and I visited the HQ a couple of times with him (only the foyer) on a couple of occasions when we all had a trip to London. The company had rigid American controls on branding and work practices. Their demands for performance were huge. And all the managers were men! They had annual conventions which were strictly for men. Mum could never go.

Yep, that sounds familiar. Roughly when are you describing?

I did consulting for them for quite a few years all over the world. They had been very disciplined and number orientated. Sales review meetings were almost trial by combat. When there was bad news to give the senior director, junior staff were given the job to present the numbers as what they called "spear catchers". I was told people had been fired during review meetings as their figures were poor and their explanation for why even more poor. I didn't find a real example, so it was probably hearsay, the kind of story that gets exaggerated in the telling.

I was there however when the Japanese director visited a warehouse and was asking how long certain stock had been there. When he was told not long he asked for some white gloves, a hard hat and a fork lift truck. He put on the gloves and hat, stood on the forks, was lifted up maybe 15ft and ran a finger across the top of a box and signalled to be brought down. All he then did was hold up one (very dusty) finger and stare at the warehouse manager, who gulped, bowed and backed away. I didn't find out what happened to him.