Thunder and Lightning.

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 11, 2023 8:16:16 GMT

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 11, 2023 8:16:16 GMT

This "person" missed the force carrier (photon as the quantum) actions in wireless power transmission. Remember in 1891, that Tesla and Brush and the people playing around with electricity, who were mechanical engineers, did not understand that it was a part of the same physics as LIGHT. The mechanical geniuses, such as Tesla and Marconi, and to a much lesser extent, Brush and Westinghouse, all classically trained to think in terms of particles, misunderstood that this "particle" interaction was not a particle at all as is classically mistaught, but is a local excitation in the electromagnetic field, a "point" of probable influence which interacts with electrons and protons, via and through the electromagnetic field.

Thus, transmission of the "electric information / influence / charge" cannot be constrained or interacted, except by a charge barrier effect of another. It, that influence, can be sent across an interval, collected and potentially gated in discrete quantities, from the all pervasive electromagnetic field by appaatii which we now call transmitters and receivers which send that information as waves of potential through the field to impinge on some local interaction at some future time.

Quantum mechanics is hard to describe without mathematics. Trust me on this, it is potentials and probabilities, not particles, which is why your cell phone works through sheet-rock, and glass, but not through a sheet of constrained charge conductor like aluminum or steel, though a ROD of such material can collect such potential and induce an electric current through it that we can discriminate and modulate and therefore turn into a message we can hear and read.

By October 1891, three human beings in this timeline, who did not understand the exact mechanisms, had achieved a crude form of this transception in readable form and knew there was a charge barrier or "mirror" over their heads.

"The farmer in his field sees the pigeon fly across the waters".

Now could Marconi keep his big fat mouth shut?

Note the canal? Marconi got the message.

Last Edit: Jul 11, 2023 9:18:42 GMT by miletus12

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 12, 2023 14:06:46 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 12, 2023 14:06:46 GMT

The Itata Incident.

This is compounded by the imbecile captain of the USS Baltimore.

“LOOKS LIKE A CHILEAN WAR”: THE BALTIMORE INCIDENT AS COUNTERFACTUAL EXERCISEOCTOBER 22, 2015 GUEST AUTHOR 3 COMMENTS

Alternate History Topic Week

By Thomas Jamison

On October 16th 1891, a group of USS Baltimore sailors, no doubt happy to have liberty after months at sea, set off to enjoy the delights of Valparaiso, Chile. After several hours (of, let’s be honest, presumably heavy drinking), a scuffle broke out between local Chileans and the American crew. The ensuing violence left two U.S. sailors dead, seventeen injured and a hemispheric relationship in tatters. Unable to resolve the issue locally, the USS Baltimore’s commander telegraphed Washington for instructions. The Chileans, meanwhile, held fast to their jurisdiction over the U.S. personnel, and the investigative proceedings more broadly, as a matter of national sovereignty. From these humble sparks came a war crisis over hemispheric leadership and the relative standing of the United States as a “great power.”

To date, scholars have tended to underestimate the Baltimore Incident as “a mere tempest in a teapot,” or at best a signpost en route to the War of 1898. That the crisis has inspired relatively little comment in English literature should obscure neither its significance to contemporaries nor its enduring relevance to strategic planners. Indeed, the Baltimore Incident might better be understood as an acute manifestation of the larger, chronic competition between the United States and Chile over regional autonomy and control. When, in 1891, Chilean leaders provoked a confrontation with the U.S, they sought political advantage from the crisis (at a domestic and international level) and had good reason to be optimistic. Chile had used its maritime forces and commercial partnerships to defeat Spain (1866), Peru (1884) and to overawe the United States into diplomatic concessions in 1882, 1885 and 1888. By 1891, however, the realities of power-politics in the American Pacific had shifted dramatically. In the United States imperialist sentiment, domestic military production and a dedicated navalist lobby all underwrote a newfound bellicosity and assertiveness. Opinion in Washington held that Chilean regional primacy represented a substantial threat to American expansionism and, moreover, the self-image of the United States in the “great power” system. National “honor” was no idle phrase in the Harrison administration.

At this 1891 juncture for the “dominant position in the Western Hemisphere,” war seemed likely, perhaps even inevitable. As The New York Times reported on Christmas Day 1891: “Looks like a Chilean War, Little Hope Now of a Peaceful Settlement.” Nonetheless, and to the chagrin of many, hostilities were averted in late January 1892 when Chile acceded to U.S. demands. The tantalizing question remains, what might have been? What if the United States and Chile went to War in 1890? What ramifications would conflict have had for the U.S. emergence in the great power system? And as long as we’re entertaining counterfactuals, what might defeat at the hands of “little Chili” have spelled for navalist ambitions and the U.S. role in South America?

The United States, Chile and the Pacific at the Fin-De-Siècle Such an outcome was hardly a remote possibility. In 1884, Chile emerged from the War of the Pacific (its territorial struggle with Peru and Bolivia over nitrate deposits), as the dominant naval power in the Pacific. That result seems as incredible today as it was obvious to contemporary observes. Secretary of the Navy John Long complained that in the 1880s, “the American Navy was inferior to that of any European and at least one South American power. Little Chile, triumphant over Peru, could have sent her Admiral Cochrane and Huascar against San Francisco and the United States would have been unable to repel them.” Likewise, the prize winning essay of the U.S. Naval Institute in 1884 lamented, “in our present condition, Brazil, Chili or the Argentine Republic might send a fleet of ironclads to devastate our seaport cities.” Overseas, in 1881, the London Standard noted (smugly, but with little exaggeration), “The American Navy, if not a phantom fleet, would certainly find it difficult to compete successfully with the Chilean fleet.”

Those observations reflected the scope of Chile’s investment in naval supremacy along the Pacific Slope in the 1880s and 90s. Chilean President Jose Manuel Balmaceda argued in 1891: Chile should be able to resist on its own territory any possible coalition, and if it cannot succeed in attaining the naval power of the great powers, it should at least prove, on the base of a secure port and a fleet proportionate to its resources, that there is no possible profit in starting a war against the Republic of Chile. Resources were appropriated accordingly and with some notable success. The most prolific Chilean naval historian estimated that (in absolute terms) the “peak of Chilean naval power was in 1899.” In 1882 Chile rebuffed—rudely—U.S. attempts to mediate an end to the War of the Pacific. In 1885, it countered U.S. incursions against the Colombians by deploying a gunboat to Panama. Most tangibly, in 1888 Chile annexed Easter Island as a symbol of its hemispheric stature and, more practically, a strategic (coaling/early warning) asset. By 1894, in a revealing detail, Santiago even began to export surplus warships to Japan.

Of the Pacific’s many foreign observes, none eyed Chile’s position with more concern than the United States. The central U.S. political objectives of the late nineteenth century were hemispheric expansion and the development of overseas markets, primarily in Asia—what Seward called “the chief theater of events in the world’s great hereafter.” Both efforts were contingent on an Isthmian Canal and/or sea lines of communication around South America, which in practice pushed the U.S. toward a policy of hemispheric hegemony. Andrew Carnegie captured the spirit of the age in 1882 when he wrote to then Secretary of State James Blaine, “You are exactly right. America is going to control anything and everything on this Continent. That’s settled. . . . No joint arrangements, no entangling alliances with monarchical, war-like Europe. America will take this Continent in hand alone.” In such an environment of imperial ascendancy (U.S.) and regional resistance (Chile), the Baltimore Incident, or some similar provocation, was almost inevitable.

By December 1891, institutional and political incentives had pushed the would-be belligerents to the “ragged edge” of war. That month, as a U.S. task force transited toward South America, the USS Baltimore was replaced on station by the USS Yorktown, commanded by “Fighting Bob” Evans (an officer who could calmly confide in his journal, “I cannot see any good reason why I should not be perfectly civil and polite to [the Chileans], even if I have to shoot them tomorrow.”) Relations deteriorated further when, on New Year’s Eve 1891, the Chileans provocatively fired rockets in the Yorktown’s vicinity, and days later—some sources say —conducted torpedo drills using the U.S. vessel as a notional target. “Fighting Bob” Evans, surveying the scene from the Yorktown was typically blunt, “I don’t see how war can now be avoided.”

Waging War with “Little Chili” Bombast and hindsight aside, if it came to war between the U.S. and Chile the outcome remained highly contingent. U.S. navalist pretensions belied a central irony of the crisis. American leaders managed to assert that Chile was simultaneously a real threat to U.S. regional hegemony and that it would be relatively easy to defeat in an offensive war. That dissonance spoke to the larger uncertainty about the balance of power in the Pacific. Perceptions of Chilean naval expansion had helped spur U.S. naval expansion in the 1880s, but in 1891 U.S. forces remained relatively limited, and decidedly untested. Tracy, for one, was shocked to learn that “the best American naval expeditionary force which could be mustered at this time numbered scarcely twenty warships.” Moreover, many of these ships teetered on obsolescence. As the Naval Historian Timothy Wolters convincingly documented, in the 1890s:

Naval recapitalization in the United States lagged well behind political debates over, and public perceptions of, the new American navy. Intriguingly, the data show that immediately prior to the country’s war with Spain in 1898, the old navy still consumed about one-third of the navy’s fiscal resources, contributed three-sevenths of the service’s aggregate tonnage, and accounted for just over half of all vessels in the navy’s inventory.

The gap between perception and capability bred miscalculation. Establishing a clear balance of “real power” from which to base strategic planning was frustratingly imprecise.

