Difference between revisions of "ATD 296-317"

Revision as of 17:26, 20 December 2006

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.

Page 296

Rodgers Brothers
???

Mescalero
???

Timken springs
Henry Timken was a carriage maker who held three patents for carriage springs in the 1890’s. He founded his company, The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company, in St. Louis in 1899. He also invented the tapered roller bearings which bear his name and were used in the hubs of carriages and automobiles. The company still exists and Timken roller bearing are used today in a number if diverse industries including spacecraft. Oddly enough (maybe not so odd considering Pynchon), the modern day Timken company created for the Bosch Group (See the note above for “Hieronymous wheel” on page 292) a process to produce a high alloy steel that could easily be machined to make trucks parts.

Basin
???

Page 297

Pandora works
???

adits
Underground mine with a horizontal entrance. Wikipedia

tommyknockers
Mythical mine dwellers, originally part of European legend, introduced to America by European miners. The name "tommyknockers" comes from Cornish mining lore. According to legend the tommyknockers are underground spirits who guard the earth's ores, especially gold and silver. Tommyknockers were known for mischief, pranks, jokes, and being highly spirited. "Knockers" comes from knocking sounds heard in mines that were attributed to their antics. They are tiny characters who dress like little miners and perform many mining duties while underground working alongside miners. BLM Website

Page 298

duendes
Spanish for goblins, trolls or leprechauns, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende.

Page 299

matte-surface
Not shiny.

"...Sunday-morning voice..."
???

Page 300

"somthin tattooed on my head"
Cf. Queequeg's tattoos in Moby-Dick, Ch. 3 and passim.

fragment of time
Sparks move faster than shutter.

collodion
Toxic chemical used both in early photography and explosives manufacturing. Wikipedia

Page 301

squareheads
Scandinavians, especially Swedes, are sometimes referred to as squareheads. In HBO's Deadwood, for example, the orphaned girl Sophia (whose Scandinavian family migrated from Minnesota) is the squarehead girl.

Page 302

ghost bison
The American Buffalo was nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century. Wikipedia

Gallows Frame Saloon
???

fathom miners
???

remittance men
Black sheep paid regularly by families to stay away.

Page 303

Circassian walnut
???

Charlie Fong Ding
???

congress... congregation
Two vs more-than-two at a time?

California Peg
???

sous-maitresse
???

Grundyesque
???

Popcorn Alley
???

hurdy girl
???

Pick and Gad
???

Page 304

civil war and White Terror
???

Page 305

"The Shooting of Dan McGrew"
1907 poem by Canadian poet Robert Service, so anachronistic here. etext

ruffled doves
A/k/a "soiled doves," a Western term for prostitutes.

Stephen Emmens
???

"argentaurum"
???

nymph's mirror
???

Schieferspath
???

superstitious Scotchman
???

Page 306

grown brighter
???

gold... silver
???

rhomboid
???

Veta Madre
???

Page 307

Lyman Gage
???

like a kettle coming to a boil
???

stopes
???

Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Named after the Swiss philosopher and naturalist, Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), who first described a syndrome in which visually-impaired people see vivid, complex images that aren't real. CBS is thought to result from visual deprivation, and commonly occurs in sufferers of macular degeneration and other impairments of the eyes. Importantly, CBS does not (clinically, cannot) result from any type of psychosis or dementia. Thus, those who experience CBS are otherwise "normal" people.

Remarkably, CBS is characterized often by bizarre and grotesque images: ghosts, elves, sprites, cartoon-like figures, disembodies faces, magical landscapes. According to Cliff Pickover, author of Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves (Smart Publications, 2005), "people affflicted with certain eye diseases give similar reports of beings from parallel universes." Royal National Institute of the Blind Dr. Cliff Pickover Comments Wikipedia Wikipedia entry on Bonnet --Jmanmiami 09:10, 1 December 2006 (PST)

Puckpool
???

Page 308

macular degeneration
Degeneration of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for the sharp, central vision needed to read or drive. A leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people aged 65 and older.

Page 309

Old Gideon
???

A.T. Still
???

Page 310

Jefe
Chief (Spanish).

Page 311

mind-poisoning vetches
???

Edgar Hadley
???

Margaret Perril
???

blood diverted from its return
Accurate but odd?

Trout Lake
???

Page 313

tridigital
Three fingers (measure of liquor).

packer's knife
???

Page 314

Dutch Waltz
???

centrifugal
Pulling away from center.

Page 315

Railbird Saloon
???

Gastón Villa
???

cholo balls
???

charro
???

Galandronome
A type of bassoon developed by French instrument maker Galander in the mid-19th century.

Battle of Puebla
???

Page 316

Ophir road
???

wraith
(Was she nearby at this moment?)

Page 317

backward departure
No way to turn engine?

abrazos
???

Annotation Index