New on Gwulo: 2023, week 50

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:
 

General

• Thank you to Annemarie Evans for inviting me on to her Hong Kong Heritage radio show this weekend, to chat about my new book's photos and stories. You can listen to a recording on the RTHK website. (You can also hear the show on Spotify, though it runs a few days behind so this weekend's episode, 16-12-2023, may not be available yet.)
   
• Readers ask for:
  • Any information about Monia Talan's time in Shanghai
     
  • Help tracing passenger arrivals / departures in 1920s Hong Kong
     

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Update on the new Gwulo book

On Monday, Suk Woon sent over photos showing that printing was underway. Here's the printing press that would print the new Gwulo books.

 

And here's one of the printing plates being mounted. There are four plates in all, one each for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks (CMYK).

 

After mounting all the plates, the technicians can print sample sheets and make adjustments to get the best results. They check the registrations of the four colours to make sure they are all aligned, to get the sharpest final image. They also tweak the four ink levels to get the printed colours as close as possible to the proof prints we saw in the previous update.

 

 

Once they are satisfied, they set the printer going. I've ordered 1,000 books, so they'll print 1,000 copies of the sheet.

The whole process is repeated another three times for the rest of the sheets that make up the book's pages, and then once more for the book's cover.

On Thursday I saw the results of their work, when Suk Woon gave me copies of all the printed sheets and the cover. Looking good!

 

 

Back at the printing company, the printed sheets were being folded, cut, and sewn into 16-page signatures. Finally they'll glue the signatures into the covers, and trim them to produce the finished books.

The latest estimate from the printer is that they will deliver the books to me on Wednesday, 20 Dec.

Thanks to everyone who has already pre-ordered the new book. If you're still planning to order, I recommend you order before Wednesday, so we can send your book(s) out as soon as the printer delivers: click here to pre-order Volume 5.

 

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People

• Frederick Henry FOSTER [c.1879-1924], prison warder
   
• Ugo GONELLA [c.1891-1952], architect
   
• Harry Sidney George HALE (aka Sid) [1915-1999], bandsman and NCO with 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Guards, POW
   
• Henry POTTINGER [1789-1856], Hong Kong's first governor
   
• John Norman RAYMOND [c.1896-????], shipping executive for American Trading Company, the American firm that owned the freighter Admiral Y.S. Williams
   
• Seamen aboard the Admiral Y.S. Williams, an American freighter in dry dock at Hong Kong in December 1941.  They were captured after the fall of Hong Kong on December 25, 1941, interned at Stanley, then repatriated in August 1942:
  • Charles Wigton ADAMS [c.1904-????]
     
  • August Louis BLAICH [????-????], wiper
     
  • Charles G. BUTLER [c.1906-????]
     
  • Charles E. CADY (aka Chuck) [c.1897-1942], steward
     
  • Michael Jr. CASALE [c.1920-????]
     

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Places

• Hong Kong Island
  • The American Club, Country Club [1984- ]
     
  • SOCONY Super Service Station (first generation) - Arsenal Street [c.1938-c.1942]
     
  • SOCONY / Mobil / Esso Service Station (2nd Generation) - Arsenal Street [1950- ]
• Kowloon
  • Kowloon Rifle Ranges (1st location) [????-????]
• Islands and the New Territories
  • Tat Kwun / Tat Koon / Tatiara [????-????]
     

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Photos
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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