Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 397-428

2006-12-12T03:38:30Z

Wasabe3543: /* Page 412 */

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 409==

'''Asimov Transecular''' 
Interesting to find one of Isaac Asimov's time travel machines on the pile of "picked-over hulks of failed time machines." Of course, it would have to have been deposited there from some time in the future.

to transecular adj "that is made through the centuries" (Portuguese)

==Page 412==
'''young Einstein''' 
Perhaps a reference to the 1988 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Einstein movie] of the same name. At the time of the F.I.C.O.T.T. (1895 at the earliest), Einstein would have already published "[http://www.worldscibooks.com/phy_etextbook/4454/4454_chap1.pdf The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields]." Ironically, Einstein's special theory of relativity would later essentially invalidate theories of luminiferous aether.

ATD 397-428

2006-12-12T03:29:38Z

Wasabe3543: young einstein, p.412

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 409==

'''Asimov Transecular''' 
Interesting to find one of Isaac Asimov's time travel machines on the pile of "picked-over hulks of failed time machines." Of course, it would have to have been deposited there from some time in the future.

to transecular adj "that is made through the centuries" (Portuguese)

==Page 412==
'''young Einstein'''
Perhaps a reference to the 1988 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Einstein movie] of the same name. At the time of the F.I.C.O.T.T. (1895 at the earliest), Einstein would have already published "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields." Ironically, Einstein's special theory of relativity would later essentially invalidate theories of luminiferous aether.

ATD 219-242

2006-11-29T16:30:57Z

Wasabe3543: /* Page 237 */

==Page 222==

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really.

==Page 236==

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia.

==Page 237==

'''Hebrew letter Shin- sign''' 
"This person greeted the Cohen by raising his left hand, then spreading the fingers two and two away from the thumb so as to form the Hebrew letter ''shin'', signifying the initial letter of one of the pre-Mosaic (that is, plural) names of God, which may never be spoken.

" 'Basically wishing long life and prosperity,' explained the Choen, answering with the same gesture"
 
compare with the following from M&D 485: 
Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.' " 
So is there connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris"? and these backwoods Kabbalists? 
Obvious connects with Star Trek's Vulcan greeting and with Leonard Nimoy's jewish faith.

Substitute conscripts during the American Civil War

2006-11-28T18:22:29Z

Wasabe3543:

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), an exceedingly low number (2%) of those who fought had actually been conscripted by the federal (Union) government. This was primarily due to three reasons: substitution, the hiring of someone else to go and fight in one's stead; commutation, paying a fee in order to avoid fighting; and the paying of enlistment bounties to "volunteers," who made up the majority (92%) of the Union Army. On page 100ff of ''Against the Day'', Foley Walker tells the story of how he and Scarsdale Vibe became acquaintances: Walker was hired to be Vibe's substitute conscript, and he later sought out Vibe because he felt that - as someone who had technically saved Vibe's life - he was responsible for Vibes, as per the Indian tradition.

According to Perri,

<blockquote>One could furnish a substitute and avoid service for three years in all four drafts. In the first draft, one could pay a $300 commutation fee and be excused from service for three years. In the second draft, commutation bought one out of service only for that draft. In July 1864, Lincoln signed a bill eliminating commutation except for conscientious objectors. Effectively commutation ended after the second draft (see Table One). Until February 24, 1864, a substitute could come from those who were enrolled; after this date, a substitute could only come from those exempt from military service. Thus, for the last three drafts, substitutes consisted of those under age 20, honorably discharged veterans with two or more years of service, alien residents, and (later) black citizens.</blockquote>

===References===
[http://www.appstate.edu/~perritj/CWC.pdf Timothy J. Perri, Professor of Economics, Appalachian State University, Boone ''The Economics of US Civil War Conscription'']

[[Category:ATD]]

Substitute conscripts during the American Civil War

2006-11-28T18:19:55Z

Wasabe3543: created article

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), an exceedingly low number (2%) of those who fought had actually been conscripted by the federal (Union) government. This was primarily due to three reasons: substitution, the hiring of someone else to go and fight in one's stead; commutation, paying a fee in order to avoid fighting; and the paying of bounties to "volunteers," who made up the majority (92%) of the Union Army. On page 100ff of ''Against the Day'', Foley Walker tells the story of how he and Scarsdale Vibe became acquaintances: Walker was hired to be Vibe's substitute conscript, and he later sought out Vibe because he felt that - as someone who had technically saved Vibe's life - he was responsible for Vibes, as per the Indian tradition.

