Anyone want to test their visual skill on this document?
RogerB
Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
The following page is one of a group sent to the US Mint by their purchasing agent in France. Letters relate to buying equipment for the new gold mints. Unfortunately, the paper was of poor quality and bleed-through was nearly universal. This image is enhanced in an attempt to separate the top surface of the page from the bottom, bleed-through, side.
There are nine letters, 3-5 pages each. This one is typical.
1
Comments
Oh, no. I'm not getting tricked into summoning a _third _demon...
I can see .........that I'm not going to be of any help.
First off, the main letter is backwards. I've flipped it and separated it into sections so its not so overwhelming.
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Then there's the middle section turned sideways.
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
Actually, the blue in the middle is the address and rotated 90-degrees on the original. The blue at top and bottom are correct-reading and part of the same sheet side as the address. The reddish, is bleed-through and naturally a mirror image.
Maybe one day I can get better digital copies. That should make transcription a lot easier.
This hurt my head.
Mine too....these caused by bifocals to become trifocals, then fog over.
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
Perhaps this might help, the results of some Photoshopping:
I think FBI at Quantico would have their work cut out for them on this document. Good luck.
eBay ID-bruceshort978
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Here's my hasty/lame attempt.
1. Address (rotated 90):
JWA Pacquet xxxxx
xxxx a New York
-------
R M Patterson Esq
Director of the Mint
of United States
Philadelphia
2. main page (red bleed-through, flip left to right):
that is on the camerett wrapper in a patheloait
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
about the saminoir, I have had assistance from the
artist to whom I have waited about all over txx in
aealyst your opposite to finish the plate you refer to,
without I would a can find the xxx without plates
but this gives me no xxx Mr. Darcet
gave me the address of the artist living 3 miles
from here, who made the xxx of the most often
ink as longer in the way of ther of the address
an artist whom he xxx sample
I Itest him the xxx the Samins
in xxx there which xxx which they
informed me at the xxx xxx
s actual at not xxx xxx
n saminoir having xxx
the sum of 1000 pairs xxx
it for sale with short xxx which
ti making for 150 pairs to 200 pairs according to xxx
that at the xxx Mint xxx
paid xx a xxx
of xxx
xxx
xxx
xxx
is xxx
3. bottom of main page in blue:
I am ignorant of all these matters of yourself
land me for hand thing. You made task hand
for then as for this. I gaxxx of xx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
4. top of main page in blue, upside down:
Now(?) which xxx
xxxx
xxx the Mint xxx
xxxx
xxxx
packed you know as well as I can tell you that
Do you by chance have an image of the original without the enhancement? Sometimes it's easiest to start from the beginning.
@yosclimber .....Well done.... I do not have the patience for that.... or the eyesight...Cheers, RickO
I'll retrieve the original and post it. The original paper color was off-white/cream, but the photographer did not set the correct color balance. (It might require reading several of these documents to tease out the contextual meaning of illegible words.)
Original page image. See note, above.
Thanks, this is an improvement for me.
Here are the sections after a "color auto adjust" in the IrfanView image editor,
with some edits to my previous transcription.
1. Address
JWA Pacquet Sincerely
told xxx give a New York
-------
R M Patterson Esq
Director of the Mint
of United States
Philadelphia
2. Main
that is on the camerett wrapper in a pasteboard
xxxx
xxxx take at the xxx
xxxx certificate
xxxx
xxxx
about the laminoir, I have had assistance from the
artist to whom I have taled about all over time in
a calm at your as paid to finish the plate you refer to,
without success. I can find the Book without plates
but this gives me no xxx the xxx Mr. Darcet
gave me the address of the artist living 3 miles
from here, who made the laminoir for the Mint. He
ink as longer in the way of ther of the address
an artist whom he xxx sample
I Itest him the xxx the Lamins
in xxx there which xxx which they
informed me at the xxx xxx
s actual at not xxx xxx the
n laminoir having just been xxx cost
the sum of 1000 francs. N xxx has purchasly
lot for sale with short xxx which
ti makes for 150 francs to 200 francs according to xxx
that at the xxx Mint xxx
paid xx a foot long, or with xxx
of each am xxx I cannot xxx
all I have hear xxx
xxx
xxx
is xxx
3. Bottom
I am ignorant of all these matters if you shall
send me a xxxtting. You made take Hand
for then as xxx I have ignorance. I may often
be mistaken xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
xxxx
4. Top
Now(?) which xxx would write me immediately
xxxx
xxx the Mint at Philadelphia xxx
xxxx
xxxx tell me if they have been well
packed. You know as well as I can tell you that
Looks like chicken scratches until I focus in. I could not begin to decipher a complete sentence. Kudos to Bodin and Yosclimber. I think they're onto something.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
I suspect that with a high quality scan of the original, the bleed-through and top surface inks can be separated with a couple of very tightly limited RGB masks. Maybe one day I can get to Philadelphia and check these out.
Yes -- getting anything usable out of this and similar pages is very difficult.
Small breakthrough:
laminoir = rolling mill (for making planchets)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laminoir
Might have been among the equipment ordered -- or maybe offered by the French agent?
Just for your reference...
smithsonianinstitution:Help with making documents more legible?
Backroadjunkie -- Thanks! Another technique not mentioned in the SI article is geometric. Most handwriting is slanted left or right depending on the writer's handedness. Software can select and null all letterforms of one range of slating angles while preserving the balance of the image. I've seen samples of this and it can separate each side of a badly bled-through page. Unfortunately, I need a really good scan to start with.....
Letter forensics, very interesting and well beyond me and my patience. I enjoyed the job done by @yosclimber, well done!
BTW, have you climbed El Capitan?
I remember seeing a document something like what you posted before, but I was darned if I couldn't remember where. But I found the reference. It was Livingstone's diary! (Of the "Dr. Livingstone I presume" fame.) Check this pdf:
Recovery of handwritten text from the diaries and papers of David Livingstone
When he ran out of paper, he used newspaper and ink from local berries, which not only faded, but bled through the paper. It took years to figure out how to recover the text...
Very good article. The pseudocolor method was what I was trying, but the original in not of sufficient quality to permit much clarity.
Yes, I used to go up it on a regular basis in the late 1980s and 1990s; most recent time was 2009. Even climbed it with my wife one time. "It's a good one." :-)