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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 3:00:21 GMT
Letter: One Lincoln Center Suite 43 110 West Fayette St Syracuse, NY 15 April 1899 Irene Davenport Tesla 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass 22 March 1890 Dear Irene: You wanted a status update on how well the United States does? According to our internal research, we are not as backward compared to many nations as we once were, but not as well-disposed as we hoped to be as we approach the middle of the year of 1890. I have a map prepared so that you might have the instant macro-situation-awareness of our political and economic condition at a glance. The color code for the map is as follows: a. Dark blue is complete electrification of the state, province or country. b. Medium blue is 50-75% electrification of the state, province or country. c. Light blue is 25-49% electrification of the state, province or country. d. Orange is active hostile resistance to electrification of the state, province or country. As you can see, madam, we have serious problems within the program. Texas has been a notable surprise and a spectacular success. We have high hopes for Arizona. New Mexico has been a severe disappointment. Mister Brush assures me, that with the spread of the wind driven generator farms, that economic necessity will compel New Jersey and Maryland to soon rescind their recent retrogression from their previous medium blue status, as the advantages of cheap power assistance to the agriculture and manufacture in those states will swing the business interests and the general populace into our vision of social progress notwithstanding the seizure of those state legislatures by the Knights of the Golden Circle or whatever those traitors may call themselves this year. We have the continued problems with Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and the Oklahoma territory. We need one of Arkansas, Oklahoma or Louisiana to swing our way, or our success in Texas is endangered. Since Oklahoma has been declared a First Nations territory, I am hopeful we can have President Harrison declare a federal mandate through the First Nations Bureau to order electrification of it by presidential fiat. New Mexico and Montana could be declared in a state of civil unrest, and we could then deal with the renegades therein and finish our tracking west. On the matter of overseas commerce? I have prepared another map. The green is where we have either matched the British or perhaps overtaken them. The patterns of trade favor them by sail and where they have coaling stations, but they have neglected the Pacific Ocean, and that is where we think we would finally beat them on the world ocean. You will notice what features obstructs our China trade access? It is the British dominated, but Spanish held Philippine Islands and the British colony and port of Hong Kong. As for the overall numbers of ships of the cargo and passenger variety, we have built among our shipping companies; nationalized, subsidized or independent within the United States approximately 1,000 of such vessels over the last 15 years of which half are of the steam-electric ship variety for a combined tonnage of 5.0 millions at an average of 5,000 tons per ship. The British build them rather smaller than we do at 3,000 tons average displacement. They have 3,000 of them. They out ton us at 9 million tons at a ratio of 9 to 5. You must also factor in that much of our shipping is such that we keep close to home for the Caribbean Sea and the coastwise trades along our east and west coasts, and upon the Great Lakes. It is in the Pacific Ocean where we hope to prosper. Through that great wet highway we funnel so much of our current imported immigrant labor and raw materials. There we have a clear two to one superiority in tonnage over anyone's other shipping. This new present condition resembles once again the heyday of our commerce enjoyed in the late 1850s and early 1860s. And as now, so again then, our shipping needs our coaling stations, our overseas ports, and OUR NAVY to protect it. We have none of those necessities in place. We must address this lack, Irene, or we will be insulated and blockaded from the world once again as we were in the 1870s and 1880s. But I understand that as on land our parlous condition was explained to you, by Nelson Miles; so Alfred Mahan has explained it upon the world ocean. Your friend and obedient servant always: Elias Mathew Vashon LLD for The Bashon Law Group.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 3:06:58 GMT
LETTERs: FROM: Theodore D. Wilson C/O C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia 22 August 1889 TO: Theodore Cramp C/O The William Cramp and Sons' Iron Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Delaware Avenue and Cumberland Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mister Cramp: If that is what you offer; then we would like two of such at the agreed price you suggested. Can we use the plans at discretion? Captain Philip Hichborn. USN For; Theodore D. Wilson, Chief Constructor of the Bureau of Construction and Repair -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM: Theodore D. Wilson C/O C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia 20 April 1890 TO: Peter Donahue C/O Union Iron Works Potrero Point San Francisco, California Mister Peter Donahue: See enclosed plans? Can you build one? Captain Philip Hichborn. USN For; Theodore D. Wilson, Chief Constructor of the Bureau of Construction and Repair ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Montgomery Sicard for; Benjamin F. Tracy; Navy Secretary Navy Department 17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, District of Columbia 20 April 1890. To: Nikolas Tesla DEE for The Tesla Laboratories 625 Boylston Street, Boston. Dear sir; First; please destroy this letter after you read it. Second; we observed your wireless demonstration of your unmanned David this past March with more than passing interest. We do not think there is much future in the use of an unmanned David, as it appears too easy for rapid fire guns to destroy such contrivances before they have their intended effect. However, as was pointed out to us, by a fellow observer, the means of transmission of steering instructions to the David, was a form of communication. Can you make of your steer control a means to pass along words from one conveyance to another? Your servant: Montgomery Sicard for The Honorable Benjamin F. Tracy. Secretary of the Navy
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 3:14:50 GMT
