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wallrat
7-Nov-2012, 10:34
I love reading old books especially 19th century photography books, bulletins and magazines. Google Books (http://books.google.com) allows you to search and read thousands of old books and periodicals for free. Many you can download in pdf form. When you visit that page, enter your search terms in the "Research" side of the page. If you have Google Play Books installed, you can add them to your library to read later for free.

Anyway, I was reading one this morning and happened upon a story that I think many of us on this forum can identify with, especially those who love antique lenses and are tinkerers. I have no idea if it's true or not, but it doesn't matter. Remember these are scans so sometimes words are misspelled, missing, etc but it isn't a huge issue. The story is titled "The Tale of a Portrait-Lens" and starts just after the opening image on the page. It's from Photo-Era Magazine, November 1922. Enjoy :)

http://books.google.com/books?id=URnOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA226-IA2&dq=soft+focus+lens&as_brr=1&output=html_text

-Bill

Amedeus
7-Nov-2012, 23:56
Fun story ... brought a smile and a chuckle ;)

wallrat
7-Nov-2012, 23:59
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I saw a lot of me in that story, all the way to the end. I loved the "accidental bargaining" :)

Bill_1856
8-Nov-2012, 02:01
So DAGOR77 was already dealing rare lenses in 1922?

wallrat
8-Nov-2012, 09:02
lol

Vaughn
8-Nov-2012, 09:46
The Jewish reference certainly dates it.

SAShruby
8-Nov-2012, 21:25
I tried to read the book but I can't find a way to open it. Is it because I live in Canada and Google is not allowing me to read?

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 00:03
Peter, surely not. It's an old old magazine that is public domain now. It has to be some issue. Try this link, it allows you to download the entire magazine as a pdf then you can use adobe acrobat to open it. The story starts on page 226ish http://books.google.com/books/download/Photo_era_Magazine.pdf?id=URnOAAAAMAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U3obRJiIrBbiLkczj1qDrMvicOzNA

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 00:04
I missed that Vaughn. It's from '22 so not surprising. That aside, it's a good story.

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 09:52
Peter, surely not. It's an old old magazine that is public domain now. It has to be some issue. Try this link, it allows you to download the entire magazine as a pdf then you can use adobe acrobat to open it. The story starts on page 226ish http://books.google.com/books/download/Photo_era_Magazine.pdf?id=URnOAAAAMAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U3obRJiIrBbiLkczj1qDrMvicOzNA

Sorry, I got an error message stating:

404. That’s an error.
The requested URL /books/download/Photo_era_Magazine.pdf?id=URnOAAAAMAAJ&output=pdf&sig=ACfU3U3obRJiIrBbiLkczj1qDrMvicOzNA&capid=AFLRE73rP914pL4fl5Ne0sJgzRa5jtjEx_mB3YpfdG-MhWQwEz9sau0SZ5zwmbsSWeTLb2QitAfYKX-FmCLPzQmEK-hSwOeW2zb3Zf71q0MeacuJad6LYj0&captcha=redlesto was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

Can anyone walk me through the process? I tried to google it but I'm getting nowhere....

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 09:59
This shows my search results: http://books.google.ca/books?q=editions:0AFLRE73u0D_8-0rO7Jrby9kzeJ6scEgjbdUCvlKyf89qw87ZqyVns1c&lr=&start=40&id=vx3OAAAAMAAJ&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES

If I click on Public Domain Only I get this: Sorry - We do not have any other editions of Photo-era Magazine.

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 10:19
Peter, go to http://books.google.com and in the "Research a topic" box type "Photo-era Magazine, Volumes 48-49". That should find the book for you. Then the story is on page 226 and is titled "The Tale of a Portrait-Lens"

-Bill

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 10:45
Peter, go to http://books.google.com and in the "Research a topic" box type "Photo-era Magazine, Volumes 48-49". That should find the book for you. Then the story is on page 226 and is titled "The Tale of a Portrait-Lens"

-Bill

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your continuous help, however I did that more than 50 times :confused: I'm not getting the magazine in my results, instead I get this: https://www.google.com/search?q=Photo-era+Magazine%2C+Volumes+48-49&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1. Getting frustrated...

Sevo
9-Nov-2012, 11:08
It is not accessible from Europe (nor Israel) either.

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 11:15
Ok guys, I did you one better. I downloaded the pdf and saved it in Google Drive. I then made it public so that you can get to it with the following link. Now, this pdf is about 46mb in size, so it's big but not massive (i.e. I wouldn't try it on a phone). It's all of the issues from 1922. The article is in the November issue and starts on page 612 of the pdf and ends on page 617. You should have no problems now :)
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9zNexxw6wDzVGZsVEY3VC1iSGc

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 11:40
I think this is a problem Google is not allowing to view magazine outside US. Maybe we could get these old magazines/books here on LF forum for public viewing, if there are no copyright issues.

Thanks Bill.

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 11:41
I assume my last link worked ok?

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 11:43
I assume my last link worked ok?

Oh yeah, if you could please do these prior 1922 would be fantastic :)

wallrat
9-Nov-2012, 11:48
One thing you can try is one of the Anonymous surfing sites. You go to the site and enter the url you wish to visit. They then proxy it to you so that the person you visit has no idea who / where you are. I'm not sure if it would work, but it's an idea. When you finish the 800 or so pages of that year, please let me know and I'd be happy to grab another for you :)

SAShruby
9-Nov-2012, 12:10
Hi Bill,

Tried that through Anchorfree yesterday, same results :(. Not sure whether Google is clever but at this point I couldn't trick them.

wallrat
10-Nov-2012, 01:06
Well, nice though. I'm glad it's working from my google drive. I'll leave it up there for a few weeks at least so as many of you that want to read it can. I have plenty of free space :)

Have a great weekend all,
-Bill

Hermes07
10-Nov-2012, 16:53
Well, nice though. I'm glad it's working from my google drive. I'll leave it up there for a few weeks at least so as many of you that want to read it can. I have plenty of free space :)

Have a great weekend all,
-Bill

Thanks for the link Bill.

wallrat
10-Nov-2012, 17:33
You all are more than welcome. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did. There are many parts of the story that resonated with me. :)

bobwysiwyg
10-Nov-2012, 18:37
My thanks as well. It is the largest file I 'ge downloaded to my Kindle Fire yet! I 'm looking forward to reading it.

wallrat
10-Nov-2012, 23:41
One final thing, if there is a particular subject or publication that you are interested in, please start a new thread or PM me and I'll be happy to search for you. I would need a pretty specific topic though as general topic return thousands of results.

-Bill