According to Perri,

<blockquote>One could furnish a substitute and avoid service for three years in all four drafts. In the first draft, one could pay a $300 commutation fee and be excused from service for three years. In the second draft, commutation bought one out of service only for that draft. In July 1864, Lincoln signed a bill eliminating commutation except for conscientious objectors. Effectively commutation ended after the second draft (see Table One). Until February 24, 1864, a substitute could come from those who were enrolled; after this date, a substitute could only come from those exempt from military service. Thus, for the last three drafts, substitutes consisted of those under age 20, honorably discharged veterans with two or more years of service, alien residents, and (later) black citizens.</blockquote>

===References===
[http://www.appstate.edu/~perritj/CWC.pdf Timothy J. Perri, Professor of Economics, Appalachian State University, Boone ''The Economics of US Civil War Conscription'']

[[Category:ATD]]

W

2006-11-25T21:58:27Z

Wasabe3543:

'''Wackett Punches''' 
53; used to quiet cattle or horses

'''Wagwheel, Tansy''' 
178;

'''Walker, Foley''' 
31; special assistant to Scarsdale Vibe, 99; substitute conscript for Vibes during the Civil War, subsequently taking a bullet to the head, which gives him the ability to hear "communications from far, far away," 100ff; 156; 330-333; "righteous men who believed it was God they heard whispering" 334; in Göttingen, 619;

'''Wall o' Death''' 
476; town in Missouri

'''Wall of Death''' 
184;

'''Wardenclyffe''' 
326; on Long Island, where Tesla built his Tower

'''Washoe process''' 
375;

'''Wave functions''' 
426; 536;

'''Waziri's from Waziristan''' 
23;

'''Weedon''' 
495; at Cambridge

'''Weierstrass, Karl (1815-1897)''' 
500; a German mathematician who is often cited as the "father of modern analysis"; Weierstrass functions, 594; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Weierstrass Wikipedia entry]

'''Wells, Buck''' 
179; "mine manager and cavalry commander at Telluride"

'''Wells, H. G.''' 
398; 407; 412;

'''Wensleydale''' 
37; confronts Baslight

'''Werfner, Dr.''' 
226; Renfrew's "opposite number"; 499; 602; 680; 719;

'''Western Reserve''' 
59; in Ohio

'''Whiskey Hill''' 
60; in Cleveland; 62;

'''Whistler''' 
578;

'''Whitechapel''' 
678; Whitechapel is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It is a built-up inner city district located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Hanbury Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and Commercial Road on the south. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper Jack the Ripper], the unidentified serial killer (or killers), was active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of London in the latter half of 1888. The name "Jack the Ripper" is taken from a letter to the Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer, published at the time of the killings; Rippercetta, 680; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel Wikipedia entry]]

'''White City, The''' 
[[Image:whitecity.jpg|thumb|The White City, Chicago, 1893|right]]3; Costing over a half billion in today's dollars and covering 686 acres, the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and Fair in Chicago was a grand sight to its 27 million visitors -- a planned layout of large, classically inspired buildings (what we now call the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaux-Arts_architecture Beaux Arts] style) all built on the same scale and all painted white -- hence, the nickname of "The White City." And within and around those white buildings was the most amazing display of 65,000 exhibits depicting (to quote the Exposition promoters) "all of the highest and best achievements of modern civilization; all that was strange, beautiful, artistic, and inspiring; a vast and wonderful university of the arts and sciences, teaching a noble lesson in history, art, science, discovery and invention, designed to stimulate the youth of this and future generations to greater and more heroic endeavor." 10; 36; Dally think about, in Chicago, 336; [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html More from the "Encyclopedia of Chicago"]

'''White City Investigations''' 
36;

'''Whitehall''' 
444; Whitehall is a road in Westminster in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, centre of national government, towards the traditional Charing Cross, now at the southern end of Trafalgar Square and marked by the statue of Charles I, which is often regarded as the heart of London for its residents and tourists. Along its way it is lined by many government ministries; "Whitehall" is therefore also frequently used as a metonym for governmental administration, as well as being a geographic name for the surrounding district; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall Wikipedia entry]