You will see me use this history as we turn to New Mexico. And you will soon understand the absolute savagery of the US Army in the Native American Wars in this region of the country. The Americans KNEW the history of the region. LETTER: C/O United States Post Office / General Delivery 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 12 September 1890 Doctor Norman Oswald Bates DP C/O The Athenaeum 107 Pall Mall London, United Kingdom My good friend Norman; These past three months, I have been with B-Troop, 6th US Cavalry since March of this year inside of Mexico. Notice, Norman, I did not say the drab American territory of New Mexico, but inside Mexico. I do not begin to have enough pages to describe how it happened, but the gist of it is this: near Globe, Arizona, the Apache known as Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl or the Apache Kid with seven other prisoners escaped from a stagecoach that bogged out in a gully, generally pointed uphill. The sheriff had foolishly let out six of the savages; so as to lighten the coach so that the horses could drag it up the hill. The Apache Kid and his chief accomplice stayed inside the coach and were shackled to its ironwork. However, the six Apaches outside the coach, were more than enough to jump the sheriff, and his deputy, disarm them and kill them and attain the means to unshackle the Apache Kid and his companion., but well after the usual robberies and barbarisms one should expect from such savages. The eight of them, escaped. One other prisoner, a Mestizo never do well horse thief, tried to warn the stage driver, but somehow the Apaches still surprised the man and apparently thought they killed him. The horses were cut loose and the stage coach was abandoned. The driver feigned death until he was sure the savages were departed. Then he staggered on foot to the Butterfield Stage Line station at Riverside. After that rather heroic effort, the man, whose name was Middleton, collapsed and was; as I write this, still recovering from his neck wounds. Anyhow, for the past ten months, every lawman and soldier, not otherwise engaged in chasing the usual yahoos and blaggards in these parts, has pursued the Apache Kid. I thought we British were ruthless in our pursuit of the rebel, Aga Khan, in the second Afghan War? We have nothing on these brown-coated ruffian cutthroats. I could recount to you the exploits of 2nd platoon of B-Troop of this past 17 November, when we finally caught up with three of the Apaches, fresh off a raid they made upon the Bar T ranchero. (A-Diamond actually, See MAP. Miletus). Two troopers, a Sergeant William Fritch you may remember from my letter describing the stage coach ride I had with that disagreeable gentleman, and a Private Hayes, went out upon a reconnoitre and stumbled onto the murderous heathens and engaged them in a heroic gun battle in which the final tally was three of the Apaches slain and no losses for our side. I was unfortunaterly not able to participate in the exploit for I had business in our encampment with a certain Lieutenant Crozier. After that success, of course we would be the principles selected to chase the Apache Kid to wherever he lighted upon the territories. I had not expected that it would take so long and that we would be afield so far from Fort Thomas in the chase, Norman. It turns out that the Kid gathered unto himself, about twenty or so like-minded "braves" to make war upon the United States. Chief among the outrages alleged to have been perpetrated was a brutal cattle raid upon Socorro, New Mexico and a massacre of Mexicans just outside Ciudad Delicias, a settlement in Chihuahua Province of Mexico. We, upon receipt of that news of the Ciudad Delicias massacre, retraced our journey from Socorro, New Mexico and by forced horse march, slipped our nefarious way through Apache Pass and through Skeleton Canyon across the border in Mexican army mufti to disguise our intent from the Apaches and Mexicans alike. How we were supposed to remain a secret with half of the platoon of the skin shade of Sergeant Fritch and the other half being of the Irish red-haired persuasion, was never explained to me, Norman, but these are Americans. Logic and rational thinking seems to be nothing to them as obstacles to a plan of direct action; once they adopt it, no matter how insane it is. Anyway, we are supposedly three miles from the Kid and his band, accrding to our untrustworthy scout, Mister Tom Horn, as I close out this letter. This time I will become part of the show, as Lieutenant Crozier, says he needs every man and every rifle in line for the coming engagement. I have a nifty new Austrian rifle, a Mannlicher of a design similar to the Pattern 1888, but which turns lugs on a cam and cylinder principle instead of slides on a locking wedge. A beauty it is, and I shall bag me an Apache or two with it. Heigh ho, the hunt is on! Your Servant and colleague; Brandon Croyden Wycliffe, ESQ. OM FRS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is what we finally determined about the Apache Kid in the real history. He was remarkable in an era of remarkable people.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diary of Sergeant William Fritch. 17 September 1890 This has been a dreadful day. Crozier, that imbecile, refused to wait for daylight and a trail ambush, as I advised. He insisted on a night charge, complete with the bugle, upon the Apache encampment. The dogs sniffed us out and barked a warning. The braves tumbled to arms and met us in the Apache fashion, afoot with their Winchesters in a line facing our charge. The fancy Manlickers we had, seized and stuck on us in the fight, so we had to rush the braves to get within knife and saber distance, hoping that the darkness spoiled the brave's aim as we came in. The only thing in our favor was the fact that Tom Horn had enough sense to pull the old sage brush trick to mask our charge from the side as we veered off so we could regroup to make a second try. That was only possible by the fact that Corporal Hayes made it to the pony line and spooked off the horses that the Apaches failed to guard. If not for that one Apache mistake, it would be all of us dead, instead of just eight of the eighteen. I finally made Crozier see reason, and we dismounted and made an infantry fight of it. I will say this much for that British royal pain in the buttocks, Wycliffe. For an anthropologist, he can sure shoot. He killed three Apaches and saved my life, curse him. I owe him that life debt. As for Crozier, he took a hatchet in the shoulder and will be out of it, until we can get him to a doctor. Since I am senior, I must get us home, without running afoul of the Mexicans, or the Apaches with the news that we got the Apache Kid. Maybe. It will depend on if someone can identify his head. The camera we were supposed to use to take his corpse's picture was hatcheted at the same time as Crozier. If needs must, so necessity compels. I can foresee nothing but trouble if this story gets out to the tribes. First next stop is our safe station in Chihuahua where the local consul can sneak us aid, then Casas Grandes our next safe haven, then El Paso, if we are lucky. I figure two weeks to get to safety if our "pretensions" as Mexican mercenaries and renegades holds. My final thought is that the Manlicker, with its open bottom magazine, is not acceptable. It attracts too much dirt and sand and jams. Our fight was hand to hand, and only our steel against their flint, gave us the edge to win. I still do not know how Wycliffe kept his Manlicker working when the rest of us were reduced to using ours as clubs and spears. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have taken some liberties with the actual history to make a few points about what the Americans faced and why they did what they did. I mixed in my own story to emphasize some points that few Europeans understand about us. If you are not an American, and our braggadacio grinds your gears, then think about what your 16th century ancestors confronted and maybe you can cut us some slack. We were thin on the ground in the 19th century and we had some severe social problems and a few internal enemies to sort out as well as more than a few external ones. We had to overcome regionalism, put ourselves back together from a horrible civil war that for us was about as traumatic as the Taipeng Rebellion was for Qing China. We still bear the scars of that civil war upon us. If not racism, then regionalism, or then class warfare in the Marxist sense, and then we had on top of that nonsense; the German century where we had to join two grand coalitions to defeat two madmen, and then the RUSSIANS, with their own series of madmen. It is not that we have braggadacio; or that we think we are special. It is that we look at ourselves and are amazed that we survived at all. We should have gone the way of China in her Century of Shame or Brazil in her Century of Broken Promises, but we did not. We put men on the moon and conducted the Third Age of Exploration. Maybe we do strut a little, because we want to share our good fortune and spread it about? Author.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 3:22:56 GMT
LETTERs: Fraye and Stutz; LLD For George Westinghouse 119 Vanderbilt Park Rd, Hyde Park, New York 1 November 1890 Misses Irene Goss Davenport Tesla DME 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass BNY Dear Miss Tesla: Mister Westinghouse has requested we make inquiry into the following items of interest: a. Is it true that Tesla Laboratories has entered into an exclusive arrangement with Bureau of Ordnance Munitions Plant Number Four? b. Is there some business arrangement between Batteries of New York and the Trinidad Sugar Company, of which the overall ACME executive board is unaware? c. Do you know of the recent activities of Mister Charles Brush within the Oklahoma Territory? With the deepest respect; Thaddeus Hilton Stutz, LLD.; for Mister George Westinghouse. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass BNY 6 November 1890 George Westinghouse (to be hand-delivered by Bashon Law Firm messenger courier) 119 Vanderbilt Park Rd, Hyde Park, New York George; Destroy this letter after you read it. You have a spy within your corporate ranks. I have detailed the Pinkertons to seek out this person and supply you with details as to who it is and for whom that person works. If you cannot find it within your heart to remedy the matter, rest assured I will. Irene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- George Westinghouse 119 Vanderbilt Park Rd, Hyde Park, New York 15 November 1890 Misses Irene Davenport Tesla (To be hand-delivered by Pinkerton Messenger) 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass BNY Irene; Destroy after perusal. Fraye and Stutz; LLD, have been sacked. I never authorized that inquiry. I am fully aware of the problem you brought to my attention. I think you do not want to know exactly how the problem was handled? If you do need the details, then our New York friends might supply them to you verbally. George. =========================================================================== News article from The Times and Culvert; 15 November 1890. Do you think there will be trouble brewing inside ACME, reader?
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 5:51:17 GMT
LETTERs: From: Nikola Tesla for The Tesla Laboratories 625 Boylston Street, Boston. 25 November 1890 To: Montgomery Sicard for; Benjamin F. Tracy; Navy Secretary Navy Department 17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, District of Columbia . SIR; First: please destroy this letter after you read it. Second: my English is still not so good, so please excuse. Third: answer to your askings; 1. My wife deals with a murderer, so she is too busy to correspond with you. I am what you have as the correspondent. 2. I find the nickel-iron battery too heavy. I do not trust Edison, either. We make do with sealed lead acid battery. It will work. I guarantee it. 3. The control method works to horizon. Light travels in straight lines. If you accept this thing, then I devised the method whereby words are sent like Morse. Is this acceptable to you? N. Tesla DEE TTL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Montgomery Sicard for; Benjamin F. Tracy; Navy Secretary Navy Department 17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, District of Columbia 27 November 1890 To: Doctor Nikola Tesla for The Tesla Laboratories 625 Boylston Street, Boston. Doctor Tesla; sir, Paragraph 1. May we make inquiry as to the murderer and why Misses Irene Tesla is involved? Paragraph 2. Your English is fine, sir. Direct, honest, to the point, and with the needed to be read. Paragraph 3. So long as it works and you guarantee it: a. the battery substitute is acceptable. b. we understand light. We have consulted experts. Your obedient servant: Montgomery Sicard, CAPT USN, for Benjamin F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass 27 November 1890 To the Honorable Benjamin F. Tracy, Navy Secretary Navy Department 17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, District of Columbia Dear Mister Tracy, Please destroy this letter after you read it. You may inquire as much as you wish into my problems with Mister Westinghouse, but I think your inquiries will lead you into certain areas where you