Interesting book 'Ekco Sounds'

[Robert Darwent]

the recipient claimed he never received the container and paypal took the money back without any notice.

Yes the onus is on the sender to prove that whatever was sent actually got to its destination - in other words an online tracked signed for method. Otherwise an unscrupulous person can claim they never received a delivery. PayPal always refunds the buyer if the seller cannot provide tracking information on what they sent.

Getting back to purchasing the "Ekco Sounds" book, in this case you are the buyer not the seller - your example is the opposite situation. There is no risk to you as the buyer - the risk is with the seller to make sure you receive the book.

Sellers get scammed because they fail to follow PayPal's rules. If you send something by an online tracked signed for method PayPal does not refund a buyer simply because they claim they didn't receive something. They only do that when no tracking information is provided by the seller.

I have used PayPal since 2005 for well over a 1000 online purchases without a single problem. Follow PayPal's rules and you won't have a problem with them.

Regards

[Alan Douglas]

I'd rather have at least the illusion of being in control, and deal with real people who I know and who know me. I keep two bank accounts and put money into the one with the debit card as required.

But back to the book, yes, some high and mighty companies have disappeared by guessing wrong about coming trends. Or not trying to guess at all. RCA's legacy--the only device with their name attached--is a cheap phono plug.

[Robert Darwent]

My book has arrived by the way. (It's 145 A5 pages). The ISBN Number for anyone who might want it is: 978-0-9570635-3-2

At first glance it looks to be a well-researched book, but as has already been said, it's inexplicable that the radio on the cover is a Philips. Huh?

My copy arrived around noon today also. Only had a quick flick through so far and as David as already said "it looks to be a well-researched book". Plenty of black and white photos and Ekco adverts amongst the pages too.

Regarding the Philips set on the front cover. I would imagine Philips pressed their own bakelite mouldings, but Ekco were well known for producing items for other radio manufacturers in addition to their own models - eg: the Philco 444 people's set cabinet. I wonder if they made the front panel of the 834 model for Philips? Hopefully that question may be answered somewhere in the book.

Regards

[camallison]

I guess they have received a lot of orders, because I received this email this afternoon:

"Thank you for your order of EKCO Sounds.

Owing to a surge in demand over the Christmas period and the upcoming bank holiday, there will be a slight delay in dispatching your order but we anticipate it will arrive by the second week in January. We apologise for this delay and will keep you fully informed of the delivery date by first class Royal Mail.

Wishing you a very happy New Year!
Audrey Snee
Publisher
Estuary Publishing"

Colin

[Yorkie]

I checked out the website out of curiosity and found that it's a little local publishing outfit, founded a couple of years ago by Audrey - a former newspaper journalist. Chris Poole had been an apprentice at Ekco in Southend but was made redundant in 1970. Years later in retirement he and started a website about Ekco, which grew to some 500 pages and people suggested he write a book on the subject.

Sadly, Chris passed away at the relatively young age of 66 in 2012, so didn't live to see the book published and Peter Brown - a local author - collaborated with Chris to see that the book would come to fruition. The website explains that Peter is an expert writer of local and military history and has collaborated previously on six books about local and military history as well as running websites and magazines in the same topics.

http://www.estuarypublishing.co.uk/wp-co...rofile.jpg

Most towns have small publishers and I guess that modern printing methods make it a whole lot easier and less costly than typesetting. These books, which aren't really meant to be a money spinner are often referred to as 'vanity publishing', which is perhaps a rather unkind term, but it means that the authors aren't professional and publish limited circulation books from their own interest, because there's certainly no money in it.

In 1995, the late Gordon Cullingham, Honorary archivist of the Royal Borough of Windsor, lived in the house that FJ Camm had lived in, so he set about researching F.J. Camm and published a limited edition book entitled 'F.J. Camm - the Practical Man'. The print run was only 63 books, signed by the author, and I was lucky enough to get No 3. They quickly sold out, but I think there was another print run later on.

Similarly, I recently managed to get a pristine copy of a fascinating out of print book entitled 'The Hobbies Story' published in 1998, about the history of 'Hobbies of Dereham', founded in 1887. Very well researched and illustrated. This too was written by as local historian in Dereham - Terry Davy, Chairman of the Dereham Antiquarian Society and a museum trustee, and was his sixth book on local history. That was published by a small local publisher 'Nostalgia Publications' in Dereham.

I've no idea what the print run of 'Ekco Sounds' is but I think that anyone who fancies a copy and doesn't get their order in soon will be disappointed, given that it will doubtless appeal to the many thousands of former Ekco employees and their family members, as well as the likes of us.

[camallison]

Many of these so-called "vanity publications" are printed using the technology called "print on demand" where, once the book is in digital form, print runs as low as one off can be done. That one costs no more than each copy of a print run of, say 1,000. Modern methods run almost like photocopy machines, even going so far as to crop, fold, and bind. I had a volume printed of a family heirloom - scanned (even in the three quarter-open state), corrected for that, and a short run of 16 was done. The original was a maiden aunt's field sketch book - she was a botanist. As there were 16 descendants, this was the only way we could each have a copy. The original we donated to her university library archive. They in turn have had a print made from our software file and the original is safely held in an air-conditioned archive.

The technique for scanning (and correcting) old books that cannot be fully opened was developed by Xerox UK and only 16 machines were ever built. These are now heavily employed by the British Library, enabling us (the common man) to access priceless tomes without damaging the original.

Apart from the cost of scanning, the cost of print on demand is within easy reach for the individual.

Colin

[Refugee]

I had a look for a book of old barrack room songs after being asked expecting it to be rare and expensive.
There it was as a print on demand for under £10 including shipping from the US.

I have in the past straightened the images of book pages by laying the book on a table and holding part of it vertical with one hand while taking a photo with the other hand.

There must be desktop computer software that can do it now though.

[camallison]

A later development of the rare book scanner is shown here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULe03V0c1zU

The Xerox-developed one was used to scan the Domesday Book and produce images for printing the "new" print copies now available. As you say, it is all in the software, to take out any curvature in the page. The left and right platforms are usually also individually adjustable for height so that the book spine isn't put under stress.

Googling "rare book scanner" brings up various hardware and software to do the task. Our scan was done in 2002 when the technique was still being explored by The British Library.

Colin

[AlanBeckett]

I should think that turning over all those pages could put a strong ache in the Nether Regions. However, it's clearly much better than having to take it to bits or flatten it out.

Alan

[Refugee]

That machine does it in a way that is not far from the technique I found that worked except it has two cameras and looks very expensive.