My scanner came with a 'Memories Disk Creator' software and quite frankly it wasn't very good. It did the job alright but you could only have ONE sound file and the displayed pictures were only small but it did cater for all screen resolutions. So I used my knowledge of HTML to create this CD.

This slide show has been set up for display on screens with a resolution of 1280 x 1024 so it will appear different on any other resolutions. I have viewed this slide show at a resolution of as little as 800 x 600 and you have to scroll sideways and down to view all of a picture. Sorry but I can't cater for everybody.

Now don't blame me for the quality of some of the photographs. I didn't take many of them. In those days photography was not for the amateur.

I've tried to put the photographs in some sort of chronological order and used my deductive powers to try and figure out the date and place. Some may not be 'quite right'.

The photographs have been scanned with a Hewlett Packard Scanjet 3500c at 200 dpi and some I have had to 'doctor' and re-do the contrast and brightness. They are not perfect I know but you should see some of the originals.

A few of the colour photgraphs are in fact picture post cards but you will be able to spot them easily enough.

The pictures with an asterix after the number are scans of 120 size colour slides and there is a tale to tell about how I managed those.

My scanner is fitted FOR but not WITH a Transparent Materials Adaptor (TMA) and in spite of the Hewlett Packard web site advertising its existence and the manual showing a drawing of it, no one seemed to stock one, not even Hewlett Packard.

Then early one morning (3:30 am) I woke up with the idea in my head to make my own TMA. After all just how difficult could it be?

Basically a TMA is nothing more than a masking plate with a hole to take the slide and a back-light to illuminate it whilst it is scanned.

A piece of A4 white card with a carefully cut square hole to take the slide was simple enough and I used one of the slide mount's glass as a slide flattener. I acquired a 2.5 Ltr 'Paint Kettle' from the local hardware shop into which I fitted an electric bulb holder with a suitable length of mains lead protruding from it. A local photographic accessories shop was able to supply me with an enlarger light bulb and after fitting a piece of opaque white plastic to act as a diffuser I had my back-light. I also drilled several holes in the base (which became the top when in use) of the 'Paint Kettle' to allow the heat generated by the bulb to escape. After that it was just a question of experimenting to determine the distance the light should be positioned from the scanner bed and slide. It did mean scanning each slide several times to get the distance (and thus the amount of light illuminating the slide) right for that slide but as I only had about 50 slides I approached the task with stoicism.

My Heath Robinson contraption worked a treat and I have been able to scan my 120 sized slides with a little brightness and colour balance adjustment. I tried to use my home made unit for my 35 mm slides but being a Heath Robinson contraption it was very time consuming and the prospect of scanning many slides had me baulking at the task. Hence the search for and purchase of the real thing.

Eventually I managed to track one down and it duly arrived but like all the other TMA's for other makes of scanner this will only scan 35 mm negatives and slides. But I had already solved that problem.