Students adopt philosophical approach

STUDENTS at Chester's Queen's School are taking part in a projectwith international significance.

University College London (UCL)'s Transcribe Bentham aims totranscribe the hand-written works of the famous philosopher andsocial reformer Jeremy Bentham for the internet.

There are 60,000 of Bentham's papers in UCL's library but severalthousands have yet to be transcribed and studied. The Queen's Schoolpupils were the first people outside UCL to have access to thewritings as they helped Dr ValerieWallace, research associate of theUCL Bentham Project, to test the online transcription system. Whileat UCL they also attended a lecture on Bentham and viewed hispreserved skeleton, dressed in his own clothes, in a wooden box inthe South Cloisters.

Jenny Cumiskey, one of the students who took part in the event,said: "This project allowed us not only to engage with our ownheritage through access to original historical manuscripts , butalso to contribute to the documentation of the nation's history."Transcribe Bentham is free and easy to take part in. Project detailscan be found at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/.