'''White Wings''' 
150;

'''Whittaker, Edmund''' 
542; English mathematician;

'''Wilde, Oscar''' 
185; 536;

'''Wilhelm''' 
543;

'''Wilhelmstrausse''' 
686; 690;

'''Williams and Walker''' 
344; "coon review"; Bert Williams and George Walker, in the first decade of the twentieth century, became the most famous black entertainers in the world. They had teamed up in California in 1893, came to New York in 1896 as "Two Real Coons," and two years later were making a dance called the cakewalk all the rage. Williams and Walker, as they were then known, made American theatrical history by bringing the first black musical, In Dahomey, to Broadway in 1902.

'''Windy City''' 
3; aka Chicago the origins of the nickname are in dispute and they are explored in this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City%2C_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago) Wikipedia entry].

'''Woevre, Piet''' 
540; formerly of the Force Publique; 558;

'''Wolf-Ferrari''' 
512;

'''Wordsworth''' 
535'

'''''Workers' Own Songbook''''' 
49;

'''World-System''' 
33; Tesla's free power; [[Tesla's_World_System|Read Tesla's "World System of Wireless Transmission of Energy"]]

'''World War I''' 
578;

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 57-80

2006-11-25T05:05:00Z

Wasabe3543: /* Page 58 */

==Page 58==

'''Michelson-Morley experiment''' 
The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Wikipedia entry]

'''[[T%C3%B6pler_influence_machine|Töpler influence machine]]'''
A machine for producing electrical charges.

==Page 60==

'''Roswell Bounce''' 
The mentions of cosmic space, balloons, a US Bureau "in charge of reporting," and his occupation as a photograper seem to allude to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, an alleged alien crash that the US government insisted was a downed weather balloon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident Wikipedia entry]

==Page 61==

'''"Somehow Merle got the idea in his head that the MIchelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky Morgan manhunt were connected."''' 
Vaguely recalls the use of John Dillinger in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (741), insofar as they both read a surprising amount of metaphysical meaning into the death or final apprehension of a notorious criminal.

==Page 63==

'''O.D. Chandrasekhar''' 
Perhaps a nod to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the Chandrasekhar Limit which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun.

Töpler influence machine

2006-11-25T02:40:02Z

Wasabe3543: /* References */

The '''Töpler influence machine''' is a type of electrical machine created by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Toepler August J. I. Töpler] in 1865. In general, an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_machine influence machine] produces an electrical charge by electrostatic induction, usually between two or more glass plates.

Töpler's machine contained two disks rotating in one direction on a shaft; electrical charges created by the disks could then be stored in, e.g., a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar Leyden jar].

The machine is mentioned on page 58 of ''Against the Day'', when Professor Vanderjuice "having just emerged from another of the laboratory mishaps for which he was widely known" says to Merle Rideout " 'Small confrontation with the Töpler influence machine, nothing to worry about.' "

===References===
[http://www.sparkmuseum.com/FRICTION.HTM Electric Machines: (Electrostatic Electricity Generators)] 
[http://www.scientiques.com/antique_electrical_instruments.htm Antique scientific instruments, antique microscopes, calculators, engineering models and laboratory apparatus] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_machine Influence machine]

[[Category:ATD]]

Töpler influence machine

2006-11-25T02:38:34Z

Wasabe3543:

The '''Töpler influence machine''' is a type of electrical machine created by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Toepler August J. I. Töpler] in 1865. In general, an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_machine influence machine] produces an electrical charge by electrostatic induction, usually between two or more glass plates.

Töpler's machine contained two disks rotating in one direction on a shaft; electrical charges created by the disks could then be stored in, e.g., a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar Leyden jar].

The machine is mentioned on page 58 of ''Against the Day'', when Professor Vanderjuice "having just emerged from another of the laboratory mishaps for which he was widely known" says to Merle Rideout " 'Small confrontation with the Töpler influence machine, nothing to worry about.' "

===References===
[http://www.sparkmuseum.com/FRICTION.HTM Electric Machines: (Electrostatic Electricity Generators)]
[http://www.scientiques.com/antique_electrical_instruments.htm Antique scientific instruments, antique microscopes, calculators, engineering
models and laboratory apparatus]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_machine Influence machine]

[[Category:ATD]]