"Bible Students" and 1919

by artful 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  NeonMadman

  P.S. Do you have other Z.W from 1919 -1935 period?

  I have either text or scans of every WT ever printed, thanks to the excellent work of the people at Research Applications International. Of course, post 1950, I can get them from the WT Library CD that the WTS publishes. The RAI discs cover the WT magazines from 1879 to 1949, and they are in pdf format. I also have another disc, published by JW Research, containing the Golden Age magazines from 1919-1924.

  Other discs published by RAI include The Pastor Russell Anthology, containing most of his important books and other writings, Rutherford's Rainbow, containing all of his books, and LDS Classics, containing both Mormon and anti-Mormon books and writings.

  I recommend all of these references highly. Check out the RAI website at http://www.researchapplications.org/, and JW Research at http://www.premier1.net/~raines/. You might want to hold off on the Rutherford's Rainbow CD, since I note at the site that they are on the verge of coming out with a second edition, containing Angels and Women, The Way to Paradise, and The Revelation, none of which were contained in the version I have.

  Of course, if you just need a specific article, I'd be glad to help.

  Edited by - NeonMadman on 15 January 2003 20:56:40
• 

  onacruse

  Neon: My RAI CD of the 1920s Watchtowers is neither searchable nor copyable. Is there a trick? I have Adobe 5.0.

  Thanks, Craig
• 

  NeonMadman

  Neon: My RAI CD of the 1920s Watchtowers is neither searchable nor copyable. Is there a trick? I have Adobe 5.0.

  Well, the "trick" in my case was a lot of work. I found the 1919 annual report by looking at the end of the Dec. 15, 1919 Watchtower magazine. They have an index at the end of each year's run (still do). I then pulled up the specific article, printed out the appropriate pages, and scanned them to a .jpg file. I then uploaded the .jpg's to Strike9, and voila!

  You're right that the earlier RAI discs are not searchable. I believe that the newer ones are (such as the 1940-49 one that I just got last October). Nonetheless, they are an excellent reference.
• 

  onacruse

  Neon, thanks! My 30s and 40s CD are searchable and copyable. The facsimile quality of a lot of the 20s pages may be too poor for even OCR software to decipher. Back to the good old word processor, eh?

  Craig
• 

  RR

  The 1920s Watch Towers are the hardest to find in originals. Knowing the people behind RAI, I know that he had to rely on photocopies, which don't scan too good. I understand that he's working on a new edition, as well as the booklets and special interest papers published by the Society.

  RR
• 

  artful

  Neon: Thanks for the posts of the Annual Report - it seems like you went to a lot of work to do this*. They are very interesting...for one, the name "Jehovah" is noticibly absent from these pages! Also, I noticed the number of persons they quoted as having signed the petition to release the 8 from prison in 1919 was "approximately a million persons". The Proclaimers book quotes this at 700,000. More Watchtower "higher math"!?

  * As a side point regarding RAI's 20's WT files. If they are in PDF format there may be a simpler way to extract the information for posting online. If you have a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop, you can open any PDF file, select the specific page you want, and convert it to a JPEG file automatically.

  Cheers
  Artful
• 

  NeonMadman

  Also, I noticed the number of persons they quoted as having signed the petition to release the 8 from prison in 1919 was "approximately a million persons". The Proclaimers book quotes this at 700,000.

  Interesting discrepancy. I hadn't noticed it. What I find really unusual is that the Proclaimers book understates the number from the earlier account. If anything, I would have expected them to inflate it.

  I don't have PhotoShop; I use a program called ThumbsPlus for working with graphics files. I know it has a lot more capabilities than I have ever used, maybe I'll fool around with it to see whether it has a feature for converting pdf to jpg.