An Appeal: Free M&D Resource Disappearing

[Bryan Snyder]

You can definitely download the files...

I'm more than willing and have more than enough web server space (over 800GB
to spare actually) to host these even if in the most basic directory view or
accessible via FTP.

I just don't have time to download everything but I can throw up a directory
and provide FTP access if someone else is willing to organize PDF
downloading, naming and putting them up on my site.

Just let me know.
B

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Richard Ryan
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:36 PM
To: David Payne; Pynchon-l
Subject: Re: An Appeal: Free M&D Resource Disappearing

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=ae22e7d3396d409e8
7067caebbec7e13&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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