Scanning Rootes documents from the collection

New Microfiche Scanner

New toy for the Rootes Archive Centre.
Thanks to another generous donation from our friend Buck Trippel in the US a new microfiche scanner.

The archive includes approx 100,000 drawings on microfiche and this scanner will open that collection up.
The scanner will work with batches of up to 100 cards at a time and names the digital output files according to the hole punched code in the card.

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Comments (3)

Pardon my ignorance but what are the “cards” that are referred to? Also where did 200,000 drawings come from and what re they drawings of?

The cards are microfiche cards, a technology from the last century (when our cars were new) for reducing the space required to store drawings. The drawings were photographed and transparencies were mounted on IBM punch cards (another technology from years past) as shown in the picture. The Rootes Archive Center has collected the drawing files from the Rootes Company and is in the process of cataloging them for use by the Sunbeam / Hillman / etc. community. The drawings include detailed manufacturing drawings among others. You can learn more about the Archive Center at their website: http://www.rootesarchive.org/about-us/ Thanks for reminding me I’m getting old . . . (G)

Buck has done a tremendous amount for our marque, from speaking most informatively at the 2016 United to supporting the Hollywood Sports Car Tiger at the Monterey Historics, where I caught up with him last year. He’s a font of knowledge and good humor. Whenever you have a chance to spend some time with Buck, take advantage of it. He’s a lot of fun to hang out with.

And he has been really generous in both raising funds for, and supplying the new Rootes Archive with supportive tech gizmos as mentioned here.

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