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Archive for June, 2015

Progress update, 20 to 26 June 2015

By Tim Causer, on 30 June 2015

Welcome to the (belated) progress update for the period 20 to 26 June 2015 – many apologies for its late arrival, caused by my absence at the end of last week. Further good progress continues to be made by Transcribe Bentham volunteers!

13,255 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 38 on this time last week. Of these transcripts, 12,179 have been checked and approved by TB staff.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

Box No. of manuscripts worked on No. of manuscripts in box Completion
Box 1 254 794 32%
Box 2 472 753 62%
Box 4 2 694 1%
Box 5 200 290 68%
Box 7 3 167 1%
Box 8 6 284 2%
Box 9 41 266 15%
Box 15 79 914 10%
Box 18 4 192 2%
Box 27 350 350 COMPLETE
Box 29 22 122 18%
Box 30 2 193 1%
Box 31 19 302 6%
Box 34 40 398 10%
Box 35 286 439 65%
Box 36 34 418 8%
Box 37 32 487 6%
Box 38 125 424 30%
Box 39 12 282 4%
Box 41 87 528 14%
Box 42 89 910 9%
Box 44 53 201 26%
Box 50 171 198 85%
Box 51 385 940 40%
Box 57 18 420 4%
Box 62 72 565 12%
Box 63 155 345 44%
Box 70 306 350 87%
Box 71 663 663 COMPLETE
Box 72 614 664 92%
Box 73 151 151 COMPLETE
Box 79 199 199 COMPLETE
Box 95 126 147 85%
Box 96 534 539 99%
Box 97 139 296 46%
Box 98 224 499 44%
Box 100 194 422 43%
Box 106 121 581 20%
Box 107 502 538 93%
Box 110 7 671 1%
Box 115 276 307 89%
Box 116 506 864 58%
Box 117 365 853 42%
Box 118 255 880 28%
Box 119 535 990 54%
Box 120 29 686 4%
Box 121 134 526 24%
Box 122 304 717 41%
Box 123 42 443 9%
Box 124 15 383 3%
Box 139 40 40 COMPLETE
Box 141 4 381 1%
Box 149 5 581 1%
Box 150 955 972 95%
Box 169 193 728 26%
Add MS 537 730 744 98%
Add MS 538 772 858 89%
Add MS 539 834 948 87%
Add MS 540 109 1012 10%
Add MS 541 359 1258 28%
Overall 13,255 31,560 41%

We recently updated the list of transcripts which have been partially transcribed but require completion. If you prefer to work on these, please do consult the list.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to Transcribe Bentham during the last seven days. It remains as greatly appreciated as ever.

Progress update, 13 to 19 June 2015

By Tim Causer, on 19 June 2015

Welcome along to the progress update for the period 13 to 19 June 2015, during which time further great progress has been made by volunteer transcribers.

13,217 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 35 on this time last week. Of these transcripts, 12,140 (92%) have now been checked and approved by TB staff.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

Box No. of manuscripts worked on No. of manuscripts in box Completion
Box 1 254 794 32%
Box 2 472 753 62%
Box 4 2 694 1%
Box 5 200 290 68%
Box 7 3 167 1%
Box 8 6 284 2%
Box 9 41 266 15%
Box 15 79 914 10%
Box 18 4 192 2%
Box 27 350 350 COMPLETE
Box 29 22 122 18%
Box 30 2 193 1%
Box 31 19 302 6%
Box 34 40 398 10%
Box 35 286 439 65%
Box 36 34 418 8%
Box 37 32 487 6%
Box 38 123 424 30%
Box 39 12 282 4%
Box 41 87 528 14%
Box 42 89 910 9%
Box 44 53 201 26%
Box 50 171 198 85%
Box 51 385 940 40%
Box 57 18 420 4%
Box 62 72 565 12%
Box 63 155 345 44%
Box 70 306 350 87%
Box 71 663 663 COMPLETE
Box 72 614 664 92%
Box 73 151 151 COMPLETE
Box 79 199 199 COMPLETE
Box 95 126 147 85%
Box 96 534 539 99%
Box 97 139 296 46%
Box 98 224 499 44%
Box 100 194 422 43%
Box 106 120 581 20%
Box 107 502 538 93%
Box 110 7 671 1%
Box 115 276 307 89%
Box 116 506 864 58%
Box 117 365 853 42%
Box 118 255 880 28%
Box 119 535 990 54%
Box 120 29 686 4%
Box 121 134 526 24%
Box 122 304 717 41%
Box 123 42 443 9%
Box 124 15 383 3%
Box 139 40 40 COMPLETE
Box 141 4 381 1%
Box 149 5 581 1%
Box 150 924 972 95%
Box 169 193 728 26%
Add MS 537 730 744 98%
Add MS 538 768 858 89%
Add MS 539 834 948 87%
Add MS 540 109 1012 10%
Add MS 541 359 1258 28%
Overall 13,217 31,560 41%

This is terrific progress. I don’t think we could ever have imagined that, when we launched TB in September 2010, volunteers would have contributed so generously to this endeavour.