might not wish to look before you are ready for the answers. I am not sure that I am prepared for the answers yet, either. I am not prepared to abandon the nickel-iron battery. Notwithstanding that my husband is a genius, he is not "practical". He promises much, and he does deliver, but the result can be not what you expect. I think a heavy, slow safe automotive device is acceptable, as opposed to a fire and explosion hazard. I trust Mister Charles Brush on this issue, more than my husband. Fund his lead acid contraption and if it works, it is another arrow in the Eagle's Quiver. But do not discard the safe wager. Edison was right for once in his wrong life. And I will deal with Edison and that fact for you. I was not conversant with "the controller method". My husband explained it to me. If it works, and that is a huge "if", at the moment, it will be at least three years before Nikolai has the details sorted. Once it is sorted, we will move quickly to use it. Rest assured that Ameriship will be the second to implement after you have it. Irene Tesla, DME. BNY
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 5:57:42 GMT
LETTER: C/O United States Post Office / General Delivery 24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 15 December 1890 Doctor Norman Oswald Bates DP C/O The Athenaeum 107 Pall Mall London, United Kingdom Dear Norman; I am serious in some trouble with the Americans. Apparently in our encounter with the Apache renegades of last 17 September this year, I had the bad judgement to save the life of Sergeant William Fritch by shooting several of the Apaches, who were about to murder that stout, if disagreeable man, rather than flick off the one lone Indian who was in the close fight with Lieutenant William Crozier. Crozier was struck once by a stone ax in the shoulder by the Apache who confronted him. But of course, as I knew would be the case, Crozier ran the wretch through with his sword and was in no serious danger, as Fritch was. For all that Fritich is my inferior, Norman, he is still a man of some worth to me, and a fellow soldier. There are rules about such things, you know? Given the circumstances, I am sure you would have made the same choice. I suppose my comeuppance will be decided, as we return to the civilized comfort at Fort Thomas, Arizona. It seems that in the yearlong hunt for the Apache Kid, that our busy friends of ACME have electrified the entire Southern Pacific Railroad line from El Paso through Tucson, Phoenix, Parker, into California via way of Sacramento, all the way into Los Angeles on the Pacific coast. There seems to have been some extreme sense of urgency about this endeavor to cross southern New Mexico Territory, via Denning and Lordsburg to hook up into the Tucson line as if the Americans feared the outbreak of a new war with Mexico. I can tell you that the cheers of the El Paso citizens, when the first four-six-four electric traction engine pulled train arrived from Denning, were astonishing. I saw it with my own eyes, Norman. You would think it was for the Texans, as if it was for the Mormons of Promontory, Utah when the Americans knitted their first coast-to-coast railroad together. You would be surprised at how that cheering changed, when the Chinese fellows descended from the passenger cars. Apparently the Texans have the same approximate attitude toward the Yellow Peril that we do. Frankly; I think it is most unwise of the Americans to import so many worthy Chinese gentlemen into their pristine country. They will soon be overrun by the fellows. Perhaps you may wonder how I made passage in the hunting trip from so deep in the province of Chihuahua, back to this corner of Texas? It was mostly under the stars at night, on horseback and afoot and as far away from civilization as we could manage with our party after we contacted the American consul at the town of Chihuahua to turn over to him the wounded Lieutenant Crozier. By Mexican law we were banditos, subject to be shot upon discovery. And to be honest, from the horses, food and other items of unpaid sustenance we stole from the locales for our necessary use, we fitted that definition exactly. It was thrilling! Sergeant Fritch commanded us in our journey. The rapscallion scout, Tom Horn, who I swear to you, is possibly the finest naked eye astronomer I have ever met, guided us over the rough plateau lands solely bu the stars. I would truthfully tell you, if not for the different heat, and the Spanish speakers, this land could have passed for the Northwest Frontier. It took us three weeks. In the week I have been here, I have heard stories among the connected folks in these parts of the deviltry that has occurred in western Texas and southern New Mexico Territory that will take me months to track down and verify, which will presumably require the telling in a future letter. That assumes of course that my American hosts do not pack me up and ship me back to you, once Fritch and Crozier file their official reports. Oh, one last thing, Norman. After I shot the Apache, who was about to bash in Sergeant Fritch's skull with a rock, we discovered that it could be the Apache Kid, himself. As the camera we were supposed to use to take his picture had been smashed along with Lieutenant Crozier's collarbone, the logical thing to do, was to take the Apache back to identify him. We could not very well pack a whole dead body back with us, so I suggested we do what we, in India, would do in similar circumstances. You would be surprised at how squeamish the Americans were at the suggestion and what strange stares they gave me, Norman. They had not the stomach for it, despite the recent hand-to-hand fighting in which we butchered the Apaches who fought us with our swords and knives. So, I took the head. It was but one stroke of the saber and into the bag with it. I hope to keep it as a trophy after the Americans are done with it. It will make an excellent mantle display piece at the Club after it is properly taxidermied. Your Servant and colleague; Brandon Croyden Wycliffe, ESQ. OM FRS. ====================================================== Yucko. Note: The accounts of Brushy Bill Roberts and his claims to be Billy the Kid which will appear in this fiction in the near future, as of this year, 2023, officially cannot be verified without digging that scoundrel up and applying DNA testing to verify his family lineage. Pat Garrett's account of how he ambushed and killed Billy the Kid, was so full of holes and he was known to be such a mendacious untrustworthy person that you could not rely on Pat Garrett to tell you that water was wet, so there is no confirmed valid proof there either..