That was all the more true because naval assessments at the fin-de-siècle were complicated by recent and largely untested developments in naval technology. Innovations in naval architecture (low-freeboard, armored warships; rapid firing guns) and the application of second industrial revolution technologies (electric firing systems; navigational aids; armor piercing shells) rendered traditional assessments of naval efficacy unsure. Chile’s fleet of torpedo boats, for example, presented a novel form of power in the Pacific. It was widely noted that during the Chilean Civil War, the Balmacedist navy had become the first in history to successfully use a propelled “automobile” torpedo to sink another warship. What impact these new weapons might have on the ability of the Chilean’s to defend their coast against aggression was hotly debated.

Complicating matters further were geographic realities that hampered U.S. deployments and ensnared military preparations with European shipyards. The Peruvian minister in Washington, Jose Yrigoyen, appreciated as much, cabling his government to describe “the difficulties the [U.S.] squadron will have in a war with Chile.” Without “coaling station in the Pacific,” he argued perceptibly, the U.S. ships would be forced to ferry coal from San Francisco, a “difficult task, above all if Chile dedicates a few of its ships to capturing this important element of the American squadron.” These geographic challenges injected a sobering realism into the United States’ preparations for war. No less than Mahan wrote, “we are so confident in our bigness and so little realize the great extra load entailed by the distance of Chili, in case of war.” Relatedly, in the winter of 1891, Chile retained the services of a British shipyard for additional ship construction over the objections of the Harrison administration. How the interruption of global supply lines via an Atlantic guerre de course might effect power projection in the Southern Hemisphere defied clear assessment. All this is to say, the war was hardly a foregone conclusion.

Indeed—looking forward to the 1905 Russo-Japanese War—we might even speculate about the use of torpedoes to asymmetrically attack U.S. capital ships (that is to apply a key innovation in second industrial revolution technology to obviate investments in steel, ships, guns etc…). The New York Times certainly did, arguing that “Naval constructors who advocate and powers that have adopted the policy of building larger and larger war ships with constantly- increasing thickness of armor will devote much study and sober thought to [Chile’s] first decisive exhibition of the effectiveness of the automobile torpedo in actual warfare.” Distance, new weapons systems and interruptible lines of communication all suggested that the United States might have fared no better than Spain had a generation (1866-72) earlier in its unsuccessful war with Peru and Chile (one which ended with the Spanish commander committing suicide to avoid humiliation).

If Chile had defeated the United States in a limited regional war, it might have proved a a major setback for Tracy, Mahan and the like. It would likely have undermined U.S. stature in the great power system and elevated Chile on a par with, say, Japan. Indeed in the same way that Russian defeat in 1905 saw it recast as backwards, U.S. defeat might have seriously altered the time, place and manner in which it entered into the European great power system. It might also have seen Chile, backed by a commercial relationship with Great Britain, double-down on its program of navalist expansion and develop into a long-term regional competitor with the United States. It might even have encouraged Santiago to follow up on its territorial annexations (in the Atacama and Easter Island) to become a regional hegemon in its own right.

Conclusion

The resolution of the Baltimore Incident is at once a case study in crisis management and a cautionary tale of military and civilian leaders using war to advance their institutional interests. It is an equally useful reminder (and perhaps necessary corrective) of the limits of U.S. hemispheric control before 1890, and of the speed of the imperial-navalist transformation by 1898. The offensive capabilities of the United States morphed from a near-peer competitor with Chile in the 1880s into those of a global power in under a generation. In this sense, the Baltimore Incident is a window onto the United States “adapting to the status of a world power” amid a period of technological change and imperial rivalry. The great diplomatic historian Ernest May argued that the United States became “a world power in many respects comparable to Great Britain or Russia or Imperial Germany” after the War of 1898. Looking back a decade, the Baltimore Incident marks an important precedent in a longer process of ascendancy. Considering alternative outcomes (namely defeat) further reminds us of that ascendancy’s contingent nature. As a nomological exercise, the Baltimore Incident suggests a raft conclusions. Namely, that regional actors often resist imperial hegemony in order to secure domestic cohesion; that military bureaucracies incentivize the militarization of foreign policy; and that technological progress can rapidly destabilize the balance of power, encouraging misperceptions and bellicosity. These tendencies belong as much to the twenty first century as they do the nineteenth. Parallels between the Baltimore Incident and recent Sino-Japanese tensions, to name one possible example, are almost irresistible. Consider in this analogy China as the Harrisonian United States and Japan as Chile; supported then, as now, by the world’s leading commercial power. It is conceivable, as in 1891, that a minor incident, like an attack on a foreign owned business, could encourage nationalist posturing in Beijing as a means to (1) rally domestic support, (2) advance the interests of recapitalizing military forces (a process ongoing in both China and Japan), and (3) assert regional primacy. That possibility should be especially concerning because of the comparative proximity of China and Japan and the profound uncertainties created by the militarization of digital technology. A critical perspective on the Baltimore Incident should sensitize policymakers to this relevant, but under-appreciated war scare. It should also reinforce the imperative of clear assessments of power as a tool for conflict mitigation amid the exaggerations of modern-day nationalism.

Tommy Jamison is a PhD candidate in International History at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2014 he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. The views expressed here are his own.

LETTER:

47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
1 November 1891

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.

I write you to remind you, sir, that half of the copper that we use to pursue our modernization and progress within this country as to electrification and industrialization comes from the Chilean copper mines in the Atacama
region. See enclosed map.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.620edc9a3d43f830f8e81ae780b7a3cc?rik=EUmjEGk4ouWmOQ&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geofisica.cl%2fmineria-chile.JPG&ehk=TQ1ScL%2fBJGDAFTjCPiCRleDJgIPNMLIJxDO3mnnDyn0%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

The Chileans have a bigger navy than ours and a better one at the moment. Do we really want to escalate this incident and endanger the progress we make for and within this country?

Irene Tesla, DME.
BNY

Last Edit: Jul 12, 2023 23:08:38 GMT by miletus12

575
Captain

There is no Purgatory for warcriminals - they go directly to Hell!

Posts: 2,730

Likes: 4,107

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 12, 2023 22:04:38 GMT

Quote

Post by 575 on Jul 12, 2023 22:04:38 GMT

Jul 11, 2023 8:16:16 GMT miletus12 said:

This "person" missed the force carrier (photon as the quantum) actions in wireless power transmission. Remember in 1891, that Tesla and Brush and the people playing around with electricity, who were mechanical engineers, did not understand that it was a part of the same physics as LIGHT. The mechanical geniuses, such as Tesla and Marconi, and to a much lesser extent, Brush and Westinghouse, all classically trained to think in terms of particles, misunderstood that this "particle" interaction was not a particle at all as is classically mistaught, but is a local excitation in the electromagnetic field, a "point" of probable influence which interacts with electrons and protons, via and through the electromagnetic field.

Thus, transmission of the "electric information / influence / charge" cannot be constrained or interacted, except by a charge barrier effect of another. It, that influence, can be sent across an interval, collected and potentially gated in discrete quantities, from the all pervasive electromagnetic field by appaatii which we now call transmitters and receivers which send that information as waves of potential through the field to impinge on some local interaction at some future time.

Quantum mechanics is hard to describe without mathematics. Trust me on this, it is potentials and probabilities, not particles, which is why your cell phone works through sheet-rock, and glass, but not through a sheet of constrained charge conductor like aluminum or steel, though a ROD of such material can collect such potential and induce an electric current through it that we can discriminate and modulate and therefore turn into a message we can hear and read.

By October 1891, three human beings in this timeline, who did not understand the exact mechanisms, had achieved a crude form of this transception in readable form and knew there was a charge barrier or "mirror" over their heads.

"The farmer in his field sees the pigeon fly across the waters".

Now could Marconi keep his big fat mouth shut?

Note the canal? Marconi got the message.

The adding of text etc made the post much easier to understand.

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 12, 2023 22:46:38 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 12, 2023 22:46:38 GMT

Jul 12, 2023 22:04:38 GMT 575 said:

The adding of text etc. made the post much easier to understand.

I neglected to make clear that the fermion charge lattice (The plasma shell in the upper atmosphere), which surrounds the earth (ionosphere) is one, and for that omission I apologize.

The other concept that I would like you to keep in mind is "refraction" and its special sub-condition, which is reflection. Both physics conditions are charge exclusion or rejection conditions that alter a boson pathway through and across an interval. A crude analogy is to think of charge rejection of photons as akin to magnets of the same charge (+ or -) which reject each other (left hand spin or right hand spin of the excitations or "probabilities".) as the fermion with which they attempt to inform or interact is "full". That is not to say that two "photons" cannot be in the same excitation state and time along the wave, but there cannot be two fermion (proton or electron for example) excitations or points at the same time and location in the electromagnetic field to pick up the information the two photons carry to it. If you create two such photon points and yours interacts first, you exclude someone else's attempts to create such points and interact; or at least you locally "see" and transmit-receive the information as such in your detector aerial antenna sensor. The two sets of photons' excitations are there, but one set cannot deposit information at the aerial antenna sensor. That set of information has been "jammed" or refracted.

I know, clear as mud, but if you try to use your eyes as sensors and have someone shine a powerful flashlight at you; then you will "see" signal washout and lose the light signals (photons) of the scenery around that central source glare. That glare is the "jamming effect" across the frequencies of visible light waves that you are not getting because the flashlight emitted photons have preoccupied the information slots available within your eyes in a peculiar boson/fermion example of the Pauli-exclusion principle.

That "glare" will become story important in the future.

Last Edit: Jul 12, 2023 23:16:32 GMT by miletus12

575
Captain

There is no Purgatory for warcriminals - they go directly to Hell!

