An entry in a nod to our friend the Traductriste makes us a little crisis blog these days ... A brief history of archives and translation, then.
I wandered a carton the other day, seeking a brief that was not there also not - although English publication of the 50 states that score well, but that is another story. This paper is part of a series containing various memoranda received by the Board of Mines, which then starts to act as a clearinghouse of expertise for all industrial matters. This is sometimes, as in our case, documents earlier referred to the said Council by the Administration which had below the elbow. Thus, the board receives Germinal Year X a thesis in English of a certain Tom P. Smith, of Philadelphia, on "ways to make malleable iron by employing other fuel than coal '- it is coke, blast furnaces, reverberatory furnaces, puddling, etc. . in short, that's good.
This memory is accompanied by various documents showing that he comes from services formerly intendant of Burgundy - who had been in the 1780s, I believe, without foute because of the abundance of coal in his province. It has, in addition to memory (in English, but annotated by the translator) the letter of Mr. Tom P. Smith with its French translation and also this post, obviously emanating from the translator (I quote from memory):
In response to your previous mail, I can only confirm what I had told you about it, namely, that I had submitted my translation dud. memory on the office of Mr. Steward.
short, lost, tradal ...
Note that in this case, it suits me: annotations the statement in English, which relate mainly to technical terms, make me a good introduction to technical English at the time. Even if Mr. Smith would have applied to write, his memory ...
never satisfied, these historians!