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:03:10 GMT
LETTER: Proposed modifications by UNIRON Union Iron Works Potrero Point San Francisco, California 30 December 1890 Mister Philip Hichborn C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia Mr. Hichborn: You may have noticed that we made some minor modifications to the plans you sent via by Construction and Repair draft? Our engineering reasoning for these changes is fairly straightforward. This ship has to operate in the Pacific Ocean. Based on the severe weather conditions to be expected in that ocean, we think weather exposed barbettes and open gun mounts are rather foolish, so we have adjusted the plans accordingly to enclose the gun tables under gun houses. The triple expansion engine and final drive aft electro-generative motive propulsion setup that we use for our steam electric ships is a horizontal layout with forced blowers rather than vertical triple expansion engines with direct drive and natural draft as original in the plan sets forwarded to us. We were actually delighted with the separate fire rooms as it allowed us to create an electrical load distribution system that allows for "cruising condition" with the aft fire room and steam engine on hot run, with the two forward engine rooms on usual cold standby. Our redraft necessitated the redistribution of the armor protection scheme and rearrangement of the coal bunkers to the outer skin of the ship. This tends to put the propulsion system deep into the bilges and along the central keel-line of the ship. That means also that we reject longitudinal internal framing, which is the current British method for compartment separation, in favor of the transverse method, which we have found to be more counter-flooding efficient to allow even settling when hull damage occurs. It also means that we have tended to a more box frame cross-section framing for the hull rather than the tumble-homes which the Europeans seem to prefer. This increases hull wetted area square footage and robs a half knot due to parasitic and wake drag, but it increases buoyancy reserve by twelve percent. This will improve roll period and should prevent the submerged armor belt problem as the British have with their Royal Sovereigns. We have made other changes, such as rejected steam powered donkey engines for hoists and rotators, and cranes. We have electricity. Why not use it? To improve the ability to retain watertight integrity against accidental collisions and groundings, we have triple bottomed the hull. We have also taken the liberty to install the cross decking line and hoists craning system that AMERISHIP uses to refuel their passenger cargo liners at sea. These improvements, as a set, should enable us to meet your stated needs with a minimal time delay of a half year. We would therefore like to submit the cumulative expense vouchers for the changes listed in the amount of $1,000,000.00. Your servant: Peter Donahue for UNIRON ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Cramp and Sons are building is a bit smaller. FROM: Philip Hichborn C/O C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia 27 December 1890 TO: Theodore Cramp C/O The William Cramp and Sons' Iron Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Delaware Avenue and Cumberland Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mister Cramp: We noticed that you have changed your submitted design in the latest revised plans. Why? Your obedient servant; Philip Hichborn for Theodore D. Wilson; Chief Constructor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM: Theodore Cramp C/O The William Cramp and Sons' Iron Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Delaware Avenue and Cumberland Street, Kensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1 January 1891 TO: Philip Hichborn C/O C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia Sir: The 10 inch guns were too heavy to install in mount one. It would make the cruiser bow heavy and forward hog her down. Besides, uniformity of the chase gun ammunition at 8 inch bore size makes much more logistic sense to us. It saves monies in construction costs as a third benefit. Theodore Cramp COO for The William Cramp and Sons' Iron Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:11:22 GMT
As we enter the new decade of the 1890s in this timeline; we must notice some cracks in the facade. Principle to understand what those cracks are; is best described by Allison’s Three Models of Government Action. Up to 1 January 1891, the principal actor factions of our little drama have all been pulling in the same general direction as each follow the same unitary goal oriented outcome that flows forward for each group's own narrow defined interests and points of view. The appearance to an outside observer would be that the United States polity was developing a master plan to vault itself forward into the first ranks of the competitive international order. This might please some other nations and or alarm others, who would see such a United States as either a good partner or a dangerous future rival. Depending on the point of view which we will develop in the future story, this could have some strange economic geopolitical results both externally and internally as one enters 1891.. The Influence of Thinkers and Ideas on History: The Case of Alfred Thayer MahanAnd now you will see Mahan enter stage right.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:27:42 GMT
From: Arent Schuyler Crowninshield LCDR USN for: The Honorable Benjamin F, Tracy, Secretary of the Navy C/O Navy Department; Bureau of Construction and Repair Pennsylvania Avenue at 22nd Street Washington, District of Columbia 2 January 1891. To: William M. Folger, CAPT USN Bureau of Ordnance: Navy Department 17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, District of Columbia Sorry, Bill: Your bureau is out of business as of this date. You will see now that as of the Naval Reform Act, effective of yesterday, you are the Naval Office of Munitions and that you report directly to the Civilian Undersecretary for Munitions, the one Honorable Mister Hudson Maxim. Get used to civilian oversight. A.S. Crowninshield LCDR USN for The Honorable Benjamin F, Tracy, Secretary of the Navy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Life is a beach filled with more problems than grains of sands. The Americans have to do something to shake out the crabs in their Navy. ================================================================================== 10 January 1891 Report of LT William Crozier detached on recent assignment to Fort