Posts: 2,730

Likes: 4,107

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 13, 2023 6:50:09 GMT

Quote

Post by 575 on Jul 13, 2023 6:50:09 GMT

Jul 12, 2023 22:46:38 GMT miletus12 said:

Jul 12, 2023 22:04:38 GMT 575 said:

The adding of text etc. made the post much easier to understand.

I neglected to make clear that the fermion charge lattice (The plasma shell in the upper atmosphere), which surrounds the earth (ionosphere) is one, and for that omission I apologize.

The other concept that I would like you to keep in mind is "refraction" and its special sub-condition, which is reflection. Both physics conditions are charge exclusion or rejection conditions that alter a boson pathway through and across an interval. A crude analogy is to think of charge rejection of photons as akin to magnets of the same charge (+ or -) which reject each other (left hand spin or right hand spin of the excitations or "probabilities".) as the fermion with which they attempt to inform or interact is "full". That is not to say that two "photons" cannot be in the same excitation state and time along the wave, but there cannot be two fermion (proton or electron for example) excitations or points at the same time and location in the electromagnetic field to pick up the information the two photons carry to it. If you create two such photon points and yours interacts first, you exclude someone else's attempts to create such points and interact; or at least you locally "see" and transmit-receive the information as such in your detector aerial antenna sensor. The two sets of photons' excitations are there, but one set cannot deposit information at the aerial antenna sensor. That set of information has been "jammed" or refracted.

I know, clear as mud, but if you try to use your eyes as sensors and have someone shine a powerful flashlight at you; then you will "see" signal washout and lose the light signals (photons) of the scenery around that central source glare. That glare is the "jamming effect" across the frequencies of visible light waves that you are not getting because the flashlight emitted photons have preoccupied the information slots available within your eyes in a peculiar boson/fermion example of the Pauli-exclusion principle.

That "glare" will become story important in the future.

Just as I experienced since the modern Xenon and LED-headlights on cars become common; peoples driving those cars claim to have much better vision - us that like to also be able to see into the shadows dislike it. Though now I'm retired from service it doesn't matter anymore..

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 13, 2023 14:48:04 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 13, 2023 14:48:04 GMT

Jul 12, 2023 14:06:46 GMT miletus12 said:

The Itata Incident.

This is compounded by the imbecile captain of the USS Baltimore.

“LOOKS LIKE A CHILEAN WAR”: THE BALTIMORE INCIDENT AS COUNTERFACTUAL EXERCISEOCTOBER 22, 2015 GUEST AUTHOR 3 COMMENTS

Alternate History Topic Week

By Thomas Jamison

On October 16th 1891, a group of USS Baltimore sailors, no doubt happy to have liberty after months at sea, set off to enjoy the delights of Valparaiso, Chile. After several hours (of, let’s be honest, presumably heavy drinking), a scuffle broke out between local Chileans and the American crew. The ensuing violence left two U.S. sailors dead, seventeen injured and a hemispheric relationship in tatters. Unable to resolve the issue locally, the USS Baltimore’s commander telegraphed Washington for instructions. The Chileans, meanwhile, held fast to their jurisdiction over the U.S. personnel, and the investigative proceedings more broadly, as a matter of national sovereignty. From these humble sparks came a war crisis over hemispheric leadership and the relative standing of the United States as a “great power.”

To date, scholars have tended to underestimate the Baltimore Incident as “a mere tempest in a teapot,” or at best a signpost en route to the War of 1898. That the crisis has inspired relatively little comment in English literature should obscure neither its significance to contemporaries nor its enduring relevance to strategic planners. Indeed, the Baltimore Incident might better be understood as an acute manifestation of the larger, chronic competition between the United States and Chile over regional autonomy and control. When, in 1891, Chilean leaders provoked a confrontation with the U.S, they sought political advantage from the crisis (at a domestic and international level) and had good reason to be optimistic. Chile had used its maritime forces and commercial partnerships to defeat Spain (1866), Peru (1884) and to overawe the United States into diplomatic concessions in 1882, 1885 and 1888. By 1891, however, the realities of power-politics in the American Pacific had shifted dramatically. In the United States imperialist sentiment, domestic military production and a dedicated navalist lobby all underwrote a newfound bellicosity and assertiveness. Opinion in Washington held that Chilean regional primacy represented a substantial threat to American expansionism and, moreover, the self-image of the United States in the “great power” system. National “honor” was no idle phrase in the Harrison administration.

At this 1891 juncture for the “dominant position in the Western Hemisphere,” war seemed likely, perhaps even inevitable. As The New York Times reported on Christmas Day 1891: “Looks like a Chilean War, Little Hope Now of a Peaceful Settlement.” Nonetheless, and to the chagrin of many, hostilities were averted in late January 1892 when Chile acceded to U.S. demands. The tantalizing question remains, what might have been? What if the United States and Chile went to War in 1890? What ramifications would conflict have had for the U.S. emergence in the great power system? And as long as we’re entertaining counterfactuals, what might defeat at the hands of “little Chili” have spelled for navalist ambitions and the U.S. role in South America?

The United States, Chile and the Pacific at the Fin-De-Siècle Such an outcome was hardly a remote possibility. In 1884, Chile emerged from the War of the Pacific (its territorial struggle with Peru and Bolivia over nitrate deposits), as the dominant naval power in the Pacific. That result seems as incredible today as it was obvious to contemporary observes. Secretary of the Navy John Long complained that in the 1880s, “the American Navy was inferior to that of any European and at least one South American power. Little Chile, triumphant over Peru, could have sent her Admiral Cochrane and Huascar against San Francisco and the United States would have been unable to repel them.” Likewise, the prize winning essay of the U.S. Naval Institute in 1884 lamented, “in our present condition, Brazil, Chili or the Argentine Republic might send a fleet of ironclads to devastate our seaport cities.” Overseas, in 1881, the London Standard noted (smugly, but with little exaggeration), “The American Navy, if not a phantom fleet, would certainly find it difficult to compete successfully with the Chilean fleet.”

Those observations reflected the scope of Chile’s investment in naval supremacy along the Pacific Slope in the 1880s and 90s. Chilean President Jose Manuel Balmaceda argued in 1891: Chile should be able to resist on its own territory any possible coalition, and if it cannot succeed in attaining the naval power of the great powers, it should at least prove, on the base of a secure port and a fleet proportionate to its resources, that there is no possible profit in starting a war against the Republic of Chile. Resources were appropriated accordingly and with some notable success. The most prolific Chilean naval historian estimated that (in absolute terms) the “peak of Chilean naval power was in 1899.” In 1882 Chile rebuffed—rudely—U.S. attempts to mediate an end to the War of the Pacific. In 1885, it countered U.S. incursions against the Colombians by deploying a gunboat to Panama. Most tangibly, in 1888 Chile annexed Easter Island as a symbol of its hemispheric stature and, more practically, a strategic (coaling/early warning) asset. By 1894, in a revealing detail, Santiago even began to export surplus warships to Japan.

Of the Pacific’s many foreign observes, none eyed Chile’s position with more concern than the United States. The central U.S. political objectives of the late nineteenth century were hemispheric expansion and the development of overseas markets, primarily in Asia—what Seward called “the chief theater of events in the world’s great hereafter.” Both efforts were contingent on an Isthmian Canal and/or sea lines of communication around South America, which in practice pushed the U.S. toward a policy of hemispheric hegemony. Andrew Carnegie captured the spirit of the age in 1882 when he wrote to then Secretary of State James Blaine, “You are exactly right. America is going to control anything and everything on this Continent. That’s settled. . . . No joint arrangements, no entangling alliances with monarchical, war-like Europe. America will take this Continent in hand alone.” In such an environment of imperial ascendancy (U.S.) and regional resistance (Chile), the Baltimore Incident, or some similar provocation, was almost inevitable.

By December 1891, institutional and political incentives had pushed the would-be belligerents to the “ragged edge” of war. That month, as a U.S. task force transited toward South America, the USS Baltimore was replaced on station by the USS Yorktown, commanded by “Fighting Bob” Evans (an officer who could calmly confide in his journal, “I cannot see any good reason why I should not be perfectly civil and polite to [the Chileans], even if I have to shoot them tomorrow.”) Relations deteriorated further when, on New Year’s Eve 1891, the Chileans provocatively fired rockets in the Yorktown’s vicinity, and days later—some sources say —conducted torpedo drills using the U.S. vessel as a notional target. “Fighting Bob” Evans, surveying the scene from the Yorktown was typically blunt, “I don’t see how war can now be avoided.”

Waging War with “Little Chili” Bombast and hindsight aside, if it came to war between the U.S. and Chile the outcome remained highly contingent. U.S. navalist pretensions belied a central irony of the crisis. American leaders managed to assert that Chile was simultaneously a real threat to U.S. regional hegemony and that it would be relatively easy to defeat in an offensive war. That dissonance spoke to the larger uncertainty about the balance of power in the Pacific. Perceptions of Chilean naval expansion had helped spur U.S. naval expansion in the 1880s, but in 1891 U.S. forces remained relatively limited, and decidedly untested. Tracy, for one, was shocked to learn that “the best American naval expeditionary force which could be mustered at this time numbered scarcely twenty warships.” Moreover, many of these ships teetered on obsolescence. As the Naval Historian Timothy Wolters convincingly documented, in the 1890s:

Naval recapitalization in the United States lagged well behind political debates over, and public perceptions of, the new American navy. Intriguingly, the data show that immediately prior to the country’s war with Spain in 1898, the old navy still consumed about one-third of the navy’s fiscal resources, contributed three-sevenths of the service’s aggregate tonnage, and accounted for just over half of all vessels in the navy’s inventory.

