[COMPLETE] Industrial Biography by Samuel Smiles - availle

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
CliveCatterall
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Post by CliveCatterall »

Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers by Samuel Smiles (1812 - 1904).

This project is now complete. All files can be downloaded from our catalog page:
https://librivox.org/industrial-biography-by-samuel-smiles/


Short Biographies of some of the most influential engineers who developed the modern manufacturing methods behind the Industrial Revolution.

Engineers and designers tend to be fairly anonymous figures in history – content to make things rather than write about them. At the time Smiles wrote “Industrial Biography” the whole of British society was undergoing massive changes driven by developments in the High Technology of the day – Mechanical Engineering.

Much of the knowledge we have of the brilliant mechanical engineers who developed the iron and machine tools of the nineteenth century was gathered and recorded by Smiles from the men themselves and from their students. Without Bramah, Maudslay, Nasmyth , and others Brunel would not have been able to build his railways, bridges and steamships. And many of their machine tools are still in use 200 years later: my own lathe looks very similar to one made by Maudslay in 1800 and almost identical to Whitworth lathes from the 1830s.

Smiles’ most famous work is “Self Help” published in 1859: the book that defined the Liberal Victorian response to the poor. In "Industrial Biography", written only four years later, the virtues of thrift, hard work, and self-improvement are woven through the stories of the great mechanical engineers, most of whom raised themselves from very humble beginnings. In some ways Industrial Biography and the other engineering biographies published by Smiles can be seen as examples to illustrate “Self Help”.
( Clive Catterall)
  • Text source (only read from this text!): http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/404
  • Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard



    IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).
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    Magic Window:



    BC Admin
    ============================================
    Genres for the project: *Non-fiction/Biography & Autobiography
    Keywords that describe the book:
    ============================================
  • The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
    No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!
    START of recording (Intro):
    • "Chapter One of Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org. Recording by Clive Catterall. Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, by Samuel Smiles. Chapter One."


    For the second and all subsequent sections, you may optionally use the shortened form of this intro disclaimer:
    • "Chapter [number] of Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers by Samuel Smiles. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain. Recording by Clive Catterall. Chapter [number]"
    END of recording:
    • At the end of the section, say:
      "End of [Chapter]"
    • At the end of the book, say (in addition):
      "End of Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers, by Samuel Smiles. Recording by Clive Catterall [date]"

    There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.
  • Example filename industrialbiography_##_smiles_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. industrialbiography_01_smiles_128kb.mp3)

    Transfer of files (completed recordings)
    Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file. Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
    • Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader
      Image
      (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
    • You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: Availle - availle
    • When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread.
    • If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.



Any questions?
Please post below
Last edited by CliveCatterall on June 15th, 2018, 2:30 am, edited 7 times in total.
Availle
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Post by Availle »

That sounds interesting! :D
I'll MC this for you!

Edit: We're ready! I've shortened the file name, but other than that everything looks good. Have fun!
Cheers, Ava.
Resident witch of LibriVox, channelling
Granny Weatherwax: "I ain't Nice."

--
AvailleAudio.com
kathrinee
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Post by kathrinee »

I'd love to DPL this, if I may :)
Kathrine
CliveCatterall
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Post by CliveCatterall »

kathrinee wrote:I'd love to DPL this, if I may :)
I'd be delighted. The schedule shouldn't be too onerous. I usually post one (approximately half hour) file per week. I am trying some experiments to reduce the number of mistakes I make during recording so I can increase my output! I'd like to be able to post an hour per week. This book is about 121k words, so I'd take around 13.5 hours (unless I gabble even more than usual). That would be about 27 weeks or so.

I have known about this book for many years. I first ran into the title while researching old manufacturing methods when I was setting up a business making reproductions of baroque flutes (this was something I could do while I was a houseparent). The book was far more of a general interest book than I was looking for at the time (eventually I found everything I needed in a book by Charles Holzapffel - Turning and Mechanical Manipulation - more than 3000 pages of incredible detail about pretty much every Victorian manufaturing method imaginable). But Industrial Biography should make a good non-fiction audiobook.

