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Jim
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2005 - 7:58 am: | 
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Hi,
About 15 years ago I bought an old book at a book sale in Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool.
The book is 'The Leopold Shakspere' and was published in 1875. When I got home I was
showing it to my family when a slip of paper fell from the pages and onto the floor. It looked
grey in colour and I assumed it was a bookmark. On examining the paper, my sister drew
my attention to the fact that it was not grey, but was completely covered in the tiniest writing
I had ever seen. One side was completely covered in the text, which was less than one
millimeter in height. The reverse side also had writing as well as drawings of some sort of
mechanical contraptions.
A quick inspection with a magnifying glass revealed what appeared to be the rantings of
a religious monomaniac, and I remember at the time remarking 'Maybe it was written by
jack the ripper!'. However, I think that is highly unlikely, though I do think it is still a very strange document.
At the time I was working in a photographic laboratory and so I enlarged the document
with a view to transcribing it. Some of it I was able to do, some of it is so small it is
difficult to determine the letters. I took the document, enlargements, and my transcriptions
to the Liverpool Museum and left it with them to see what they could make of it.
After a week or so they had been able to correct some of my transcription but they said
to do a thorough job would take many months and they currently didn't have the resources.
They had no idea what the document represented.
I still have it in my possession and I thought it may be of interest to the historians on this
website.
The document is approx. 8 x 5 inches in size. Here are some extracts from the text (they
are quite disjointed):
"...must swear to suffer everything, the most terrible death etc to stop it burn the eyes out,
torture them for years..."
"...the bible says that people have lived 250 year and would live 1000 year if properly controlled..."
The drawings are also vey small and seem to depict some sort of factory equipment (i.e. lots of wheels and pulleys).
Anyway, there you have it. If you think it's worth investigating more, let me know.
Regards,
Jim |
Philip Hutchinson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, January 03, 2005 - 9:45 pm: |
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Jim - you just KNOW that we want to see scans (obviously blown-up) of this! I can concur with the text size if not the content. At school I was the bane of my teacher's lives, regularly getting 60 words on one line - which made life a pain when the exercise was to fill X pages instead of write X words! |
Caroline Anne Morris
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Caz
Post Number: 1399
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 10, 2005 - 4:00 am: |
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Please tell us more, Jim!
Or at least contact me via my profile. This sounds fascinating.
Thanks.
Love,
Caz
X |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 1630
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 10, 2005 - 10:16 am: |
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Oh,
you know the next line.
but fasinating!
Jenni
"All You Need Is Positivity"
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Kris Law
Inspector
Username: Kris
Post Number: 458
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 10, 2005 - 3:02 pm: |
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Whether or not it has anything to do with Jack, it sounds absolutely fantastic!
-K
I'll see you in time . . .
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Jim
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, January 16, 2005 - 9:35 am: |
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Hi,
Sorry for the delay. I've attached a photo of a portion of the document (don't have a scanner). It's greatly enlarged (the height of the text in the original is less than 1 millimetre. See what I mean about it being difficult to transcribe?
Regards,
Jim
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Caroline Anne Morris
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Caz
Post Number: 1424
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:41 am: |
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Many thanks for this, Jim.
Love,
Caz
X |
George Hutchinson
Inspector
Username: Philip
Post Number: 210
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 6:47 am: |
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Jim - I have decided it was trying to read this text that made Jack finally snap and go on his murder spree!
The SIZE is not a problem, but it's so... well... LOOSE, isn't it?
Amazing though - thanks for posting it.
PHILIP
Tour guides do it loudly in front of a crowd!
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Belinda Pearce
Detective Sergeant
Username: Belinda
Post Number: 51
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, December 24, 2005 - 10:43 pm: |
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That is really interesting.The Brontes as children used to write stories for each other in just the same sort of tiny hand writing Maybe Bramwell Bronte wrote it ;) |
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