An Appeal: Free M&D Resource Disappearing

[Richard Ryan]

David - I agree that these are important historical
resources.  How would we keep them on-line?  What site
would willing house them?  Guttenberg, perhaps?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention,
RR




--- David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> This here's a plea, my friends.
>  
> The Royal Society (the same one that employed Mason
> & Dixon) has an incredible Digital Journal Archive
> that is available for free:
>
http://publishing.royalsoc.ac.uk/index.cfm?page=1373.
>  
> Free--that is--until the end of November!
>  
> We're about to lose free access to some key primary
> and secondary documents on Mason and Dixon!
>  
> Like these, from 1768, the motherlode volume,
> wherein M&D report their activities in America (see
>
http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/k13h60281471/?p=ae22e7d3396d409e87067caebbec7e13&pi=7):
>  
> Ø      Mason, C., & Dixon, J. (1768). Observations
> for determining the length of a degree of latitude
> in the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania in
> North America. Philosophical Transactions of the
> Royal Society, 58, 274-328.
> Ø      Mason, C., & Dixon, J. (1768). Astronomical
> observations, made in the forks of the River
> Brandywine in Pennsylvania, for determining the
> going of a clock sent thither by the Royal Society
.
> Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 58,
> 329-335.  
> Ø      Mason, C., & Dixon, J. (1768). Observations
> for determining the length of a degree of latitude
> in the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania, in
> North America. Philosophical Transactions of the
> Royal Society, 58, 274-328. 
> Ø      Maskelyne, N. (1768). Introduction to the
> following observations, made by Messieurs Charles
> Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, for determining the length
> of a degree of latitude, in the provinces of
> Maryland and Pennsylvania, in North America.
> Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 58,
> 270-273. 
>  
> $100 bucks says Pynchon read these while writing
> M&D!
>  
> These documents are old enough that are no longer
> copyrighted--anyone can download them and copy them
> and make them freely available to anyone.
>  
> Is anyone here interested in moving these key M&D
> resources over to a new, free home? I would be happy
> to point you to the more pertinent articles

>
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