Thomas. Direct for the eyes of: The Honorable Redfield Proctor, Secretary of War. Sir: It is my regrettable duty to report to your person that my recent assignment which you personally gave to me: to conduct cavalry usage trials on the Mannlicher carbine of the year 1890, and the Schmitt Rubin short rifle of the year 1889, has ended in complete failure. The circumstances which surrounded that failure, must be conveyed to you verbally, since the matter cannot be committed to writing: but as to the particulars of the primary goal; to test both the Schmitt Ruben and the Mannlicher in the field, I can positively assert to your satisfaction, that 2nd Platoon, B Troop, of the US 6th Cavalry tested the Hades out of both rifles in near real war conditions and both rifles failed us miserably. In summary, the Schmitt Ruben has a muzzle bullet drop that renders bullet downrange carry unacceptable beyond 400 yards (365.76 m). It may be due to the compressed black powder charges used in the test ammunition, or it may be due to the too short barrel and the relatively brief gas working time, but in any event, we found the short rifle kicked like a mule and that it threw aim off due to unaccounted muzzle climb and wander. It is also very heavy for a carbine. The troopers hated it. I tried to be objective, but I hate it, too. The only good features of that carbine were the magazine cutoff feature and the magazine itself and the bolt / firing pin assembly. Those features were greased goose slick and very desirable. If our weaponeers can move the locking lugs on the cam operated bolt to the front and if we can shorten its length while still retaining the essential takedown simplicity and cam action, then much of the negatives in the weapon might disappear, despite the complexity of manufacture and the weak lobbing ammunition. The Mannlicher carbine has a shorter bolt carry group with a more complicated cam action to rotate the bolt. That complexity introduces friction in travel, which causes a noticeable stickiness in the working of the back and forth slide action. The front lugs are incredibly strong in the locking; which is one good feature. The bullets supplied with the Wallender smokeless powder in the cartridges flew out with amazingly flat trajectories for such a short carbine. From that good aspect, though, it turns out of the action attracts and grimes up with the least amount of Arizona adobe dust or any kind of debris whatsoever in the lugs and cams of the bolt carrier group, the carbine becomes singularly welded in a jam as if it had been annealed by a blacksmith. Nothing short of a cleaning rod hammered down the muzzle with a pistol butt could clear such a jam. For that reason, and the fact that my pistol was loaded, and I near shot my face off, in the doing, I hate the Mannlicher carbine more than I hate the Schmitt Ruben. Is there some way we can rework the Navy Lee to get what we want? I mean, a modified Schmitt Ruben bolt assembly and the Swiss cartridge system with a smokeless powder small diameter bullet could be ideal for us? Respectfully; LT William Crozier, USA. ====================================================== It may be that William Crozier did not know what he was doing. Several million Austro-Hungarian soldiers did not have any problems with their Mannlichers, and the Swiss had no troubles with their Schmitt Rubens, though they despised their Mannlichers as much as our fictional Crozier does here. The carbines were very difficult to maintain, field strip and keep clean. You had to keep them clean and dry, much like an AR-15 today, or they would fail you.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:33:13 GMT
Naval War College 686 Cushing Rd, Newport, Rhode Island 10 January 1890 To Mister John Howell, DTS C/O Office of Munitions; Munitions Factory Number Four 1520 Capella S, Newport, Rhode Island Hello John; These new department changes in organization and chains of authority have created some chaos, as you in opposition warned. As you have asked me why I pushed for these changes and supported them, it is only fair now, since I won this argument, that I give you my reasons and hopefully convert you to the cause. For the practical matter of it, you remember the SS Virginius Affair? We now have strong evidence that the SES Minneapolis Incident was more of the same stiff medicine applied to us by the same responsible parties. In the Virginius Case, our reluctant Congress compelled the Robeson Subterfuge which the next administration canceled immediately once the British settled the Virginius Affair to their satisfaction, but not to ours. Powerless, we of this navy had to suffer double humiliation. While a practical person would shrug it off and get on with business, a philosophical man has to ask what does such incidents, non-responded, do to the morale of our navy? It hurts our sense of purpose and the reason of our being. So, as to avoid future embarrassment, to prevent the chicane tricks we use to do our work, that actually discredit us in the eyes of the citizens we serve, and to create a permanence of mission of that purpose and continuity of effort to fulfill it, I pushed for reforms to create that continuity and to plan that mission. You do know how hard it is for a democracy to stomach an organized professional cadre of officers, whose sole reason for being as a group, is to plan for war? In this country, if we were to create such a general staff, and call it a general staff, the authors of such a scheme would be cashiered at best or sent to the naval disciplinary barracks at worst. We will not tolerate such Prussianisms. We cannot and should not. But we can create a group of wise men who can advise our civilian leadership, specifically the Secretary of the Navy, as to what is prudent as to naval policy from a purely practical military viewpoint, while ensuring that complete total final civilian oversight and direction is in place over every "sub-office" within the Secretary's authority. So, when Congress looks at us, we should have those civilians placed in authority over us, to speak for us, to say to the Navy Secretary, who can then say to our final legislative masters, "the Navy needs these things to serve the nation". And hopefully, those under-secretaries will be educated by their uniformed subordinates to understand and present the case we understand among ourselves as a collective body of opinion, to the Secretary and then he toward Congress, instead of the competing fiefdoms of the bureau system that we have, where every bureau chief fights for his scrap of the Navy budget in person, in spite of