The gap between perception and capability bred miscalculation. Establishing a clear balance of “real power” from which to base strategic planning was frustratingly imprecise.

That was all the more true because naval assessments at the fin-de-siècle were complicated by recent and largely untested developments in naval technology. Innovations in naval architecture (low-freeboard, armored warships; rapid firing guns) and the application of second industrial revolution technologies (electric firing systems; navigational aids; armor piercing shells) rendered traditional assessments of naval efficacy unsure. Chile’s fleet of torpedo boats, for example, presented a novel form of power in the Pacific. It was widely noted that during the Chilean Civil War, the Balmacedist navy had become the first in history to successfully use a propelled “automobile” torpedo to sink another warship. What impact these new weapons might have on the ability of the Chilean’s to defend their coast against aggression was hotly debated.

Complicating matters further were geographic realities that hampered U.S. deployments and ensnared military preparations with European shipyards. The Peruvian minister in Washington, Jose Yrigoyen, appreciated as much, cabling his government to describe “the difficulties the [U.S.] squadron will have in a war with Chile.” Without “coaling station in the Pacific,” he argued perceptibly, the U.S. ships would be forced to ferry coal from San Francisco, a “difficult task, above all if Chile dedicates a few of its ships to capturing this important element of the American squadron.” These geographic challenges injected a sobering realism into the United States’ preparations for war. No less than Mahan wrote, “we are so confident in our bigness and so little realize the great extra load entailed by the distance of Chili, in case of war.” Relatedly, in the winter of 1891, Chile retained the services of a British shipyard for additional ship construction over the objections of the Harrison administration. How the interruption of global supply lines via an Atlantic guerre de course might effect power projection in the Southern Hemisphere defied clear assessment. All this is to say, the war was hardly a foregone conclusion.

Indeed—looking forward to the 1905 Russo-Japanese War—we might even speculate about the use of torpedoes to asymmetrically attack U.S. capital ships (that is to apply a key innovation in second industrial revolution technology to obviate investments in steel, ships, guns etc…). The New York Times certainly did, arguing that “Naval constructors who advocate and powers that have adopted the policy of building larger and larger war ships with constantly- increasing thickness of armor will devote much study and sober thought to [Chile’s] first decisive exhibition of the effectiveness of the automobile torpedo in actual warfare.” Distance, new weapons systems and interruptible lines of communication all suggested that the United States might have fared no better than Spain had a generation (1866-72) earlier in its unsuccessful war with Peru and Chile (one which ended with the Spanish commander committing suicide to avoid humiliation).

If Chile had defeated the United States in a limited regional war, it might have proved a a major setback for Tracy, Mahan and the like. It would likely have undermined U.S. stature in the great power system and elevated Chile on a par with, say, Japan. Indeed in the same way that Russian defeat in 1905 saw it recast as backwards, U.S. defeat might have seriously altered the time, place and manner in which it entered into the European great power system. It might also have seen Chile, backed by a commercial relationship with Great Britain, double-down on its program of navalist expansion and develop into a long-term regional competitor with the United States. It might even have encouraged Santiago to follow up on its territorial annexations (in the Atacama and Easter Island) to become a regional hegemon in its own right.

Conclusion

The resolution of the Baltimore Incident is at once a case study in crisis management and a cautionary tale of military and civilian leaders using war to advance their institutional interests. It is an equally useful reminder (and perhaps necessary corrective) of the limits of U.S. hemispheric control before 1890, and of the speed of the imperial-navalist transformation by 1898. The offensive capabilities of the United States morphed from a near-peer competitor with Chile in the 1880s into those of a global power in under a generation. In this sense, the Baltimore Incident is a window onto the United States “adapting to the status of a world power” amid a period of technological change and imperial rivalry. The great diplomatic historian Ernest May argued that the United States became “a world power in many respects comparable to Great Britain or Russia or Imperial Germany” after the War of 1898. Looking back a decade, the Baltimore Incident marks an important precedent in a longer process of ascendancy. Considering alternative outcomes (namely defeat) further reminds us of that ascendancy’s contingent nature. As a nomological exercise, the Baltimore Incident suggests a raft conclusions. Namely, that regional actors often resist imperial hegemony in order to secure domestic cohesion; that military bureaucracies incentivize the militarization of foreign policy; and that technological progress can rapidly destabilize the balance of power, encouraging misperceptions and bellicosity. These tendencies belong as much to the twenty first century as they do the nineteenth. Parallels between the Baltimore Incident and recent Sino-Japanese tensions, to name one possible example, are almost irresistible. Consider in this analogy China as the Harrisonian United States and Japan as Chile; supported then, as now, by the world’s leading commercial power. It is conceivable, as in 1891, that a minor incident, like an attack on a foreign owned business, could encourage nationalist posturing in Beijing as a means to (1) rally domestic support, (2) advance the interests of recapitalizing military forces (a process ongoing in both China and Japan), and (3) assert regional primacy. That possibility should be especially concerning because of the comparative proximity of China and Japan and the profound uncertainties created by the militarization of digital technology. A critical perspective on the Baltimore Incident should sensitize policymakers to this relevant, but under-appreciated war scare. It should also reinforce the imperative of clear assessments of power as a tool for conflict mitigation amid the exaggerations of modern-day nationalism.

Tommy Jamison is a PhD candidate in International History at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2014 he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. The views expressed here are his own.

LETTER:

47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
1 November 1891

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.

I write you to remind you, sir, that half of the copper that we use to pursue our modernization and progress within this country as to electrification and industrialization comes from the Chilean copper mines in the Atacama
region. See enclosed map.

The Chileans have a bigger navy than ours and a better one at the moment. Do we really want to escalate this incident and endanger the progress we make for and within this country?

Irene Tesla, DME.
BNY

From: Benjamin F. Tracy, Navy Secretary
Navy Department
17th Street NW, Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, District of Columbia
5 November 1891.

To: Doctor Irene Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass

Doctor Tesla;

Thank you so very much for the enclosed map you supplied and the exceedingly helpful economic geography lesson which came with it. May I return the favor? I have included a somewhat different map to show you my viewpoint as I directly address your specific concerns.

1. The Harrison administration is now domestically preoccuppied with your ongoing suffrage campaign. We intend to aid your effort, but we do have a few other concerns, too.
2. Such as the slave labor camps your inept meddling with the Cleveland administration created in West Virginia and Washington State.
3. The hornets' nest of previously quiescent Knights of the Golden Circle, that your efforts at political southern states' reforms stirred up.
4. The Edison Combine ACME feud, which has hampered a coherent national economic policy.
5. Not related to what you created, but we do have a law enforcement problem with bandits, Indians, homesteaders and ranchers out in the western United States which interferes with our mutual long-ranged goal of settlement and civilization of our territories. This affects your railroad interests, as the violence and criminality costs us both time, money, and lives.
6. The canal projects are self-explanatory. We rely on YOU to solve the mismanagement and cost overruns.
7. Wherever the Kaiser sees an opportunity to wedge a foothold, he tries to meddle and gain " a place in the sun". His agents' numerous criminal activities on our American soil, I will not address in this letter, but rest assured that his attitude toward us is inimical and our attitude toward him is equally reciprocal, fatal and hostile to his plans and his instrumentalities.
8. What goes for the Kaiser goes equally for that child and his "regent" in Madrid, and for much the same reasons.
9. Hawaii is a tangled web of deceit, treachery, filibusters and chaos, similar to the conflagation of intrigues and misdirected adventurism, which the Atkins sugar interests stirred up in Cuba, which cost you the SES Minneapolis, drowned over 500 American citizens aboard her and almost cost you, your esteemed husband.
10. Of course, you brought the Chileans to my attention. They certainly know about you, for we have thwarted two of their assassins dispatched to remit you.
11. Need I point out, that American recruitment efforts to encourage massive Chinese immigration to the western United States has created both excitement and resentment within the United States and China which has resulted in the uprise of banditry in both nations? The Tong was quiet until they were stirred up. The Qing and our west coast states do not thank the people responsible for this joy. Refer to 3.; Doctor Tesla.
12. The French have bungled the Panama Canal forward and that helps us, but their other efforts globally; where they collide with ours, have been mutually interfering, despite our "friendly" cooperation and mutual assistance. It would help us better, if they were less overtly helpful and stayed more on the sidelines.
13. Agsain refer to 3. . The problem is that where wealth and commerce flows, the disenfranchised Mexicans attack it to lessen tbeir own impoverishment and general powerlessness. We, both, understand the Arizona, New Mexico, California, Sonora, Chihuahua, social problems; but to be honest; if we want to avoid a second Mexican American war over these issues; we have to let Mexico alone and hope they solve themselves. We really cannot solve their problems for them. We have too many problems of our own to attend, as you will be aware, as you finish this letter.
14. The British are our hereditary enemy. They mean us ill; despite their recent democratic pretensions of friendship to us. We have no desire or need to stir that pot ever, but we are ever mindful of their global aggressions against us. Cognizant of their imperisalist tendencies, we must tiptoe around them at all times.
15. Pacinotti is your conduit into the intelligentsia of Europe. He is also a direct conduit back to us. Such an exposed middleman is never good when nations feel at hazard. If you want your friend to remain among us, urge greater caution to him. Refer to 10. .
16. The Russians intrude upon our national territory and regions of economic interests such as our offsahore Alaskan fisheries prserves. For the moment; we cannot stop them.
17. Ditto, at the connivance of the British, so do the Japanese. See 14., and 16..for this is a matrix in which the British, Japanese and Russians mesh with us to violate Chiness sovereignty, meddle in Hawaii, and as those three nations violate our own borders and jurisdictions.
18. California is a political hotbed of Caudillo politics, as poisonous as "Confederate Misasissippi or Louisiana", in the melting pot of racisms, hatreds and top down plutocratic misgovernance. of the polyglot populations therein. If not for a strong martial presence of the pro-Union plutocrat overclass, that state would be in revolt against the national governwement half of the time. Yet, here is where we build and base one third of our navy, madam. You see that problem?
19. The Brazilians will be reluctant to give up their pretensions to being the masters of the Caribbean Sea. Much like the Spanish, we can expect trouble from them, when we finally move to assert ourselves to secure those waters as our own. And behind the Brazilians stand the BRITISH..
20. The miscellaneous troubles are the numerous brushfire incidents involving the Islamic world. For now, these are scarce worth our notice, but these incidents do occur too often.

