[daft_pink]

Do they have a processing step where they add in random dots everywhere?

[gwbas1c]

It's called noise. It's clearly typewritten text scanned at black and white.

[kobieps]

Sheesh now I feel old

[NikolaNovak]

I get a dismissable dialogue box upon viewing the document, explaining the context and quality (i.e. scanning noise), including fairly explicit:

"The image quality contained within this site is subject to the condition of the original documents and original scanning efforts."

Hope that helps! :)