the Secretary, no matter what is actually in the best interest of the nation and of the Service. I call it, "One Navy, One Voice". It is a "political reorganization" designed to assert the Secretary's authority and not dilute it, John, as it practically is now. Perhaps, now you see my reasons, and will join me to sell it to the others? It is the only way we can solidify the reform and make it work. Your friend: Alfred Mahan, CAPT, USN --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mister John Howell DTS C/O Office of Munitions; Munitions Factory Number Four 1520 Capella S, Newport, Rhode Island To: Alfred Thayer Mahan, CAPT, USN C/O Naval War College 686 Cushing Road Newport, Rhode Island 15 January 1890 My good friend; You are the master of obfuscation, chicanery, the confidence game and the three shells and the pea misdirection. If you sold that avid collection of reasons to Secretary Tracy, then I challenge you to a game of quoits, for I know I come nearer the truth than you did in your last letter. But, I have other news for you. You may start our mutual friend, Stephen, on a new game for his gymnasium, while you concoct a new means to sell coals to the devils in Hades. We had two clangs out of three tries in our three body problem. It works! Fiske's thing and my contraption meshed together for that success against a maneuvering target. We have now what the British and the French have possessed as their monopoly. No flywheel, no wires, no air flask was needed for it. Your co-worker in all matters naval; Mister John Howell DTS Office of Munitions; Munitions Factory Number Four
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:38:03 GMT
Some actual history again.For all the power of a gilded age entrepreneur, our fictional Irene Goss Davenport Tesla lacked civil rights in 1891. Fundamentally, she was considered either one of two varieties of human being under American common law, in the real year of 1891. She was either a "child". (See the fictional letters she received from the fictional Benjamin F. Tracy, and or his agents, before she put her foot down, for an example of this attitude among the males of the generation.), or she was considered "property" of her husband, an attitude that persists in the real world today. You see this subtly represented in the correspondence of Nikola Tesla with the same Benjamin F. Tracy. This is very ironic in that though African American men were in the midst of their own struggle to assert their civil rights both in our real history and in the fictional one, they were even more vociferous in opposition to (black) women's civil rights than their Euro-American counterparts. That is about to change. Author.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 6:47:50 GMT
The meeting was contentious enough. It was not with Frederick Douglass as Irene Tesla originally wished, for Benjamin Harrison had exiled that worthy man as the US Minister Resident in Haiti, some people suggested, because he made too many loud noises about the horrible situation in West Virginia. So it was his son, Charles Remond Douglass, who told Irene: "No." =========================================================================== 21 January 1890 Minutes of a private meeting, between Doctor Irene Goss Davenport Tesla for the American Consortium of Manufactured Electrics (ACME) and Mister Charles Redmond Douglass, Esquire for the Freedmen's Coalition. Also present, Elias Mathew Vashon, legal counsel representing the legal interests of the ACME on behalf of Doctor Tesla and William Northrop Fraye, legal counsel representing the legal interests of the Freedmen's Coalition and Mister Douglass. What follows is the best recollection of Elias Mathew Vashon, LLD; a practicing attorney of the Bashon Law Group. It is a close approximation of what was said, as both parties agreed prior to this meeting that no notes or record were to made or taken for reasons of prudent privacy. Arrived by electric coach at 5 minutes prior to the scheduled time of 11.00 AM local train time as per agreement. Four Pinkerton bodyguards accompanied us up to the porch from the street. The chief of the detail, Hiram Waxman, knocked to announce our arrival. We were met at the front door, by a manservant, name not given or remembered. He was of obvious military service and bearing, and presumably picked for his position for that reason.^1 He escorted us into the meeting sitting room. The four bodyguards were not allowed admittance. Just Doctor Tesla and my self entered after we assured the manservant we were unarmed. The room was small and cramped and in my opinion not suitable for what was likely to be a "difficult" exchange of views. (Charles Hartford, employed by the Douglass family as a manservant and bodyguard, when he was not employed as a clerk at the Pension Bureau. Irene.) ======================================================= The meeting began with an open declaration of mutual respect of the two principles for each other's work in attempting to improve the general lot of the common people of the United States, Mister Douglass complimented for his work for civic rights and Doctor Tesla for her work in improvement of the quality of life for the common folk through her assiduous application of innovations, instrumentalities and physical means. Then it became "ugly". Doctor Tesla politely asked Mister Douglass for the aid of the Freedman's Coalition in fulfilling his father's commitment to fulfill his Frederick Douglass' personal pledge he gave at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1844. To wit, that he, either father or son, would use his influence, good name, and resources to aid in the cause of universal suffrage and civic rights for all Americans no matter of what nationality of origin, race, creed, gender, age, or station in life. Mister Douglass replied that such a fulfillment was nullified by Doctor Tesla's own acts in the recent pass, such as the imposition of corvée labor in the West Virginia coal mines, which currently, Mister Douglass claimed, employed 35,000 Americans of African origin in forced servitude due to trumped-up criminal convictions. He further claimed that Doctor Tesla's acquiescence to this condition was due to her conglomerate's need for and access to "cheap coal" to power the electric ships and power-plants which provided Doctor Tesla with her wealth and station in life. He added, to that charge, that Doctor Tesla was thus personally at fault for the reintroduction of slavery into the United States. Such intemperate language should have provoked a man to physical action, but Doctor Tesla was