And then we have the usual anarchists, and revolutionaries and individual psychpaths, Doctor Tesla. Plus, in addition and somehow against competitors, we have to secure resources that we do not have under our direct control, such as bird guano for our ammunition propellants, which we also get from Chile along with the copper for the brass shell casings, as well as niter and saltpeter and sulfers from hundreds of otherwise worthless bird rookeries we claim as possessions among the South Pacific islands for the same purposes. The British are rather annoyed with us for the doing of it. They want the same resources.

But in the main, this is but a brief glimpse of what sort of problems that I see every day from my "naval" point of view.

And that is why we will double the requested size of our naval construction budget to Congress next year. Your friend, Professor Pacinotti, might contact his friend, Professor Masdeo, for the additional inspirations for our naval constructors that we require? We need such designs for our planned ocean going torpedo boats and more cruisers.

Your friend;
Benjamin Tracy,
Secretary of your Navy

Last Edit: Jul 14, 2023 5:20:32 GMT by miletus12

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 14, 2023 13:24:04 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 14, 2023 13:24:04 GMT

Inside The Tragedy Of Queen Liliuokalani, The Last Monarch Of Hawaii By Genevieve Carlton Published July 3, 2022 Updated July 7, 2022

After ascending the throne in 1891, Queen Liliuokalani began working to draft a new constitution and ensure Hawaiin sovereignty — only to be overthrown by U.S. business interests.

When Queen Liliuokalani ascended to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1891, she became the first female ruler of the Hawaiian monarchy — and its last-ever sovereign monarch. Unfortunately, she came to power when powerful American business interests were looking to control the islands for their own profit and convinced the U.S. government to help them do it.

Though the Hawaiian queen didn’t go down without a fight, her battle against the American sugar planters to maintain Hawaii’s independence saw her overthrown, put on trial for treason, sentenced to five years of hard labor, and forced to watch helplessly as the U.S. forcibly annexed the entire island chain as an American territory.

Who Was Queen Liliuokalani?

Queen Liliuokalani
Unknown/Library of Congress
A signed photograph of Queen Liliuokalani.

Born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha on September 2, 1838, Liliuokalani grew up in one of Hawaii’s elite native families. Before becoming crown princess, Liliuokalani went by Lydia Kamekaeha. Lydia’s mother, Keohokalole, advised King Kamehameha III.

In her youth, Lydia traveled the world and maintained a close relationship with the ruling family. In 1874, Lydia’s older brother, Kalākaua, became king. Three years later, Liliuokalani became his heir, the successor to the new Kalākaua dynasty that ruled over the Hawaiian kingdom.

As the crown princess, Lydia adopted a royal name, Liliuokalani. In 1881, she acted as her brother’s regent while he toured the world. The crown princess also traveled to Queen Victoria’s Crown Jubilee, meeting with the British monarch and U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

In 1891, when her brother died, Liliuokalani ascended to the throne.

Princess Liliuokalani
Unknown/Hawaii State Archives
A photograph of Crown Princess Liliuokalani.

But Queen Liliuokalani ruled during a tumultuous time in Hawaii. American and European businessmen had bought up much of the private land on the islands and these wealthy landowners began pushing for more of a say in Hawaii’s governance.

In 1887, under pressure from foreign businessmen, King Kalākaua had signed the “Bayonet Constitution.” The document, which Liliuokalani opposed, limited the monarchy’s power and by standing against increased privileges for the United States — including control over Pearl Harbor — Liliuokalani angered American businessmen even before becoming queen.

As queen, Liliuokalani pushed for a new constitution to strengthen the independence of the monarchy and, in response, wealthy businessmen began plotting a coup against her.

In The 19th Century, Sugar Ruled Hawaii

Sugar was Hawaii’s major cash crop by the time Queen Liliuokalani took the throne. For decades, Hawaii had been a major sugar producer, but new industrial methods and larger plantation-style farms increased the crop’s role in Hawaii’s economy.

From 1866 to 1879, sugar production skyrocketed by 250%. By the 1890s, industrial sugar plantations often employed a thousand workers. The Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, located on Maui, produced 12,000 tons of sugar in 1890.

American and European business owners bought up land and expanded sugar plantations, consolidating power in the kingdom.

Maui Sugar Plantation
Jules Tavernier/Horikawa Fine Art, Honolulu
An 1885 painting showing a Maui sugar plantation.

In 1890, the U.S. passed a tariff act that hit Hawaii’s sugar producers hard. Hawaii previously benefited from low tariff rates, but the act raised the cost of Hawaiian sugar and the new law nearly destroyed Hawaii’s industry.

Hawaii’s sugar owners came up with a plan to save their industry: they would overthrow Queen Liliuokalani and push for the U.S. to annex Hawaii. Once under U.S. rule, Hawaii’s sugar producers would no longer pay tariffs.

The Coup That Ended Hawaii’s Monarchy
Queen Liliuokalani had battled against the powerful plantation owners as crown princess and as monarch, but she was powerless to stop the U.S.-backed coup to overthrow her kingdom in 1893, led by American businessman Sanford Dole.

In January, a secret “Committee of Safety” made up of foreign sugar planters met near the Iolani Palace. The U.S. government backed the coup attempt with 300 marines to shield the planters as they seized power.

When the militia stormed the palace, Queen Liliuokalani surrendered, hoping to avoid bloodshed. The Committee of Safety created a provisional government and put Dole in charge.

Iolani Palace
Gabriel Bertram Bellinghausen/Wikimedia Commons
Iolani Palace, where Queen Liliuokalani ruled and served her house arrest.

Publicly, President Cleveland opposed the coup. But the Committee of Safety ignored Cleveland’s objections and established the Republic of Hawaii, making Sanford Dole its president.

But Queen Liliuokalani refused to cede power without a fight.

The Republic Of Hawaii Turns Against Queen Liliuokalani
In 1895, the deposed Queen Liliuokalani led a counter-revolution to restore the monarchy. But against the power of the Republic of Hawaii and its wealthy backers, the insurrection failed.

Instead, the republican government arrested Liliuokalani and put her on trial for treason. During her trial, Queen Liliuokalani denied planning the counter-revolution. Still, the court found her guilty and sentenced the former queen to five years of hard labor.

The court later commuted the sentence to house arrest, restricting Liliuokalani to a single bedroom in the Iolani Palace.

Queen Liliuokalani And Sanford Dole
Unknown/Hawaii State Archives
Queen Liliuokalani sitting next to Sanford Dole in 1914.

In exchange for a pardon, Liliuokalani also signed a statement yielding to the United States. “Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps loss of life,” Liliuokalani wrote, “I do, under this protest, and impelled by said forces, yield my authority.”

The formal abdication of Queen Liliuokalani didn’t end her role in Hawaii, however. Under President Dole, the Republic of Hawaii sought annexation by the U.S., which Liliuokalani opposed.

The United States Annexes Hawaii
In 1897, the U.S. Senate considered a treaty to annex Hawaii. But a group of native Hawaiians, led by Queen Liliuokalani, blocked the treaty. After lobbying senators, the treaty died.

But the Spanish American War reignited the effort to annex Hawaii. The new imperialist-minded president William McKinley declared Hawaii the perfect refueling station for the Pacific fleet. Plus, McKinley reasoned, Pearl Harbor would make a good naval base.

With war on their minds, Congress passed a joint resolution to annex Hawaii.

American Annexation Of Hawaii
Unknown/Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The flag exchange at Iolani Palace after the U.S. annexation of Hawaii.

Native Hawaiians largely opposed the annexation, as did Queen Liliuokalani. But the move pleased Hawaii’s businessmen and sugar planters. Sanford Dole transitioned from President of the Republic of Hawaii to the territory’s governor.

The Queen’s Legacy in Hawaii

Queen Liliuokalani never regained her throne. With Hawaii as an American territory, the sugar planters who overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy paid lower taxes. Liliuokalani withdrew from public life and died of a stroke in 1917.

To this day, Liliuokalani remains the last sovereign of the Hawaiian kingdom.

Queen Liliuokalani Portrait
Robert K. Bonine/Hawaii State Archives
A portrait of Queen Liliuokalani two years before her death in 1917.

In 1993, Congress officially apologized for participating in the coup against Queen Liliuokalani. As the apology acknowledged, “the native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty.”

However, Hawaii still remembers its last queen. In fact, one of Hawaii’s most popular songs, “Aloha Oe,” was composed by Liliuokalani herself. The queen wrote the song, also known as Farewell to Thee, after seeing lovers part on Oahu in 1877. Queen Liliuokalani’s parting words in Aloha Oe were, “until we meet again.”

Queen Liliuokalani’s fight against annexation was only one chapter in the long history of Hawaii’s relationship with the United States. Then check out the history of Niihau, Hawaii’s forbidden island.

