Printer Friendly Copy of Hoke's Book

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
When I posted this version of Hoke's book, I asked that if anyone found any errors or omissions, they let me know so I could correct them. Nine months and almost 900 downloads later and I haven't received a single message. :cry:

Let's up the ante. I am hosting a contest to find those pesky little mistakes. I've posted the contest in the Bar & Grill Category, but I'd like to get as many people involved as possible, so I'm providing the link here: The "Find the Errors in Hoke" Contest. Post all errors to that thread only.

I hope that everyone will take a fresh, critical look at the book and report any errors they find. I'll pay in silver! 8)

Dave
 
Do you mean print errors or methods known to be errors in the light of nowadays common safety?

error 1: an open window is in most cases not enough
error 2: never taste any liquids as a poor man's qualitative analysis

:lol:
 
Solar_Plasma, from the contest rules:
For the purposes of this contest, I am looking for typographical errors, like misspelled words, words run together without a space, punctuation errors, etc. in my printer friendly version of the book.
The edit I'm working on addresses issues like those you've mentioned.

Dave
 
FrugalRefiner said:
Let me start by thanking Noxx, Harold_V and Palladium. Thank you Noxx for creating this forum where priceless information is so freely shared. Thank you Harold for encouraging everyone to read Hoke's book. And thank you Palladium for making the digital version of her book available to us all. Without you three, this project would have never been possible. Also, special thanks to my wife, Reva, who obtained an original 1940 copy through an inter-library loan from The Vining Library at the West Virgina Institute of Technology.

I know many of us stretch our dollars as far as we can. Not everyone wants, or is able, to buy a hard copy of Hoke's book, but reading the digital copy can strain old eyes like mine. So I've created a more frugal, printer friendly version. This copy is reformatted to print 2 pages of the book on each side of an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. By printing on both sides of the sheet the book can be printed on just under 100 sheets of paper. The sheets are then cut in half and make a 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" book that can be put in a small 3 ring binder or other binding of your choice.

To Print the Book: The book is formatted to be printed on both sides of the sheet. If your printer can print on both sides, simply run it as a duplex job. Each odd numbered page is paired with the following even numbered page.

If your printer does not print on both sides, then first print out the odd pages. Put the printed pages back in the printer (make sure they will print in the correct order - I have to reverse the order to print the second sides on my printer) and print the even pages on the second sides. Since my printer seems to like to grab 2 sheets together at the most inopportune times, ruining the rest of the job, I just print out 10 or 20 pages at a time, flip them over, and print the second sides. If they feed right I move on to the next 10 or 20. If the printer screws up, I just have to reprint a few pages, then move on.

If anyone finds errors (I know there are bound to still be a few), ommissions, or problems please let me know and I'll make corrections and update the file here. I'll include the revision date in the file name so you'll be able to tell if you have the current version.

Enjoy!

Dave

Thank you thank you, very good work and I will finally have quality study material, "Who knows, he knows, who can not so he just stares"
Wolfi -Europe , :!: :!: :!: :lol:
 
Thanks, Dave, for all you've done on the book. First I downloaded the .txt file, which gets you a mess of editing. I did that for awhile and thought I'd try the PDF. That came as a PDF of course. So I uploaded it to Adobe and had them (for $25 a year) change the PDF to .rtf format. .rtf is like Word, but easier for me to work if I want to do anything with it in PageMaker.

It prints out fine, in two-to-a-page format. Punch three holes in the top of the sheets and use a notebook and simply turn the page up and over as you read.

Now I'll begin reading. I already appreciate this web site. Thanks for setting it up.
 
buddynorville said:
Thanks, Dave, for all you've done on the book. First I downloaded the .txt file, which gets you a mess of editing. I did that for awhile and thought I'd try the PDF. That came as a PDF of course. So I uploaded it to Adobe and had them (for $25 a year) change the PDF to .rtf format. .rtf is like Word, but easier for me to work if I want to do anything with it in PageMaker.

It prints out fine, in two-to-a-page format. Punch three holes in the top of the sheets and use a notebook and simply turn the page up and over as you read.

Now I'll begin reading. I already appreciate this web site. Thanks for setting it up.
buddy,

When I created my version, I copied the text directly from the original .pdf file as a single huge text block (I selected a bit of text, then hit <CTRL> A to select everything. That got about 99% of the book. There were a few parts that hadn't been converted to text, so I rekeyed those sections. I also rescanned all of the images from a hard copy of the book. It's interesting that you use PageMaker. I thought I was the only one still using it! That is what I used to paste up the printer friendly copy. Then I used a print utility that outputs it as a .pdf file.

