Good morning Galoots!

I happened upon the archives of Britain's Guardian newspaper site, which 
apparently include over 1M pages of searchable news. I did a quick 
search for 'Spiers Ayr' and had a hit on Stewart Spiers , Scottish 
planemaker, on a page dated 23Jan22. Unfortunately, I do not have access 
to the full data, which requires a US$10 monthly subscription. I 
probably wouldn't get enough value from it to subscribe ( too many 
projects pending), but I wondered if anyone in our group subscribes to 
this resource, and could comment on its usefulness.

DS

-- 

"You only have to do a few things right in your life so long as you 
don\u2019t do too many things wrong." - Warren Buffet

\u201cTo argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, 
and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like 
administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist 
by scripture.\u201d \u2015 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

Here is the classified ad clipped from that issue, putting the Spiers 
business up for sale(!):
https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/263870/3741843

I found it via newspapers.com, which has the Manchester Guardian as well 
as thousands of other newspapers. I have used it extensively in 
documenting the Black & Decker Workmate. For just one example, see some 
of the clippings I collected about Ron Hickman's original Workmate:
https://h-frame.weebly.com/blog/mate-tools-ron-hickmans-workmate-before-black-
decker

They have various rates, including specials every so often. My first 
subscription in 1921 was 1 month for $20. In 2022 I got 6 months for 
$55, and then this past November I got 6 months for $50, both as 
discount offers.

A great deal of the info that I posted here a few weeks ago about the 
publication date of the Practical Woodworker came from newspapers.com.

--Chris

Check out H-frame, the site for vintage Black & Decker Workmates
https://h-frame.weebly.com/

Just to follow on, there are localized newspaper resources that are free,
but obviously require more diligence to check local sources.  I go digging
for them when newspapers.com wants money from me. (Yes, probably penny wise
and time invested foolish.)


Here is a California one that's free, and if you sign up, you can correct
their OCR errors for them.

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/

 Nice to be able to go back and read stories from 1845 without some modern
person's spin being applied.  I started toing some of my research on Dunham
Carrigan and Hayden here, and also on Pacific Hardware's predecessors (many
in between) Huntington & Hopkins, and its predecessor Huntington Hardware.

They recently added a whole bunch of smaller newspapers' archives too,
allowing a really local view into things.

*Titles*

Advocate (Escondido, Calif.) (Escondido, 1895-1908)

Alturas New Era (Alturas, 1901-1925)

Banner (Sonora, 1885-1924)

Big Bear Grizzly (Big Bear Lake, 2002-2013)

Calexico Chronicle (Calexico, 2003-2023)

Californian (Salinas) (Salinas, 1929-2001)

Citrus College Clarion (Glendora, 2022-2023)

Davis Enterprise (Davis, 1897-1924)

Elko Independent (Elko, 1871)

Expositor (Fresno, 1883-1897)

Fresno Evening Herald (Fresno, 1903-1924)

Fresno Weekly Expositor (Fresno, 1872-1898)

Hanford Journal (Daily) (Hanford, 1898-1955)

Hanford Journal (Weekly) (Hanford, 1891-1905)

Hanford Kings County Sentinel (Hanford, 1901-1919)

Hanford Sentinel (Hanford, 1919-2002)

J. The Jewish News of Northern California (San Francisco, 2023)

Jewish Gaily Forward (San Francisco, 1977-2016)

Leisure World Weekly (Seal Beach, 2023)

Modesto Bee (Modesto, 1886-1923)

Napa Journal (Napa, 1890-1960)

Napa Register (Weekly) (Napa, 1856-1874)

Napa Valley Register (Napa, 1933-2004)

Napa Weekly Journal (Napa, 1885-1914)

News-ledger (West Sacramento, 1994-2007)

North County Times (Escondido, 1912-1987)

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, 1891-1973)

Salinas Daily Journal (Salinas, 1889-1899)

Salinas Index Journal (Salinas, 1905-1942)

San Bernardino Sun (San Bernardino, 1923-1926)

South San Francisco enterprise (San Francisco, 1895-1925)

Stanislaus County Weekly News (Modesto, 1868-1871)

The News Napa's illustrated weekly (Napa, 1941-1953)

Times-Advocate (Escondido, 1893-1959)

Topanga Messenger (Topanga, 2000-2011)

Tulare Advance Register (Tulare, 1964-2001)

Tuolumne Independent (Sonora, 1872-1916)

Union Democrat (Sonora, 1854) (Sonora, 1870-1924)

Ventura Daily Post (Ventura, 1902-1915)

Ventura Free Press (Ventura, 1875-1890)

Ventura Weekly Democrat (Ventura, 1884-1915)

Visalia Morning Courier (Visalia, 1906-1907)

Visalia Morning Delta (Visalia, 1892-1928)

Visalia Times Delta (Visalia, 1892-2000)

Visalia Weekly Sun (Visalia, 1860)

Weekly Calistogian (Calistoga, 1956-1959)

Weekly Free Press (Escondido) (Escondido, 1975-1978)

Winters Express (Winters, 1887-1927)


Kirk in Half Moon Bay, just back from a quick dog walk between deluges.

On Thu, Feb 1, 2024 at 11:23 AM Chris Wolf  wrote:

> Here is the classified ad clipped from that issue, putting the Spiers
> business up for sale(!):
> https://groups.io/g/oldtools/photo/263870/3741843
>
> I found it via newspapers.com, which has the Manchester Guardian as well
> as thousands of other newspapers. I have used it extensively in
> documenting the Black & Decker Workmate. For just one example, see some
> of the clippings I collected about Ron Hickman's original Workmate:
>
> https://h-frame.weebly.com/blog/mate-tools-ron-hickmans-workmate-before-black-
decker
>
> They have various rates, including specials every so often. My first
> subscription in 1921 was 1 month for $20. In 2022 I got 6 months for
> $55, and then this past November I got 6 months for $50, both as
> discount offers.
>
> A great deal of the info that I posted here a few weeks ago about the
> publication date of the Practical Woodworker came from newspapers.com.
>
> --Chris
>
> Check out H-frame, the site for vintage Black & Decker Workmates
> https://h-frame.weebly.com/
>
> On 2/1/2024 12:42 PM, Don Schwartz wrote:
> >
> > Good morning Galoots!
> >
> > I happened upon the archives of Britain's Guardian newspaper site,
> > which apparently include over 1M pages of searchable news. I did a
> > quick search for 'Spiers Ayr' and had a hit on Stewart Spiers ,
> > Scottish planemaker, on a page dated 23Jan22. Unfortunately, I do not
> > have access to the full data, which requires a US$10 monthly
> > subscription. I probably wouldn't get enough value from it to
> > subscribe ( too many projects pending), but I wondered if anyone in
> > our group subscribes to this resource, and could comment on its
> > usefulness.
> >
>
>


-- 
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA