Reprint of The Home Study Course of the Wisconsin Institute of Horology

Contents

1. Information About this Reprint
   1. Introduction
   2. Edition and Copyright Status
   3. About this Reprint
   4. Acknowledgements
   5. Copying this Reprint
   6. Disclaimers of Warranty and Liability
2. The Reprint
   1. Prospectus

1.1 - Introduction

This is a reprint of a historical home study course in technical horology (watch and clock repair and making). It is presented here for its interest as a historical text, not as instructional material.

1.2 - Edition and Copyright Status

The First Edition of this Course was published in 1909 (see p. 18 of the "Prospectus.")

The edition reprinted here is the "Second Edition, completely revised, improved and considerably enlarged. Copyright 1921 F. A. Thomas." (see, e.g., Part 2, Lesson 1, page 3).

Later copyright would seem to have been secured by C. Harry Grundman in 1944, as noted sometimes in a typeset portion of the text (see Part 1, Lesson 1, page 13) and sometimes in a typewritten addition to the text (see, e.g., Part 2, Lesson 1, page 3). It is not clear whether or not any changes were made in 1944 (other than in the Prospectus, which carries letters dated up to 1940). This 1944 copyright would have had to have been renewed in its 28th year, which would have been 1971. I searched the copyright renewal records for books, pamphlets, serials, and contributions to periodicals under "Grundman", "Wisconsin Institute of Horology", "Wisconsin School of Horology", "Thomas", "Home Study", and "Horology" for 1970, 1971, 1972, and the first half of 1973. I found no renewal records. It is my conclusion, therefore, that this work is in the public domain through both the expiration of its original 1921 copyright and the expiration through non-renewal of its 1944 copyright.

Please note that while I have made a detailed effort in good faith to ascertain that this work is in the public domain, I cannot and do not warrant that it is.

1.3 - About this Reprint

In preparing this reprint, I felt very much like a scholar attempting to restore a lost text from antiquity. I've never seen an original copy of this course. It has apparently been circulating in photocopied form within the horological community for some time. The reprint here derives from two sources. The bulk of the text, and one version of the illustrations, came from an imperfect n-th generation photocopy. The Prospectus, other versions of the illustrations, and a clearer version of one page came as photocopies from another source. I scanned these photocopies over time, and at various resolutions (this took several years, and scanner technology improved in this time). I've transcribed the text into ASCII (introducing errors in this process, I'm sure), marked it up in XHTML 1.0 (fixing the markup level at one soon-to-be historical technology plateau), and reproduced the images in reduced scale (further corrupting them). What remains is only a shadow of the original, but at least that shadow now stands some chance of preservation.

This reprint is not a scholarly edition (not, perhaps, that you ever expected it to be). Because of its length, and because of the scarcity of historical horological information of this sort, I've gone to the extra trouble of transcribing the text (rather than just presenting it as images, as I do with many of my online reprints). It is, however, nothing more than an amateur's effort to share an interesting historical text with fellow enthusiasts.

Scanned 2000 - 2005.

1.4 - Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks are due to Steve Callihan, FBHI, for providing the bulk of the source material, and to Art Bjornstad for providing the Prospectus and better versions of the Plates.

1.5 - Copying this Reprint

The original work reprinted here is, to the best of my knowledge and research, in the public domain. I believe that it is important that public domain material remain in the public domain, and so this literal material remains in the public domain here. If you want to copy any or all of the images of this work, the images of images in this work, or the literal transcribed ASCII text of this work, just do it. I assert no new copyright on my scans or transcriptions to ASCII text.

What I've added to the text consists of XHTML markup (to make it into web pages) and some additional editorial material (anything in my own words). These are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike license. If you wish to copy any or all of this present reprint which contains either my XHTML markup or my own words, you may do so under the terms of this license.

It seems to me that this approach of mixing clear public domain status on some material with "Attribution - ShareAlike" copyability on new material is the best way to keep the public domain in the public domain while protecting new work so that it remains redistributable.

1.6 - Disclaimers of Warranty and Liability

In reprinting this work, I am acting as an (amateur) publisher presenting a historical text for its historical interest. I am not offering it as instructional material.

Please read the important disclaimers of warranty and liability in the presentation of public domain material and the important disclaimers of warranty and liability in the Creative Commons License.

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