I'm not sure I understand your comment about turning the page up and over as you read. When you print the version I posted, you should be able to cut each sheet in two to create two 5-1/2" by 8-1/2" pages. Office supply stores sell 3-ring binders in this size. You'll see one in the photos I posted at the beginning of this thread. Once the pages are in the binder, it reads just like any other book. No turning up and over.

For anyone who is considering printing out their own copy, I would suggest holding off for a couple of weeks. I've been working on an update that I hope to post before the end of the year. It includes corrections of many typographical errors, tweaks to some of the images, and an introduction that points out a few corrections and improvements on the methods known in Hoke's time.

All thanks for creating this web site belong to our Administrator, Noxx.

Dave
 
A couple of months ago, in a thread involving a method mentioned in Hoke's book that is not favored on the forum, one of our members (John (username JHS)) posted that: "everyone that comes here is told to read hoke.NO one is told that you do not boil.if there are processes that are in hokes book that are dangerous and newcomers read that in hoke and are not for warned,they are being put in harns way.".

My initial reaction was irritation as I knew I had included several warnings in my printer friendly version. I quickly checked it and found... he was right. There was no warning not to "boil" a solution when the intention was to evaporate. While I believe Hoke only used the word "boil" in this context twice, it could cause problems for readers who do not recognize the error, as "boil" and "boiling" are appropriately used elsewhere in the book. Because of John's comments, I have reread the book looking for misinformation, hazards, outdated methods, and other information that could cause a new reader problems or put them in conflict with the members of the forum.

Since it does not make sense that whenever recommending the book we need to add a list of warnings, I have added them to this revised version. I have created an "Introduction" which is now included in my versions of the book to describe the issues I found. Thank you John for pointing out an area where I could improve. I have placed the Introduction on 4 new pages of the pdf file and inserted them between Hoke's Acknowledgement page and the Preface. If the reader does not want them in their book, they may exclude these pages, the fifth through eighth pages, of the pdf file.

In addition to adding the introduction, I've corrected some more typographical/OCR errors and tweaked some of the images. I also borrowed a few ideas from Rusty (rewalston) and griptheweasel to create a new cover that honors the author. The current file is a bit larger than the previous one because of the improved images.

I want to express my gratitude to 4metals, butcher, freechemist, goldsilverpro, Harold_V , lazersteve, and Lou for their help on this project. I also want to thank everyone who has provided links to this thread. Without them, we wouldn't have had over 1,100 downloads. Finally, I want to thank Pat (Pattt) who found many of the typographical/OCR errors I was able to correct in the current versions. I have replaced the version in the original post with the new version.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dave

You may have noticed that I said versions. I have created a screen readable version with all of the corrections and improvements of the printer friendly version. You can see it here: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
 
Welcome to the forum. Everything you need to know to recover and refine precious metals can be found here on the forum. It takes a lot of study but it's incredibly rewarding!

The first rule is to be safe in everything you do. Before you jump into any of the processes you see discussed here, be sure you understand the potential hazards and do everything you can to minimize the risks. Read EVERYTHING in the Safety section of the forum, especially the Dealing with Waste topic. No amount of precious metal is worth jeopardizing your health or the health of those around you.

I strongly encourage all new members to follow the Guided Tour created by LazerSteve. It will provide an introduction to the forum and numerous valuable links including the General Reactions List. Be sure to follow the link to his web site as he has many outstanding videos, a collection of great reference documents, and he sells a lot of the supplies needed to get started including detailed instructional DVDs. Samuel-a also has a lot of videos, guides and tutorials at his web site Gold-N-Scrap.

You'll also find a tremendous amount of information in the two Forum Handbooks compiled by aflacglobal, Forum Handbook Vol 1 and Forum Handbook Vol 2.

bmgold2 has also been putting together a useful set of links for beginners. You'll find a few links there that are duplicates of the ones I'm providing, but he has also taken the time to link to many other very good threads on specific topics of interest. His thread is here: New Member Answers.

Once you understand the basics you can start to try some small scale experiments. If there's something you don't understand or you get stuck, there will be someone here to help you.

Best of luck,
Dave
 
Thank you so much. It's people like you and all those willing to help others that makes this life more than bearable but enjoyable. God bless you and keep you safe.
 
Good evening and Happy 2020 to all.
I have been studying C. M. Hoke for a few months, I think that through Gold Refining Wiki, in my language, but for a couple of days every time I want to continue studying, only information on the sale of gold, mines, etc. comes out. and a sign that says the domain has expired.


Does anyone know if this is provisional or final?

Thank you.

Paco
 
Back
Top