Introduction
Note: It has been brought to my attention that Internet Explorer and Firefox (the browser I use) handle images in different ways.
Internet Explorer goes back up to the beginning of the file, necessitating a laborious return to the point in the file where the image was accessed.
Firefox stays in the accessing point.
To download Firefox:
Go to www.Firefox.com
This will bring up Mozilla Firefox and the opportunity to download Firefox 3.6. or 4.0. That will solve the problem immediately and you will have a very good browser, with fewer virus problems, on your computer.
Both the Safari and the Opera browser will handle the images a lot like Firefox, and both of them work well with these files.
If you google Safari Browser or Opera Browser the web sites will open up with easy access to downloading either Safari or Opera.
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If you have questions or comments you can contact me via e-mail at:
w.david.falcon@gmail.com
or
walter_falk@hotmail.com
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Also - please note:
This 'Introduction' page is underconstruction. There will be periodic changes as I add more information about my work on the Hamilton files and eventually clean it up. You may want to check it occasionally.
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I have also put up eight videos on the Hamilton materials on YouTube.
To access these you could go to www.youtube.com
When youtube comes up you can type 'T. G. Hamilton' into the search line. This should bring the videos on screen.
My videos are the Falcon1296 videos.
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This project would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the University of Manitoba, and especial thanks goes to Dr. Shelley Sweeney of the Special Collections Archives of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Support has been unfailing and extended to the burning of the original scans of the Hamilton Photos for my use in this present project and the YouTube videos. That in itself was a major project.
These original scans are available for viewing online at:
www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/archives/hamilton.shtml
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The Web Design program with which this site was created has a maximum file length of 65,536 characters. This is about 55 pages in WordPerfect. So I have broken each year up into 50 page sections. That is why there are some 92 files.
The large number of files is the reason for the organization of the index page into a table that holds all the headings for the sections.
To find any section click on the index page to access that section. Once in the section you can go to the [ Previous ] page or the [ Next ] page or back to the index page which is named the [ Home ] page.
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Note: The section below refers to the images and word processing files found on
two DVD discs and cannot they be found on the internet.
These are the Hamilton notes as transcribed from the original 5000 or so images of the files stored in 19 boxes in the Elizabeth Dafoe Special Collections at the University of Manitoba.
The digital camera used to copy the files is a 5.1 megapixel Canon.
There are many letters in the original files and among the images that are not represented in this Easy-read file. There is also much information on the Hamilton activities not related to the T. G. Hamilton work in the seance room. All this information is readily available from the original images.
The images are on two DVD discs available from the University of Manitoba or from me. There will be a fee for making the copies and also to cover mailing costs if the discs are ordered from me.
These images contain all the text information that the Hamiltons noted through the fifteen years of their experiments, as well as any photos that the Hamiltons included with the text.
I started photographing the notes on March 17, 2004 and finished on April 14, 2004. There are many pages of automatic writing between boxes 11 and 15 which I did not photograph. Those pages which had notations as to the deciphering of the messages I did photograph.
From these images I transcribed the text material to the WordPerfect word processing program. Then I also converted the files to MicroSoft Word and .pdf format (which can be read with Adobe Acrobat)
I first transcribed the notes in the order in which they are found in the Hamilton Collection. They had been arranged by topic by Lillian Hamilton and Margaret Bach (the married name of Margaret Hamilton, daughter of Thomas and Lillian Hamilton) when they were donated to the University.
This first file I named the 'Topics File'
It includes the image identifiers as created by the camera as I took the photos. They are of the form (???/????) . Example (336/3671) The first number, 336, is the folder number and the second number, 3671, is the image number. In this way the text can be related to the image to check the accuracy of my transcription. This file has 6707 pages. It contains all the Hamilton notes except for some automatic writing that I found between boxes 11 and 15, as already noted.
Then I arranged the files in chronological order and named this file 'Chronological Files'. Many of the image identifiers are found in this file also. A few were probably lost. This file has 6361 pages.
I then proceeded to delete duplicated sections. In the Topics File Lillian or Margaret had sometimes put carbon copies of certain notes under two or more topics. When I was done I had 6304 pages. I called this file the Final File.
Finally I eliminated repetitious material to make the files easier to read and called this the 'Easy-Read' file. This file has 3949 pages.
All these files, each in the three formats of WordPerfect, MicroSoft Word, and .pdf format are found on the two DVD discs along with the image files.
I simplified the Easy-Read file by taking out line spaces and trimmed it down to 3600 pages and put the result on the internet in the files from 'History' to '1957', found in the following pages. This file leaves out the material after 1957.
I finished this work early in 2011.
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Just to make it easy for researchers to use the images, here are some hints.
To find a specific topic or quote first do a search in the word processing file that I have named the Easy-read file. This is the shortest file of around 3949 pages and has all the image identifiers and repeats and duplicates removed - so far as I could identify them.
From this Easy-read file it will be possible to get the date of the topic or quote.
Then go to the longer file named the Chronological file and using the date, search for the topic or quote there. This file is much longer and includes the repeats and duplicates, and also the image identifiers.
Once you have the image identifier, you can go to the image files and see the images of the actual sheets, complete with photos (if present) and the original script, whether typed or hand-written.
The image files cannot be searched.
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The images of the seance room work in these internet files are copied from the original high resolution University scanned photos, but often cropped and always re-sized to fit the screen width of 800 pixels or a height of 800 pixels. So the complete image always fits on the screen.
To view an image, click on the colored [Photo ] link. To remove an image click on the 'back' arrow at the top of the browser and continue reading the text file.
The Hamilton files as transcribed, including the repeats and duplicates, makes a very long file of about 7, 600 pages in the WordPerfect format as formatted by me.
The shorter Easy-read file still has 3600 pages. This is still a long file.
In any case, reading the entire T. G. Hamilton Files will require a major expenditure of time and effort.
You can take my word for that! I've been there.
Walter Falk