Letter:

Irene Goss Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
10 November 1891

The Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC

Elias:

I just read the year end business report that AMERISHIP spent $2,000,000.00 to lay down 400 kilometers of railroad track and build a seaport on the island of Oahu at a place called Pearl Harbor. What do you think I am, a money tree that sheds free dollars for every cockamamie project that Charles and you think is a "neat idea"?

Irene.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter:

1350 Euclid Avenue, Suite 1000,
Cleveland, Ohio
17 November 1891

Misses Irene Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass

Irene;

Do not blame Elias or me for the Hawaii ~~project, fiasco,~~ situation. Nikolai did it as a favor for your good friends, Benjamin Tracy and Royce Atkins. Apparently the Navy wanted someone to build them a coaling station, and as long as AMERISHIP was handy as the prime contractor, why not take the whole kingdom over? You will be repaid out of the next year's sugar profits from the Pacific Sugar Corporation, which you now own.

Charles F. Brush;
For the ACME General Board.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"But Irene; you signed the cheques. It is not my fault that you did not read them."

--Nikola Tesla's quoted words that set Irene off, just before she threw him out of the house for the whole entirety of the Thanksgiving Week that it took her to get over her mad at him.

Last Edit: Jul 14, 2023 21:51:52 GMT by miletus12

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 15, 2023 11:38:31 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 15, 2023 11:38:31 GMT

Diary of Lieutenant William Fritch 3 December 1891.

Several disagreeable items have occupied my attention since Halloween. First, I thought I would be in pursuit of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it turns out that the train they tried to rob this past 14 October was a circus train headed for Seattle, Washington of all places. At Boysen, Wyoming, they staged their attempt to stop the train. Apparently there is a convenient tunnel that goes through a disagreeable mountain that passes into a bridge that crosses the Wind River Canyon. The gang's plan was stupidly simple enough. They would cut the over wires and this would interrupt the power to the electric locomotive. The train would coast to a halt. The gang would board and rob the mail car and the passengers.

After the gang lost two members, Bill Carver and Tod O'Day, who were electrocuted by the Davenport anti-tamper device, the train did not stop, but it did slow down, so the gang pursued on horseback. In the meantime, the artificial lightning discharged into the two deceased bandits had panicked a pachyderm in the elephant wagon. By means of her trunk, and how she managed this feat, no-one in that car, survived her to precisely describe, she decoupled the Waxman device or "hand" which safety couples cars to one another. This action separated the aft ten train cars, which were loaded with lions, tigers, bears and other assorted animals, including at least four ostriches. These cars promptly derailed and flipped over on their side. The animals promptly escaped. The bandits, coming upon this menagerie of liberated man-eaters, being the craven cowards that they were, fled. The animals let loose upon the land and with nobody present locally able to handle the situation, besides us, it then fell upon us, to break off our pursuit of the outlaws to pursue and capture the beasts. Our first duty, it was made clear to me by telegraph from Fort Reno and Major Mason, was to protect the homesteaders and ranchers in the vicinity of the derailment.

What made it difficult for B-Troop was that we were further instructed to capture these beasts, not kill them. Our "consultant" Brandon Croyden Wycliffe, ESQ. OM FRS, from his experience in India, as a big game hunter, most helpfully taught us how to construct bear falls, tiger traps and lion chutes. We had to use about two dozen cattle as lure bait to trigger these traps. We managed to recover nine lions, six tigers, twelve bears, three trained wolves and one ostrich. Furthermore, we had two bears too many, and I think the other three ostriches did not make it.

We, currently, await a train at Shoshone, Wyoming. When it arrives, we are instructed to pack the animals, we captured, into the cars arranged for them and accompany this live cargo to Cheyenne, where the beasts are to be turned over to a territorial zoo being organized by the Smithsonian to house them.

We had to send to Boston of all places for shock lances, which had to be made for us by the Tesla Experimental Laboratories, to handle the escaped elephants. I now have a much greater respect for elephants and the Bengal Lancers. Fortunately, we recovered the four elephants without human fatalities, though Lieutenant Pierce will be in the hospital with a pair of broken legs. I think the same she-elephant who decoupled the train, might be the beast who plucked him off his horse and used him for a yo-yo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letters:

Irene Goss Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
10 December 1891

The Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC

Elias:

Why do I now own a zoo in Cheyenne, Wyoming?

Irene.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elias Mathew Bashon LLD.
For the Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC
12 December 1891

Irene:

As far as I can determine, when the Cheyenne to Seattle Express Number Seven was robbed, the Boondoggler Circus was not properly insured. Their improperly secured elephant contributed to the derailment. We, therefore, seized the circus, in your name, to recoup our net losses due to their negligence. We had to put the animals somewhere. Cheyenne is the nearest city able to host the animals. Hence, ; you now own the brand new Cheyenne City Zoo, along with the circus. What do you want me to do about the circus?

Elias.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irene Goss Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
10 December 1891

The Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC

Elias:

Contact Nancy Fish and have her suggest a manager. She is the premier owner and manager of circuses, of whom I know. She is P. T. Barnum's widow. Make sure Mister Boondoggler pays us in full for our losses. He still owes us one railroad conductor, two alligators and four ostriches, not to mention what bills I expect the government will send us for the derailment.

Irene.

========================================================

As for The Wild Bunch; not only is B-Troop, US 6th Cavalry after them, but so are The Three Guardsmen.

THE THREE GUARDSMEN

The Three Guardsmen describes three lawmen who became legendary in their pursuit of outlaws in the Old West. Deputy US Marshals Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen (pictured left to right) began "cleaning up" part of what became the state of Oklahoma in 1889.

Widely considered honest, dutiful, and capable, they were responsible for suppressing much of the outlaw element in the Indian Territory, reporting arresting in excess of some 300 desperadoes during the next decade, and killing many others. All three had the reputation of being dauntless in their pursuit and each was known for their unique tracking abilities. Ironically it was from outlaws pursued by them that the nickname "Three Guardsmen" was first derived. The Guardsmen's claim to fame was their relentless pursuit of the members of the Doolin Gang, eliminating many of them systematically, and apprehending those that would surrender. Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas was responsible for the killing of outlaw Bill Doolin. Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen led a posse that killed Doolin Gang members "Dynamite Dan" Clifton and Richard "Little Dick" West. Deputy Marshal Tilghman was ultimately responsible for the death of Doolin member William F. "Little Bill" Raidler. Several other gang members were either captured or killed by the Guardsmen.

Heck Thomas retired in 1905, and in 1907 accepted a chief of police position in Lawton, Oklahoma. He died in 1912. Chris Madsen retired in 1905 and died in 1944 at the age of 93. Bill Tilghman retired from the marshal service, served as chief of police of Oklahoma City, and was later elected to the Oklahoma Senate. While serving as Cromwell town marshall at the age of 70, Tilghman was shot to death by a drunken prohibition agent. Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame recipients receive a special induction recognition in his name—"The Bill Tilghman Award."

Post by miletus12 on Jul 16, 2023 11:42:25 GMT

It is not a good end to the year 1891 for Irene and Nikolas Tesla...as they sit down to a traditional meal. Some concessions, Irene made for Nikolas, duck instead of turkey which the good man preferred. The children, Elizabeth and Nicholas junior, went with the nanny, Maria Martina, to the rooms on the floor below, for things needed to be said, that children are and were not meant to hear.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

and mild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Irene: This has been a terrible year, has it not?.
Nicholas replied softly and with unusual compassion: Yes. Your "workmen" have killed many in your name.
Irene: What do you mean by that?

Nicholas pointed at the ever present Pinkertons. It was not exactly the best way to answer her question, one can suppose. It must be remembered that Irene had seen her husband almost drowned. Her efforts at improving the nation's lot had been resisted at many quarters Some of it, like the Great Circus Train Robbery which had been a story of ridicule in the newspapers, might have been farcical. The New Orleans lynchings had been tragic. Things slipped out of her grasp, so she tightened her grip.

Irene: Has it come time to part ways, Nicholas?

James McParland

James McParland was born in Ireland in 1843. He worked as a stock clerk, agricultural labourer and circus barker before taking a ship from Liverpool to New York in 1867.

McParland settled in Chicago where he opened a store selling alcohol. After a fire destroyed his business in 1871 he joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

In 1873 Franklin B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, had a meeting with Allan Pinkerton of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Gowen had considerable investments in the coal-mines of Schuylkill County and feared that the trade union activities of John Siney and the Workingmen's Benevolent Association would result in lower profits.

Allan Pinkerton decided to send McParland to Schuylkill County. Assuming the alias of James McKenna, he found work as a labourer in Shenandoah. Soon afterwards he joined the Workingmen's Benevolent Association and the Shenandoah branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), an organisation for Irish immigrants run by the Roman Catholic clergy.

After a few months of investigations McParland reported back to Allan Pinkerton that some members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians were also active in the secret organization, the Molly Maguires. McParland estimated that the group had about 3,000 members. Each county was governed by a bodymaster who recruited members and gave out orders to commit crimes. These bodymasters were usually ex-miners who now worked as saloon keepers.

Over a two year period McParland collected evidence about the criminal activities of the Molly Maguires. This included the murder of around fifty men in Schuylkill County. Many of these men were the managers of coal mines in the region.

John Kehoe, one of the leaders of the Molly Maguires became suspicious of McParland and began to investigate his past. McParland was tipped off that Kehoe was planning to murder him so he fled from the area.

In 1876 and 1877 McParland was the star witness for the prosecution of John Kehoe and the Molly Maguires. Twenty members were found guilty of murder and were executed. This included Kehoe, a former union leader who was convicted of a murder that had taken place fourteen years previously.