I am away at the end of next week, so the next progress update may not be issued until at least Tuesday 30 June. Please do accept my apologies for any inconvenience which this may cause.

Thank you, as always, to everyone who has given their time to Transcribe Bentham during the last seven days. It remains as greatly appreciated as ever by us all.

 

 

Progress update, 7 to 12 June 2015

By Tim Causer, on 12 June 2015

Welcome to the Transcribe Bentham progress update for the period 6 to 12 June 2015, during which time further steady progress has been made by volunteer transcribers.

13,182 manuscript pages have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 36 on this time last week. Of these transcripts, 12,128 have now been checked and approved by TB staff.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

Box No. of manuscripts worked on No. of manuscripts in box Completion
Box 1 254 794 32%
Box 2 472 753 62%
Box 4 2 694 1%
Box 5 200 290 68%
Box 7 3 167 1%
Box 8 6 284 2%
Box 9 41 266 15%
Box 15 79 914 10%
Box 18 4 192 2%
Box 27 350 350 COMPLETE
Box 29 22 122 18%
Box 30 2 193 1%
Box 31 19 302 6%
Box 34 40 398 10%
Box 35 286 439 65%
Box 36 34 418 8%
Box 37 32 487 6%
Box 38 121 424 29%
Box 39 12 282 4%
Box 41 87 528 14%
Box 42 88 910 9%
Box 44 53 201 26%
Box 50 171 198 85%
Box 51 385 940 40%
Box 57 18 420 4%
Box 62 72 565 12%
Box 63 155 345 44%
Box 70 306 350 87%
Box 71 663 663 COMPLETE
Box 72 614 664 92%
Box 73 151 151 COMPLETE
Box 79 199 199 COMPLETE
Box 95 126 147 85%
Box 96 534 539 99%
Box 97 139 296 46%
Box 98 224 499 44%
Box 100 194 422 43%
Box 106 116 581 19%
Box 107 502 538 93%
Box 110 7 671 1%
Box 115 276 307 89%
Box 116 506 864 58%
Box 117 365 853 42%
Box 118 255 880 28%
Box 119 535 990 54%
Box 120 29 686 4%
Box 121 134 526 24%
Box 122 304 717 41%
Box 123 42 443 9%
Box 124 15 383 3%
Box 139 40 40 COMPLETE
Box 141 4 381 1%
Box 149 5 581 1%
Box 150 902 972 92%
Box 169 193 728 26%
Add MS 537 730 744 98%
Add MS 538 762 858 88%
Add MS 539 834 948 87%
Add MS 540 109 1012 10%
Add MS 541 358 1258 28%
Overall 13,182 31,560 41%

Those working on Box 15o transcripts may be interested to read Dr Michael Quinn’s update on how they are assisting in editing a volume of Bentham’s Collected Works. Transcribers have made one tremendous new find, written by Bentham in 1795. Alarmed by the Terror in France, Bentham was fairly conservative, and volunteers have discovered a piece of text which Dr Quinn describes as ‘a real contender for the most reactionary sentences ever produced by the JB quill!’

And finally, Hayley Campbell has written a hugely entertaining piece about Bentham’s auto-icon for BuzzFeed. We highly recommend it!

Thank you, as always, to everyone who has contributed to Transcribe Bentham during the last seven days. It is as greatly appreciated as ever.

 

Box 150: progress update from Dr Michael Quinn

By Tim Causer, on 8 June 2015

Below is an update from Dr Michael Quinn of the Bentham Project, on how your transcripts of Box 150 manuscripts are helping in his work editing The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham. If you would like to work on these manuscripts, you can access a list of untranscribed material on the Transcription Desk.

Dear Special Constables,

We always knew that Bentham, alarmed by the violence of the Terror in France, had written some very conservative things in the 1790s—How else to explain his planned essay ‘Rotten Boroughs not Corrupt’, on a plan for which he noted 20 years later ‘What can this be? Surely this was never my opinion?’ There has been long and heated debate among Bentham scholars about the timing of and reasons for Bentham’s conversion to democracy. Now, thanks to Keith Thompson in particular, we have a new piece of evidence in the form of an absolute gem of a passage at Box 150, fos. 585–6, in which JB compares Pitt’s Gagging Acts of 1795 (passed after stones were thrown at George III on his way to open Parliament) to the Magna Carta! The passage has caused something of a stir in the Project Offices, and is a real contender for the most reactionary sentences ever produced by the JB quill! Here is the edited passage:

