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Today's Twitter extract from MEMSO reminds us of just how strange people's behaviour in the past can seem to us today.The soil floors of the population's houses and barns were seemingly a rich source of both urine and straw, which also perhaps were allowed to build up over the months in a way which encouraged the crystalization process required for saltpetre.Urine has also been used in the manufacture of saltpeter for gunpowder. In this process, stale urine placed in a container of straw hay is allowed to sour for many months, after which water is used to wash the resulting chemical salts from the straw. The process is completed by filtering the liquid through wood ashes and air-drying in the sun. (Wikipedia, extracted 30 April 2009)
These conditions are often found in nature, as in the soil of all caves, but particularly those in limestone countries; and still more frequently under a concurrence of circumstances which, though not strictly natural, is at least accidental, so far as the formation of nitre is concerned, as in cellars, stables, manure-heaps, &c. In crowded cities, with narrow, dirty streets and lanes, the decomposing organic matter with which the soil is impregnated becomes gradually nitrified, oozes through, and dries on the walls and floor of the cellars, as a whitish crust, easily detectible as saltpetre by the taste.
We've launched a new version of MEMSO, with lots of new features. Read more
Click on the screenshot to see MEMSO 3.0 it in all it's glory. The screenshot illustrates how a user can have mutiple open books at once, or view different pages from the same book side by side.
Key new features include:
In the April 2009 issue:
1. Send us your suggestions for books and manuscripts to publish
TannerRitchie is looking for great new series and collections to publishing during the years 2009-2012, and we need your help!
What series would you like to see added to our collections? What series do you think would be popular with our clients and users? The only requirement for digitising printed books we have is that material is out of copyright, and within a broad definition of British medieval and early modern history. As a rule, books published by HMSO or the government are covered by Crown copyright, which expires 50 years after publication.
Alternatively, let us know of collections of manuscripts in the UK National Archives, or elsewhere in Britain, that would be a useful and popular addition to MEMSO.
Send your suggestions to office at tannerritchie dot c o m.
2. Latest publications
Register of the Privy Council, series 3: remaining volumes are being published this week, completing this huge series on which we began work in 2002!
Calendar of Letter-Books Preserved in the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: Series completed, and available for only $15 Canadian per volume.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, volume 1650 (1650-1650)
3. Latest Manuscripts
State Papers, Foreign, for the reign of Elizabeth I (SP 70), completed (over 21,000 images)
State Papers, France (SP 78), 1587-1631 completed (30,000 images)
Already available: State Papers, Foreign, Edward VI (SP 68), State Papers, Foreign, Mary (SP 69), State Papers, Foreign, Spain (SP 94) (total, over 34,000 images).
Collectively, these now form an incredible resource for early modern historians, and one which we intend to develop in new ways to enable increasingly easy access to these manuscripts in the future.
4. MEMSO 3.0
In the next 7 to 10 days we plan to launch version 3.0 of the MEMSO interface, introducing some major usability and speed improvements.
Key new features:
If there are features you'd like added to MEMSO, please let us know.
5. New places to find TannerRitchie: our Blog, RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter
TannerRitchie can now be found in a range of new places on the internet apart from our main website.
6. Can you program? MEMSO has an API, would you like to use it?
If you know what an API (Application Programming Interface) is, then chances are that you know a little about programming, and the possibilities that using APIs opens up for reusing data across different websites and applications. We are now working on the first generation of a MEMSO API, which is integral to MEMSO 3.0.
We are interested in speaking to subscribers who would like to be involved in working with MEMSO data. Could you use MEMSO data on your website?
Contact roland at tannerritchie dot c o m to discuss ideas with us.
