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| Toponomy of the world |
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Brief overview of the identification of placenames in Mendes Pinto's Travels.
First step was indexing all placenames. This has been hand-made. I also wrote a machine extraction algorithm that, by now, does not differentiate anthroponomic entries from placenames (based on typography only). Next came documentation and finally mapping.
The main goal is always finding out the most approximate geographic coordinates for a given placename. Homophony (the fact that a name sounds similar to a placename in other language) is the main means of identification, though not the most important when other different parameters can be considered: distance (leagues mainly; less frequently, latitude degrees), direction, time spent traveling from already identified locations; historical and cultural references; landscape and urban description, and overall geographic context.
The map with comments can be found here: http://goo.gl/iqc3P |
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| Corridor |
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Views of the ceiling and walls when finished. |
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| A plasterboard ceiling. Details (and II) |
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 Support plate around the perimeter, joists and board. |
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| A plasterboard ceiling. Details (I) |
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Apart from fastened with screws and nuts, some joists were tied with wire to increase stiffness and further avoid lateral displacement. |
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| A plasterboard ceiling |
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 Third day arranging a room and corridor: building ceilings and leaving walls ready to be painted.
The approach: given the height, the perimeter of the room is traced with a line marker, a plate fixed along the leveled line to support the joists. Joists screwed to the plate around the perimeter, anchored to the ceiling with threaded rods and tied one to the other with nuts.
The plasterboard is screwed against the beams and structure is done!
Then perforated plasterboard tape is taped over the joints, joint filler paste applied on the joints and screw heads. The dried paste is rubbed next day with sand paper to give a good finish. A coat of plaster is given to the walls and ceiling and rubbed again to leave the surface ready for painting. |
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| Late season crop harvested |
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The last late season potatoes have been harvested today. Damage-free tubers are stored together for the curing period. |
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| Filling joints |
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| Back to refractory tasks this month: only to repair the joints (ceiling, floor and walls) for high-temperature insulation of a furnace in a steel rebar manufacturing plant. |
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| Batampina river and public works |
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I spent most of the time this year with The travels of Mendes Pinto trying to identify place names. Those elements of a text that, instead of being searched in a dictionary, you would rather look for in an encyclopedia or an atlas.
Not that easy!
Batampina is just an example: very carefully described, with clear and well-known points of references (city of Nanjing), Mendes Pinto depicts his journey from Nanjing to Beijing through a so-called Batampina river. ...A river?! Not that I could track on a map!
Until I found the biggest network of navigable waterways and the longest canal of the world.
Public works and, as far as Mendes Pinto was concerned, minimum environmental impact. |
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| Late season |
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Due to rainy weather, late season potatoes were planted later than usual. The plants have already sprouted and begin to develop their first leaves over a no bigger than five centimeters stem. This is how much an average size plant has grown to date.
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| Still refractory |
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I spent most of the past two months in refractory activities again. Not the best job I have ever had, not the one I like the most. A job. These days you cannot ask too much. Let's see what the future brings. |
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| Refractory floor for rebar production |
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| Last week I worked in a furnace for the production of reinforcing steel. I worked in the repair of the floor where the billets are heated before the steel is shaped. |
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| Refractory lining and resurfacing |
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| I have been working in a siderurgy applying a covering of refractory concrete to two walls. The new layer was 20 cm thick so it required shuttering and pouring concrete in the same way as when a new wall is built. |
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