There was a great deal of controversy about about the way the trial was conducted. Irish Catholics were excluded from the juries while Protestant immigrants from Germany who could not speak English were accepted. Welsh immigrants, who had for a long-time been in conflict with the Irish in Schuylkill County.

Most of the witnesses who provided evidence in these cases were like McParland on the payroll of the railroad and mining companies who were attempting to destroy the trade union movement. In other cases, defendants were persuaded to turn state's evidence to help convict their alleged collaborators.

It was also pointed out that most of the murder victims were employees of small coal companies that were later taken over by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. Some historians have suggested that it was the company run by Franklin B. Gowen, and the man who initiated the original investigation, that had the most to gain from these murders and the destruction of the emerging trade union movement. After the Molly Maguires case, McParland became the manager of the Pinkerton Agency's Western Division, based in Denver.

In 1906 McParland was called in to investigate the murder of Frank Steunenberg, the governor of Idaho. McParland was convinced from the beginning that the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners had arranged the killing of Steunenberg. McParland arrested Harry Orchard, a stranger who had been staying at a local hotel. In his room they found dynamite and some wire.

McParland helped Orchard to write a confession that he had been a contract killer for the WFM, assuring him this would help him get a reduced sentence for the crime. In his statement, Orchard named William Hayward (general secretary of WFM) and Charles Moyer (president of WFM). He also claimed that a union member from Caldwell, George Pettibone, had also been involved in the plot. These three men were arrested and were charged with the murder of Steunenberg.

Charles Darrow, a man who specialized in defending trade union leaders, was employed to defend Hayward, Moyer and Pettibone. The trial took place in Boise, the state capital. It emerged that Orchard already had a motive for killing Steunenberg, blaming the governor of Idaho, for destroying his chances of making a fortune from a business he had started in the mining industry.

During the three month trial, the prosecutor was unable to present any information against Hayward, Moyer and Pettibone except for the testimony of Orchard. William Hayward, Charles Moyer and George Pettibone were all acquitted. Orchard, because he had provided evidence against the other men, received life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.

In 1912 Charlie Siringo published a book, A Cowboy Detective: A True Story of Twenty-Two Years With A World-Famous Detective Agency, where he claimed that James McParland had ordering him to commit voter fraud in the re-election attempt of Colorado Governor James Peabody. This view is supported by historian Mary Joy Martin who argued in The Corpse On Boomerang Road (2004): "McParland would stop at nothing to take down (unions such as the Western Federation of Miners) because he believed his authority came from "Divine Providence." To carry out God's Will meant he was free to break laws and lie until every man he judged evil was hanging on the gallows. Since his days in Pennsylvania he was comfortable lying under oath. In the Haywood trial and the Adams trials, he lied frequently, even claiming he never joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Documents showed he had."

Charlie Siringo, who had worked for more than twenty years under McParland in the Pinkerton's western division based in Denver, claimed that the agency had been guilty of "jury tampering, fabricated confessions, false witnesses, bribery, intimidation, and hiring killers for its clients... Documents and time sustained many of his assertions."

James McParland died on May 18, 1919, in Denver's Mercy Hospital.

Nicholas had expected this question. This was one of the rarer times when he proved wiser than Irene: No, Irene. You need a hand to help steady you. You chose me to be that hand. Respect your own wisdom.
Irene: Then you do not judge me?
Nicholas: It is not my place to judge. Nor is it yours.

======================================================

The meal sort of went on from there in silence. But if you were to generally sum up the end of 1891 as Irene had a hand in it;
a. The 19th Amendment was about to pass into the constitutional law, at the cost of perhaps about 100 lives and some $25,000,000.00.
b. The Kingdom of Hawaii, with its 65,000 citizens, had been erased as a sovereign nation. They, the 65,000, were dubiously "Americans" now.
c. The Knights of the Golden Circle had instituted a terror campaign of lynchings and church burnings in the West and in the South. The federal government had reciprocated by sending many of these terrorists to die in the slave labor coal mines or in the fetid swamps and jungle of Nicaragua. They deserved it, the swine.
d. Speaking of that canal project, that morass of mismanagement had been reorganized. Now only 400 men a month died instead of the 800. The cost overruns still remained, but in for the snout, in for the hog. The deadline, Irene's, for completion still remained 1896.
e. The "billion dollar 51st Congress" had, as predicted, legislatively increased tariffs, subsidized the steel industry, semi-nationalized shipbuilding and the coal mines, financed the canal projects, passed the 19th Amendment and unleashed financed "justice" on the "Unreconstructed". It had also let slip through the tiny cracks, some publicly ignored occurences that might be ticking time bombs within the Republic's guts. The Hawaii "filibuster" set a horrible precedent, as did the establishment of a "general staff" system within the American military.
f. Scientific progress seemed to have plateaued. The next big thing; "radio" was still hung upon the horns of signal discrimination and modulation. Scorching a strip of paper with dots and dashes, was not fast, nor was it efficient. Nikolai still had not figured out the tuning, either.

Last Edit: Jul 16, 2023 13:11:53 GMT by miletus12

575
Captain

There is no Purgatory for warcriminals - they go directly to Hell!

Posts: 2,730

Likes: 4,107

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 16, 2023 12:27:41 GMT miletus12 likes this

Quote

Post by 575 on Jul 16, 2023 12:27:41 GMT

Jul 15, 2023 11:38:31 GMT miletus12 said:

Diary of Lieutenant William Fritch 3 December 1891.

Several disagreeable items have occupied my attention since Halloween. First, I thought I would be in pursuit of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it turns out that the train they tried to rob this past 14 October was a circus train headed for Seattle, Washington of all places. At Boysen, Wyoming, they staged their attempt to stop the train. Apparently there is a convenient tunnel that goes through a disagreeable mountain that passes into a bridge that crosses the Wind River Canyon. The gang's plan was stupidly simple enough. They would cut the over wires and this would interrupt the power to the electric locomotive. The train would coast to a halt. The gang would board and rob the mail car and the passengers.

After the gang lost two members, Bill Carver and Tod O'Day, who were electrocuted by the Davenport anti-tamper device, the train did not stop, but it did slow down, so the gang pursued on horseback. In the meantime, the artificial lightning discharged into the two deceased bandits had panicked a pachyderm in the elephant wagon. By means of her trunk, and how she managed this feat, no-one in that car, survived her to precisely describe, she decoupled the Waxman device or "hand" which safety couples cars to one another. This action separated the aft ten train cars, which were loaded with lions, tigers, bears and other assorted animals, including at least four ostriches. These cars promptly derailed and flipped over on their side. The animals promptly escaped. The bandits, coming upon this menagerie of liberated man-eaters, being the craven cowards that they were. The animals let loose upon the land and with nobody present locally able to handle the situation, besides us, it fell upon us, to break off our pursuit of the outlaws to pursue and capture the beasts. Our first duty, it was made clear by telegraph from Fort Reno and Major Mason, was to protect the homesteaders and ranchers in the vicinity of the derailment.

What made it difficult for B-Troop was that we were further instructed to capture these beasts, not kill them. Our "consultant" Brandon Croyden Wycliffe, ESQ. OM FRS, from his experience in India, as a big game hunter, most helpfully taught us how to construct bear falls, tiger traps and lion chutes. We had to use about two dozen cattle as lure bait to trigger these traps. We managed to recover nine lions, six tigers, twelve bears, three trained wolves and one ostrich. Furthermore, we had two bears too many, and I think the other four ostriches did not make it.

We, currently, await a train at Shoshone, Wyoming. When it arrives, we are instructed to pack the animals, we captured, into the cars arranged for them and accompany this live cargo to Cheyenne, where the beasts are to be turned over to a territorial zoo being organized by the Smithsonian to house them.

We had to send to Boston of all places for shock lances, which had to be made for us by the Tesla Experimental Laboratories, to handle the escaped elephants. I now have a much greater respect for elephants and the Bengal Lancers. Fortunately, we recovered the four elephants without human fatalities, though Lieutenant Pierce will be in the hospital with a pair of broken legs. I think the same she-elephant who decoupled the train, might be the beast who plucked him off his horse and used him for a yo-yo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letters:

Irene Goss Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
10 December 1891

The Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC

Elias:

Why do I now own a zoo in Cheyenne, Wyoming?

Irene.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elias Mathew Bashon LLD.
For the Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC
12 December 1891

Irene:

As far as I can determine, when the Cheyenne to Seattle Express Number Seven was robbed, the Boondoggler Circus was not properly insured. Their improperly secured elephant contributed to the derailment. We, therefore, seized the circus, in your name, to recoup our net losses due to their negligence. We had to put the animals somewhere. Cheyenne is the nearest city able to host the animals. Hence, ; you now own the brand new Cheyenne City Zoo, along with the circus. What do you want me to do about the circus?

Elias.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Irene Goss Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
10 December 1891

The Bashon Law Firm PLLC
1634 K Street NW Ste 300,
Washington, DC

Elias:

Contact Nancy Fish and have her suggest a manager. She is the premier owner and manager of circuses, of whom I know. She is P. T. Barnum's widow. Make sure Mister Boondoggler pays us in full for our losses. He still owes us one railroad conductor, two alligators and four ostriches, not to mention what bills I expect the government will send us for the derailment.

Irene.

========================================================

As for The Wild Bunch; not only is B-Troop, US 6th Cavalry after them, but so are The Three Guardsmen.

THE THREE GUARDSMEN

The Three Guardsmen describes three lawmen who became legendary in their pursuit of outlaws in the Old West. Deputy US Marshals Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen (pictured left to right) began "cleaning up" part of what became the state of Oklahoma in 1889.

