Model Engineer Index

[ChufferParticipant @chuffer]

Quite recently I wanted to find some articles in volumes of Model Engineer which I have going back to about 1968. In the past I have used both the website http://www.itech.net.au/modelengineer/ or http://www.groundlevel.demon.co.uk/me_index.html

Unfortunately the former website stops at volume 213 and the latter website comes up with a message that the IP address could not be found.

I realise that both websites were a labour of love for those who compiled and maintained them for no return and which we have probably taken for granted all these years.

The questions that spring to mind are:-

1. Am I looking in the wrong place (a Google search didn't come up with any alternatives)

2. If there are no alternatives how are we going to find that particular article we seem to remember seeing without physically searching through every issue we have since the first website index stopped at volume 213?

3. How can that information from that one index that still exists be preserved for future reference – better to have it available up to volume 213 rather than not at all.

Regards.

Chuffer

[ChufferParticipant @chuffer]

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Have you tried the indexes at the bottom of the front page of this site ?

Paul

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Don't think any of those are more upto date.

Edited By JasonB on 07/01/2021 07:42:37

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

If you have the issues from volume 213 onwards are there annual indexes printed in these?

If if so photocopy these and continue to do so as they appear and this will help you to locate more recent articles.

[ChufferParticipant @chuffer]

Thanks to all who have responded to my query.

I have attempted to look for the indexes at the bottom of the front page of the ME website but have had no joy. I assume that the link mentioned is the one to Indexes to MEW? Clicking on this link I found at the bottom of that page a number of links. The link to Colin Ushers site didn't work – on my computer my firewall came up with very red warning stating it was an unsafe phising website! When I tried the Dias Costa site and read the instructions on how to extract the files my brain went into shutdown mode. Far too complicated for me to interpret as an average user rather than computer expert.

I have pulled out and filed all the volume indexes separately for all the volumes I have but as time goes on from the easy to search online index already mentioned which ends at volume 213 this will become increasingly more difficult to search through.

Looks as if this is going to be a problem that will get worse as time goes on and this may well have an effect on future sales of the magazine? Why buy and keep a magazine if you can't find that elusive article you know you've seen but can't remember when?

Chuffer

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

A tedious but quite possible job if you have a scanner and OCR software would be to scan the printed indexes to text files.

The steps I would follow would be:

• Scan to single column text
• Replace tabs, spaces etc with commas and use search & replace to replace two commas with one and repeat this until no double commas remain to give you a comma delimited file
• Open in Excel or similar and look for anomalies and correct them

I would probably leave it in that format, but the comma delimited file could be imported into database software.

It sounds a bit of a fag, but can be done surprisingly quickly.

As a 'blast from the past' I always found the DOS version of Wordperfect 5.1 with its split Text/Codes windows the best tool for messing around with text files – I am almost tempted to install a copy just for jobs like this!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 07/01/2021 11:33:28

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

I have a DOS based database into which I type information about any article which may be of future interest to me. These articles are categorized into various categories (sorry about that!) such as Myford, Drills & Drilling, Workshop Equipment etc. In addition, I scan any articles which may be of relative immediate interest and after cleaning up with the GIMP, a Photoshop equivalent, I store on the computer as a JPG ready for printing. These articles are categorised eg, lathe, milling machine, miscellaneous, etc.

The main problem is that it requires a certain mindset to do this regularly, and ideally requires doing from the very first magazine bought.

Peter G. Shaw

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

The comma delimited file can be turned into a pdf which can be searched on your pooter

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Though Dias Costa's index only look to go upto Vol201

[ChufferParticipant @chuffer]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 07/01/2021 11:32:47:

A tedious but quite possible job if you have a scanner and OCR software would be to scan the printed indexes to text files.

The steps I would follow would be:

• Scan to single column text
• Replace tabs, spaces etc with commas and use search & replace to replace two commas with one and repeat this until no double commas remain to give you a comma delimited file
• Open in Excel or similar and look for anomalies and correct them

I would probably leave it in that format, but the comma delimited file could be imported into database software.

It sounds a bit of a fag, but can be done surprisingly quickly.

As a 'blast from the past' I always found the DOS version of Wordperfect 5.1 with its split Text/Codes windows the best tool for messing around with text files – I am almost tempted to install a copy just for jobs like this!

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 07/01/2021 11:33:28

Many thanks for responding but my reaction has to be 'oo err' as my computer knowledge doesn't extend to anything other than basic scanning and even then the little grey cells start complaining!

I think I'll have to stick with using the index which goes up to Volume 213 (hopefully it will continue to be available) and anything after this will be a manual search through the indexes which I have pulled out and filed separately.

I liked the idea Peter Shaw put forward but as he said you have to do this from the first edition of the magazine bought.

Ah well back to the workshop in this cold weather and Covid restricting lockdown.

Chuffer

[Author]

Posts