a woman and thus at a disadvantage to such recourse. Her sole means was words. She used such words and soundly and forthrightly denied the accusations. I was about to put forth as an appendix to her denial, in great detail the true circumstances and fault of the case, when Mister Douglass interrupted me to change the topic about the "Chinese question". He demanded to know why we, meaning the ACME, imported so many hundreds of thousands of Chinese to "take the jobs of the black man". It was at this point, that Lawyer Fraye and I decided that this meeting was at an impasse and we, by common assent, suggested verbally that we should adjourn this discussion and carry out further negotiations by correspondence. This seemed to provoke something in Mister Douglass, because he became most abusive at this point in language and temper. I was about to place me between the man and Doctor Tesla, as I feared for her safety, when I felt the walking stick or rather cane Doctor Tesla uses to aid her slight limp, slide past my waistcoat and poke Mister Douglass about the region of his solar plexus. He went down like a felled oaf; as if punched by a prize-fighter. The body-servant guard, or whatever he was, took a second to adjudge the situation as Doctor Tesla turned to face him down. His words I quote exactly: "Lady, he's drunk. I know I should have stopped this thing, sooner, but he employs me. He does not take advice well, if you know what I mean. I don't know what you did to him, as you had the right to protect yourself, but if I was you, I'd take my "no", pack up my baggage and get out of here. As for Mister Douglass the Elder; he and I go back to the National African American Convention in Rochester. I knew your dad, George Boyer Vashon, from there, kid. Anyway, I got some pull with that old man. I'll tell him what you tried to tell Charles. Mister Douglas will keep his word. Just get out of here before the boys arrive. You know, I got to call them for this?" It was at this moment that Doctor Tesla explained that Mister Douglass had been stunned with a mostly harmless electric shock device, which she only applied in defense of her person. The bodyguard manservant assented to his understanding and suggested that he would concoct the fictional story that Mister Douglass, the younger, had become intoxicated, which was true, and fell down the stairs coming to the kitchen for the "cure", which was false, and knocked himself out. We left at that moment, which was about 11.40 by train time, and skedaddled. The manservant's story was spread about and became the "official truth". We now await, with some trepidation and concern, Mister Frederick Douglass' formal response. Elias Mathew Vashon
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 7:00:18 GMT
The point is not lost about soldiers wanting simple weapons that work. Crozier was not a complete idiot when he rejected the Schmidt-Rubin and the Mannlicher. Have you ever heard of the Reising machine pistol, reader? The delayed blow-back was of a tilting block configuration, which had the bad graces of the surfaces rusting. You had to tear the gun apart into too many finicky pieces to brush the rust off. Then the barrels rusted. It was made of the cheapest carbon steel and not gun metal and not with interchangeable parts. Now those are the same exact problems with the 1892 Springfield made KRAG. ===================================================================================== The quality of a military service weapon is that it must be rugged, simple, easily repairable, easily made, easily supplied and idiot-proof. The reasons for such qualities are obvious. The hazards of war, with its necessary wastage, wear out and attrition of human beings and their machines, emphasize reliability over superiority, numbers over exquisite quality, and usability by average over-stressed human beings as fundamental. The weapon may be a world beater in the lab, but in the actual war, it has to work when Jane Private tries to cycle it in an emergency. For all that the G-3 kicked you in the face, it met those criteria. [a href="For all that the G-3 kicked you in the face, it met those criteria. The M-16 did not. Quod erat demonstrandum. It has to work or you die.
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 7:08:02 GMT
LETTERs Irene Goss Davenport Tesla 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass 3 March 1891 Elias Mathew Vashon for the The Bashon Law Firm PLLC 1634 K Street NW Ste 300, Washington, DC My dear Elias; We are two states short of what we need for a constitutional amendment. You told me, we had Missouri and Kentucky. What happened? Irene Tesla DME for the ACNE BNY Elias Mathew Vashon LLD for the The Bashon Law Firm PLLC 1634 K Street NW Ste 300, Washington, DC 5 March 1891 Irene; The Knights of Saint Andrew is what happened. They control the state legislation in Missouri and the governor in Kentucky. Elias Mathew Vashon LLD for the The Bashon Law Firm PLLC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 1st Ave, Boston, Mass 27 March 1891 To the attention of William Northrop Fraye DL of Fray, Fray and Palmer. LLP C/O Mister Robert Fraye, LLD. CC Mister George Westinghouse 119 Vanderbilt Park Rd, Hyde Park, New York To all of you: We are about to lose the best president we have had since Lincoln, and our best chance to reverse the Great Betrayal and correct the disastrous mistake of 1889. I charge us with the following tasks: 1. Change the mind of the Kentucky governor as to his veto; if that reprobate, Simon Bolivar Buckner^1, will not see reason, then promise the fool we will back him for the Senate on the gold platform he favors. 2. As for Missouri... We have the Klan with which to contend. Frederick Douglass kept his Seneca Pledge. Now we must keep my word to him. Missouri is a start. Get it done, gentlemen. Cleveland will be upon us, soon again, and we must box him in; before he sets us back a generation. Irene Tesla DME for the ACNE BNY ^1 Buckner changed his mind in April 1891. It seems he had a financial problem that he had not handled well. The ACME loaned Kentucky the needed funds to keep a lot of Kentucky politicians out of jail. Buckner was good for it at 8% interest. As for James "Honest Dick" Tate, he was found in the Sacramento River, face up grinning at the sky one year from this date. (FUGATS, a variation on Tugats; which means toes up grinning at the sky as in "He lost his fight, so he is tugats, pardner.")
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Post by Avatar on Oct 23, 2023 7:15:05 GMT
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