I did a mechanical engineering degree, but none of this is taught to engineers nowadays. In finding out how things were done with basic equipment and methods I learned a great deal about engineering. But these are also stories about clever people overcoming difficulties. And Smiles could write too!

Clive
kathrinee
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Post by kathrinee »

It sounds wonderful :) Biographies are a new interest for me, but now I have a running list of "cool people" that I have decided to learn more about. (Many of them are scientists, of one kind or another.) Looking forward to listening!
Kathrine
Availle
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Post by Availle »

DPL added - let's move to Going Solo.

Have fun you two! :D
Cheers, Ava.
Resident witch of LibriVox, channelling
Granny Weatherwax: "I ain't Nice."

--
AvailleAudio.com
CliveCatterall
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Location: Hereford, UK
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Post by CliveCatterall »

I've uploaded the preface. I'll put the link into the MW this evening. My login is back at home..

https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/industrialbiography_00_smiles_128kb.mp3

Just pasted the url in so I can pick it up this evening.

Clive
CliveCatterall
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Post by CliveCatterall »

All linked into the MW now.

I am not planning to read the chapter notes for this book. They are *very* extensive. The book is around 121k words, and if you leave out the notes it drops to 105k. They are so long they would completely disrupt the flow of the text if I read them as footnotes. Smiles seems to have slotted in interesting fragments of story that didn't really fit with the flow of his main story.

The Gutenberg transcribers transferred the notes to he end of the chapter (they were placed at the end of the book originally). This gets them closer to the text, but I have no idea how to read the notes and make them relevant to the flow of the text.

Because Smiles placed them at the end of the book in the original edition, it suggests to me that they were intended as a sort of appendix to expand on the main story. You could read the text without referring to the notes.

I have prepared a reading text from the Gutenberg file that cuts out the notes (along with the references). Some of the notes are little references indicating where smiles got the fact referenced, and sometimes the notes are several hundred words where he recounts some fragment of story about a particular engineer or invention.

Any suggestions would be welcome.



Clive
Availle
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Post by Availle »

Those look like footnotes, you can treat them as such and leave them out.

With books like this I tend to choose which footnotes I include. I leave out all the references to other books (because they will be out of print anyway) but if I find some story or extra information very interesting, I'll include it.

Your call.
Cheers, Ava.
Resident witch of LibriVox, channelling
Granny Weatherwax: "I ain't Nice."

--
AvailleAudio.com
CliveCatterall
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Joined: December 9th, 2007, 3:02 pm
Location: Hereford, UK
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Post by CliveCatterall »

Chapter 1 part 1 uploaded. It's a long weekend here in Britain. I may get around to part 2 or it may have to wait until next Friday.

Chapters are going to have a variable number of sections. Some chapters are shorter (5k words) and the one on Henry Maudslay is novella length at 15k words or so. (Of course there is a lot to say about the genius that was Henry Maudslay)...

Clive
kathrinee
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Post by kathrinee »

Sectin 0 is PL OK! Wonderful reading, I'm looking forward to listening more :clap:
Kathrine
CliveCatterall
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Post by CliveCatterall »

Section 2 now uploaded and ready for PL
kathrinee
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Joined: May 14th, 2012, 5:09 am
Location: in the sun

Post by kathrinee »

Section 1 is PL OK! Interesting stuff :thumbs:
Kathrine
kathrinee
Posts: 8397
Joined: May 14th, 2012, 5:09 am
Location: in the sun

Post by kathrinee »

Section 2 is PL OK! :thumbs:
Kathrine
CliveCatterall
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Joined: December 9th, 2007, 3:02 pm
Location: Hereford, UK
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Post by CliveCatterall »

Section 3 ready for PL

Chapter 2 was a bit shorter, so it fitted nicely into a single section.

Clive
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