Universal language?
From the 1870's, a little book proposing a means of UNIVERSAL COMMUNICATION...
Basically (see pic's of pages for examples), the most common words are assigned a number. Say, the word "ROCK" is assigned a number, said number staying constant for English, French, Hindi, etc.
Now, if you all have the same wee guide book, you can chat rudimentarily by writing down these numbers
The author adds a bunch of simple other symbols and modifications for conjugation, etc.
But that's not all... if you have these numbers, what if you were to assign sounds to each number? And then, you can reverse-engineer a SPOKEN universal language (!) (if I understand this right...)
Odd indeed
Not much on the internet about this one — see the New York times notice here: https://www.nytimes.com/1874/11/26/archives/new-publications-international-correspondence-by-means-of-numbers.html
... and the World Cat entry:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/international-correspondence-by-means-of-numbers-an-easy-method-whereby-people-of-different-nations-may-readily-communicate-with-each-other-by-charles-stewart/oclc/559603351
Yours for NZ$25.00
International shipping delays
International shipping timeframes are very variable at the moment with some items experiencing significant delays when sent via standard untracked shipping. Please request tracked/courier on your order if you require faster shipping. We thank you for your patience during this frustrating time!
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Over the coming weeks we will be uploading the depicted titles and more to the website
Our Auckland shop has also a small collection of these titles
23.03.22
Franco-German War
5 volumes, with an additional 5 volumes of maps
A scarce set, NZ$4500.00
First Complete English edition of GOGOL's "Dead Souls"
Interestingly, from the Library of the General Assembly of New Zealand ie. NZ Parliament
NZ$2200
James Stuart & Nicholas Revett's Classic Work on Classical Antiquity
The Antiquities of Athens, Measured and Delineated by... [4 volume set] NZ$1800
Level 2 & Level 3 Shipping Update
At Alert Levels 2 & 3, we are now able to ship books from BOTH our Dunedin & Auckland stores.
If you are based in Auckland and would like to collect your books contactlessly from our St Benedicts Street shop, all you need to do is leave a little note to that effect when filling out your details. It is $3 to send one "standard" sized book from our Dunedin store (where most of the books listed online are housed) to our Auckland store — if the book is massive, or there's a little stack of them, expect a dollar or two more. Further, if the code of the book begins with "ak" eg. "ak1/4/999", then this book is actually already in Auckland and there will be no charge for us to arrange contactless pick-up.
Once the book or books in question have arrived at St. Benedicts Street, we will get in touch with you to arrange a time to collect.
Don't see what you're looking for? Shoot our Auckland shop an email (books2@hardtofind.co.nz) or call them (ph. 09 368 48 98) — we can scurry around the shelves amongst our extensive uncatalogued stock.
Any questions specific to Dunedin, please contact:
books@hardtofind.co.nz
Stay safe
International customers: New Zealand Lockdown, Aug/Sept 2021
Due to Covid, parts of New Zealand are currently in lockdown (August, September, probably October 2021, etc.).
We are still able to ship internationally, just be mindful that things may take longer to arrive than usual.
Much of our international post has to transit through other countries going through their own lockdowns (eg. Australia), slowing things further.
We send internationally via standard untracked services, unless otherwise requested, or if the value of the book or books in question is greater than NZ$250. Should you have any questions about your international order or tracking, please contact:
books@hardtofind.co.nz
Stay safe
