"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
01/29/2016 at 11:54 • Filed to: planelopnik
4
13|
"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
01/29/2016 at 11:54 • Filed to: planelopnik | 4
| 13 |
*Yawn* right? Well, maybe. I have a big writing project at hand. Within it are early elements of flying history. I work mostly in plausible fiction so anything must have a real substance instead of totally made-up fantasy. So I got this incredibly significant and industry changing reprint for background. It will also fit nicely in my aviation library next to the manuals and pilot handbooks and other interesting things I’ve amassed over the last thirty years. So what is it? How important is it? How is a town in Kansas named after this French born guy?
(Octave Chanute and his ‘I’m an amazing success’ photo)
Octave Chanute made his money from railroads. Invented the pressure-treated railroad tie process, designed and built the Chicago and KC stockyards, then designed and built various railroad bridges. He ‘retired’ in 1883 to a study of the interesting science of flying. So he put together every single experiment and, using science! , he put together what does and does not work, with real research to go with. These articles started showing up in 1891 and then it was all put in this book by 1894. This was something not a single person had done before. As a result, it cleared up many misconceptions. Like a counselor, he set jumbled up minds straight. The Wrights read it and began writing him in 1900, then began their work, corresponding with this man constantly. In three years, they flew with power.
This is the book that set everyone straight with where to begin in making a wood and fabric aviation contraptions and made our world of flying possible. It will also make my impossible world I’m building more possible to believe.
Berang
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 11:59 |
|
If you want a really interesting book that will make you think a lot about world building and technology, go find
The Railway Journey
. And prepare to have your mind blown.
|
Grindintosecond
> Berang
01/29/2016 at 12:03 |
|
If I was diving deeper into steam-punk, I would definitely be using that one too. I’m working in plausible things, so even if airborne aircraft carriers didn’t exist in the 19th century, technical background from books like these can make things much more believable, even if it was impossible in the day. I might get that one still, but it will go on my ‘to read’ pile that’s growing faster than i can get through it, especially when I’m hammering through my ideas with jobs and kids etc.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 12:03 |
|
Between Chanute and Otto Lilienthal, the Wrights were masters of working with prior art. Lilienthal, of course, unlike Chanute, didn’t survive to see powered flight - though his death in some respects galvanized the Wrights to greater resolve.
|
Berang
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 12:09 |
|
Although primarily about railways, it really touches on the general impact of machines on society, it’s very fascinating and it will make you think about things most people take for granted living in the era we live in. On the other hand, it was one of those books I read over the course of months even though it’s not very long. The same author also did a book about electric light which I’m looking at next.
|
Grindintosecond
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/29/2016 at 12:10 |
|
Are you calling the Wrights a Japanese company? (lol) Indeed they took what others came up with and made it work and work well. Sort of like Edison who didn’t really invent anything, he just improved and made marketable someone else’s failed work. Chanute was a great business man and manager to get all of what he did done, so the Wrights were the perfect guys to carry out that work once Chanute figured out what is truly the direction to go.
I’m working through the recent publication on the Wrights. Nicely written I must say.
|
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 12:14 |
|
A lot of what made the Wrights stand out was that they were willing to validate
everything.
“Hey, everybody thinks this camber is correct. They even think this math proves it.” “Hmm, well, is it?” “Nope, turns out it sucks ass and likes to stall, but this one works. Who’da thunk it? Now let’s test props.” Their prop design was off the charts efficient for the day, too - if they’d had Charles Manley’s engine expertise there would have never been any question who’d solved powered flight.
Azrek
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 12:26 |
|
I’ve been working on a degree in Sanitation and Water Management; if you want a shocking look at the world around you check out the late 1900s sanitation in the US. It discusses how Yellow Fever was running rampant and causing some towns to have negative growth because they couldn’t deal with the infections so folks just left.
Miasma is a term coined during this phase and the discovery of how bad human waste is if not properly dealt with.
|
Grindintosecond
> Azrek
01/29/2016 at 13:31 |
|
Late 1900's?
One of my stories involves early electrical power generation. The images pulled up around turn of the century Buffalo are amazing. The underground water systems built for power generation are all brick tunnels with architecture nobody will ever see, but looked great before they filled it with water.
|
Grindintosecond
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/29/2016 at 13:39 |
|
Félix du Temple de la Croix. Check him out. The first powered flight by anything was a model he made in 1857. steam powered. the amazing part of this is, he was working on one that would carry a person but there wasn’t a single engine available that could make enough power and be light enough. The benefit to that is his work to make one led him to be a pre-eminent steam engineer and businessman having the most efficient boilers and steam systems that everyone in shipping and government made orders for. Extremely successful steam guy. Imagine if metallurgy was on his side.
|
Azrek
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 13:41 |
|
Yup, late 1900s and late 1800s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1793_Phil…
That is a start on how the Yellow Fever started in New England and as cities grew in size they had to figure out how to deal with the sanitation.
The late 1900s is when they really got serious on town development. You can still find outhouses in some areas and bathing was only realized as a good idea about the same time as well.
|
Grindintosecond
> Berang
01/29/2016 at 13:42 |
|
I’m ordering one up now. $12 shipped and used. There’s many of those themes in play. Smart phones impact on social and silent society. computer impact on speed of business. I Just read what the script of top gun 2 is going to touch on and that’s drones in the theater during the 5th generation of fighters emerging. So the last piloted fighters and how aging mav and ice are dealing with that. There’s potential for something in that theme that way. I still smell mediocrity.
|
Grindintosecond
> Azrek
01/29/2016 at 13:44 |
|
Late 1900's......so, 1996? twenty years ago they still had outhouses and just started bathing? I want to be amazed it took that long but I am feeling like you meant late 18th and 19th centuries ?
|
Azrek
> Grindintosecond
01/29/2016 at 13:44 |
|
That too...