Friday, July 12, 2013

1930: Real Lighter

Before the advent of Zippo...

French Lancel lighter
 
Image 2: Hprints
 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

1930: Introducing Dr. Tesla

One of Dr. Tesla's striking experiments
A blare of light produced in a filamentless bulb by wireless power transmitted from a loop carrying terrific currents oscillating eighty million times per second.
 
From Tesla Maps Our Electrical Future by H. Winfield Secor, Science & Invention, April 1930
(read the article on Tesla Universe)

Sunday, June 30, 2013

1930: Real Automatic

In 1923, British watchmaker John Harwood took out a patent for his invention of the self-winding mechanism for the wristwatch.
Using a semicircular weight that rotated 300 degrees and ran into a spring bumper which the wearer could feel, it was known as the "bumper" design. The watch would run for only 12 hours when fully wound and the time was set using the bezel since it didn't have a traditional stem winder. With financial backing he went on to produce many thousands of watches based around his new mechanism but unfortunately due to the British economic depression of the 1920's and 30's, went bust and the Harwood company folded in 1931 allowing other companies to use the design.

Info: Ablogtowatch

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

At the Studio

... мы уселись в смешной автомобильчик Марка и отправились в сторону моего дома – но так и не доехали. Ибо мой любимый водитель после кофе ощутил внезапный прилив сил и собрался в студию, прослушивать материалы. А я увязалась за ним, чтобы начитать на магнитофон очередное упражнение из "Пособия для развития речи".

 

Monday, June 24, 2013

1930: Real Nollendorfplatz, Berlin

Erwin Piscator entering the 'Nollendorf theater'
Berlin, 1929
by Sasha Stone


Nollendorfplatz, 1931
Above, centre: Neue Schauspielhaus, home of Piscator-Bühne

Images: Real Life is Elsewhere (1), PROMT (2)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

June 22 Demotivational

This perfidious aggression against our country is a treachery without precedent in the history of civilized nations...

Image used: Muscovites listening to Molotov's radio address on the first day of German invasion.
June 22, 1941
Photographer: Evgeny Haldey
TASS Photo

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

1930: Introducing Émile Borel

Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (1871 – 1956) was a French mathematician and politician. He was among the pioneers of measure theory and its application to probability theory. The concept of a Borel set is named in his honor. One of his books on probability introduced the amusing thought experiment that entered popular culture under the name "infinite monkey theorem" or the like. He also published a series of papers (1921–27) that first defined games of strategy.
In the Strangers' World (1930), a paper published by Borel in early 1921 literally changed the course of history, preventing the Entente from some unwise steps and saving Germany from hyperinflation.

И еще немного досужих слов. На сей раз - именно об альтернативной истории.
 
Все произведения этого жанра можно условно разделить на три категории. "Как было бы ужасно, если...", "Как было бы прекрасно, если..." и "Давайте просто посмотрим, что было бы, если..." Третья - самая малочисленная. И самая трудная для авторов, по нашему скромному мнению.
Принято думать, будто альтернативной историей занимаются лишь те, кто недоволен сегодняшним днем. В действительности круг гораздо шире. Более того, мораль нескольких весьма известных сочинений (см. "Демон истории" С. Гансовского, Making History Стивена Фрая, 11 22 63 Стивена Кинга) можно свести к следующему: "Не вздумай менять историю, хуже будет!" Альтернативно-историческое произведение может написать самый закоренелый детерминист - для того, чтобы продемонстрировать торжество детерминизма.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Monday, June 17, 2013

1930: Real Junkers

The Adler, featured in our new project, is based on the real Junkers S 36 high-altitude mailplane, the one and only twin-engine aircraft designed under direction of Prof. Hugo Junkers. In OTL, the prototype was taken to Sweden, where it was militarised and re-designated as K 37. In the Strangers' World, the S.36 was bought by Deutsche Lufthansa and modernized for a long-range Transarctic flight.

Junkers S 36 at Heston, July 1929
(Flight magazine)

See also: Demotivational Junkers

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Say Cheese!

In 1971, Eva and Mark went to Crete to spend some time together. They loved local cuisine - all those salads and cheeses, accompanied with a bottle of artisan wine or fruit brandy...

 
Домашнее вино наливали в кувшины прямо из бочки, а салаты – великое множество мелко нарезанных салатов, щедро сдобренных оливковым маслом, в белых фаянсовых мисочках, – появлялись перед нами как по волшебству.