The Sedition Act may be regarded as a second Magna Charta, preserving   against attacks still more destructive that security which the first had formed. (I say security: for as to liberty, the word is so replete with ambiguity and     poison as to be scarce fit for use:—it is as if arsenic were sold at the Grocer’s under the same name with Sugar.) The Sedition Act has silenced the mob of   inflammatory tongues: but howsoever necessary, and, when considered apart from prejudice, exempt from real danger, it can not be denied to have been a measure of the strongest and most alarming kind. Excellent as far as it goes, it goes after all but half way. To pens of the same complexion the defence it provides does not extend; nor could it receive any such extension, without introducing a licencing system for the press: a measure the bare mention of which would perhaps be scarce endured among some of the warmest advocates for the other. To shut up the court of public opinion altogether would be among the most unpopular, not to say the most dangerous, of all attempts: but the simple faculty of being heard is a privilege which no government whatever can, with the least colour of reason, be censured for securing to itself: even if this were the known object of the Police Gazette, which it is not proposed to be—Laying out of the question altogether the   press-licencing system—between the Sedition Act and the proposed Police Gazette the difference in point of roughness of operation is as great as between the strongest drastic, and the most gentle alternative.

There are now only about 22 folios of the text for ‘Observations on the Police Bill’ left to complete, so if anyone has the time and interest it would be wonderful to see any (or all) of the following: Box 150: 614–21, 623–9, 638–9, 677–9, 681, 683. Thanks to all, and keep up the good work!

Michael

Progress update, 30 May to 5 June 2015

By Tim Causer, on 5 June 2015

Welcome along to the Transcribe Bentham progress update for the period 30 May to 5 June 2015, during which time further steady progress has been made by volunteer transcribers.

13,146 manuscripts have now been transcribed or partially-transcribed, which is an increase of 26 on this time last week. Of these transcripts, 12,122 (92%) have been checked and approved by TB staff. It’s quite unbelievable to think that so many transcripts have been produced as we approach TB‘s fifth birthday in September.

The more detailed state of progress is as follows:

Box No. of manuscripts worked on No. of manuscripts in box Completion
Box 1 253 794 32%
Box 2 472 753 62%
Box 4 2 694 1%
Box 5 200 290 68%
Box 7 3 167 1%
Box 8 6 284 2%
Box 9 41 266 15%
Box 15 79 914 10%
Box 18 4 192 2%
Box 27 350 350 COMPLETE
Box 29 22 122 18%
Box 30 2 193 1%
Box 31 19 302 6%
Box 34 40 398 10%
Box 35 286 439 65%
Box 36 34 418 8%
Box 37 32 487 6%
Box 38 119 424 29%
Box 39 12 282 4%
Box 41 87 528 14%
Box 42 88 910 9%
Box 44 53 201 26%
Box 50 171 198 85%
Box 51 385 940 40%
Box 57 18 420 4%
Box 62 72 565 12%
Box 63 155 345 44%
Box 70 306 350 87%
Box 71 663 663 COMPLETE
Box 72 614 664 92%
Box 73 151 151 COMPLETE
Box 79 199 199 COMPLETE
Box 95 126 147 85%
Box 96 534 539 99%
Box 97 139 296 46%
Box 98 223 499 44%
Box 100 194 422 43%
Box 106 115 581 19%
Box 107 502 538 93%
Box 110 7 671 1%
Box 115 276 307 89%
Box 116 506 864 58%
Box 117 365 853 42%
Box 118 255 880 28%
Box 119 535 990 54%
Box 120 29 686 4%
Box 121 134 526 24%
Box 122 304 717 41%
Box 123 42 443 9%
Box 124 15 383 3%
Box 139 40 40 COMPLETE
Box 141 4 381 1%
Box 149 5 581 1%
Box 150 887 972 91%
Box 169 193 728 26%
Add MS 537 730 744 98%
Add MS 538 758 858 88%
Add MS 539 834 948 87%
Add MS 540 102 1012 10%
Add MS 541 353 1258 28%
Overall 13,146 31,560 41%

Box 150 continues towards completion, requiring fewer than a hundred more transcripts until we’re there!

We recently began testing TSX, a transcription platform which incorporates Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) technology developed for the tranScriptorium project. As well as transcribing and encoding, you can correct a transcript produced by the computer or, if you encounter words you are unsure about, request suggestions produced by the HTR engine. If you would like to try out TSX, please do visit the website and register. We recommend that you access TSX via the Chrome browser running on Windows 7 or above. Future development includes the doing-away with visible text mark-up, allowing you to concentrate solely on transcribing the manuscripts. Please do drop us a line if you have any questions about TSX!

Thank you, as always, to everyone who has contributed to Transcribe Bentham during the last seven days. It remains as greatly appreciated as ever.