Widely considered honest, dutiful, and capable, they were responsible for suppressing much of the outlaw element in the Indian Territory, reporting arresting in excess of some 300 desperadoes during the next decade, and killing many others. All three had the reputation of being dauntless in their pursuit and each was known for their unique tracking abilities. Ironically it was from outlaws pursued by them that the nickname "Three Guardsmen" was first derived. The Guardsmen's claim to fame was their relentless pursuit of the members of the Doolin Gang, eliminating many of them systematically, and apprehending those that would surrender. Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas was responsible for the killing of outlaw Bill Doolin. Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen led a posse that killed Doolin Gang members "Dynamite Dan" Clifton and Richard "Little Dick" West. Deputy Marshal Tilghman was ultimately responsible for the death of Doolin member William F. "Little Bill" Raidler. Several other gang members were either captured or killed by the Guardsmen.

Heck Thomas retired in 1905, and in 1907 accepted a chief of police position in Lawton, Oklahoma. He died in 1912. Chris Madsen retired in 1905 and died in 1944 at the age of 93. Bill Tilghman retired from the marshal service, served as chief of police of Oklahoma City, and was later elected to the Oklahoma Senate. While serving as Cromwell town marshall at the age of 70, Tilghman was shot to death by a drunken prohibition agent. Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame recipients receive a special induction recognition in his name—"The Bill Tilghman Award."

Post by miletus12 on Jul 16, 2023 20:37:44 GMT

Jul 16, 2023 12:27:41 GMT 575 said:

Ah Chris Madsen - he isn't much known in Denmark but a book have been written and a documentary made 1987 - which describe him as a criminal in Denmark - hero in USA.

I know next to nothing about Mister Madsen's Danish past, so I went to that well and dipped in it to extract knowledge.

Chris Madsen, 1851-1944

Chris Madsen was a Danish-born hero in the United States – but without clear traces in Denmark. He is in many ways one of the greatest so-called 'western heroes' if you look at his exploits both as a soldier in the US cavalry and as a US Marshal. He participated for 15 years in a series of violent campaigns against the indigenous populations of the western United States, then went on to serve as a law enforcement officer in the Wild West as marshal of Oklahoma, and participated in the capture of the notorious criminal Dalton and Doolin gangs. But as well documented as his 67 years in the United States (1876-1944) are, just as unclear are his 25 years in Denmark (1851-75). In Chris Madsen's own autobiographical works, of which he wrote several, he claims to be shattered. He describes that as a very young ordonnans (cannoneer?) he participated in the 2nd Infantry Division. He fought in Schleswig War in 1864, followed by further service in both the Danish and French militaries, before immigrating to the United States in December 1875. But others claim that in the years around 1870-75, Chris Madsen instead ran afoul of the law for several periods and was convicted of fraud in Denmark.

Interesting, but only superficial;

[Sønderjyde (South Jutland?) or fynbo (fine bush, fire or angry? I'm not getting this one. M.)?

On February 25, 1851, a Dane was born who had an unusual course of life. He was christened Christian or Christen Madsen, but later became known in the United States as 'Chris Madsen'. He was an ordinary boy from the countryside and lived his first 25 years in Denmark/Europe relatively unnoticed.

There is agreement about his date of birth, but great uncertainty about where in Denmark he was actually born. In his autobiographies from 1921, With Saber and Pistol and 1942, Under Three Flags, Chris Madsen claims to have been born in Southern Jutland, near Flensburg, perhaps just north or south of the current border between Denmark and Germany. The area was then part of the Duchy of Schleswig, which until 1864 belonged to Denmark.

In his memoirs from 1942, Chris Madsen himself describes his birthplace:

"I was born in the Danish Province of Schleswig on the 25th of February, 1851 [...]. My mother's residence was close to the main road between Hamburg and the Scandinavian States [...]. My mother had been appointed Postmaster to handle the mail for the inhabitants residing for miles around her place" (Madsen, 1942, p.2).

Later in the same publication, where Chris Madsen reports on 2. Schleswig War, he elaborates on the location of his birthplace:

"Therefore the Danish army was not overtaken until it had reached Oversee and Sankelmark, close to my old home" (Madsen, 1942, p.8).

In a series of documents held at the Research Department of the Danish Central Library for South Schleswig in Flensburg, the location of the childhood home is further clarified to the Flensburg district of "Jaruplund" (in German: Jarplund). Chris Madsen could reportedly see the spire of the Deacon Hospital in Flensburg from his birthplace. That tower still exists and is not very tall and conspicuous, so it limits the area the childhood home may have been within.

However, the North Jutland author, Leif Ernst (b. 1949) has in his book Skurk i Danmark. Hero of America. Marshal Chris Madsen's hidden past (2003) argued that Chris Madsen was actually born in Rørmosehus on the outskirts of the village of Ørsted on Funen. Leif Ernst has studied church records and local archives and found a Christen Madsen who was born in this place on the date mentioned, and the person fits in many ways with the Chris Madsen that other sources have described.

However, errors and ambiguities can be identified in both Chris Madsen's autobiographical writings and in Leif Ernst's book. Perhaps Chris Madsen was in fact both South Jutland and Fynbo, as the family possibly moved around the country during the period. A Danish-American research project is currently (2020-24) in the process of clarifying how Chris Madsen's Danish childhood and youth actually went.

Childhood and adolescence according to Leif Ernst

The following account is based on the information that Leif Ernst has found and considers plausible. The American historian and Chris Madsen expert, Nancy B. Samuelson, has collaborated with Leif Ernst and referred to him in her own publications. Their information is based on thorough studies, but their interpretations are still discussed in professional environments, both in Denmark and the United States. According to Ernst/Samuelson, after schooling and a folk high school stay on Funen, Chris Madsen went to Copenhagen, where he found himself a fine job as a coachman at the Hermitage Palace, the royal hunting residence north of the capital. However, when in the winter of 1868-69 he became very ill and was hospitalized, he got into great trouble. Leif Ernst's sources say nothing about what Chris Madsen failed in this matter. But there was no possibility of free medical care or public benefits at the time, so Christen was fired from his good job, thrown out of his rented room, and even presented with a large bill from the hospital.

(Ah! now I get it: Islander from Funen. M.)

In the spring of 1869, he was therefore on the streets of Copenhagen without a job, money and housing and with large debts. He wanted to go back to the provinces, but he couldn't afford the transport. Then, however, he met an ambitious fraudster who presented him with his way of life. Christen Madsen allegedly then began a dubious career in which he went around Denmark and impersonated an unfortunate 1864 war veteran who asked for money, for example to travel to France to join the French army facing a war against Germany that everyone expected they would win. In this way, Chris Madsen could help bring Denmark back the lost country ceded to Germany. The problem was that he probably never went to France, but simply kept the money and lived for it.

After a few years, however, according to Ernst/Samuelson, he was exposed / caught and in 1874 sentenced to a prison term in Vridsløselille Prison. Here he allegedly met the imprisoned leaders of the then banned Social Democratic Party, including Louis Pio (1841-1894) and Paul Geleff (1842-1928), who inspired him to write socialist poems and to emigrate to the United States in 1875. Pio and Geleff also emigrated to the United States in 1877.

Was Chris Madsen for a time a Foreign Legionnaire in France – or a petty criminal in Denmark?

It is well documented that Chris Madsen emigrated to the United States in December 1875, where he arrived in January 1876. From that point on, there is a high degree of agreement between the many different sources, especially it is noteworthy that this correspondence from 1876 also applies to some extent to Ernst/Samuelson and Chris Madsen's own versions. (Ellis Island would be the start of that paper trail. M.)

At the landings in New York, Chris Madsen claimed to the US immigration authorities that he had participated as a very young ordinance officer on the Danish side in the Schleswig War of 1864. This is, in fact, a possibility for which there is some justification. But Chris Madsen also claimed in the United States that after a few years in the Danish military, like several other Danish 1864 veterans, he had volunteered for the French Foreign Legion, primarily with the aim of being able to help get Denmark back the lost country in the war between France and Germany that everyone expected to come. It came in 1870-71, and the Foreign Legion fought on the fronts in northern and eastern France. According to Chris Madsen's own writings, he participated in the Battle of Sedan in the autumn of 1870. He was captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp, from which he fled. The history of service with the Foreign Legion can so far only be documented through Chris Madsen's own writings.

(I believe Leif Ernst's account. M.)

Chris Madsen's own version of life in the years 1870-74 stands in stark contrast to Leif Ernst's book, which claims that the war narrative of participation in the Franco-German War (1870-71) is a cover story intended to obscure the period of fraud.

However, there is also something that is common in the two very different versions of Chris Madsen's Danish/European period. Both report that Chris Madsen grew up in a Denmark deeply affected by the 1864 war. In both the Funen and his own South Jutland version of his life, an older brother appears who was drafted into and fought in the war. Some of the journeys Chris Madsen made before the exodus are also described in both places. A special curiosity is that both versions also describe Chris Madsen's friendship and meeting with the famous Norwegian-American Ole Andreas Hansen (1823-1876), the so-called 'Norwegian Giant', who was over 2 meters tall and performed in markets and circuses.

(This experience is very like the way the American Civil War affected the Earps. Wyatt developed an acute inferiority complex that compelled him to become very much the con man and law officerf that he was. M. )

Aarøes Free Corps under Vagtmester Hoffmann in the spring of 1864. This was the unit in which Chris Madsen's older brother Niels fought during the war in 1864, according to both Chris Madsen's autobiographies and Leif Ernst's book. Only two people are named, but Niels Madsen may be in the photo. Warden Hoffmann was a relatively famous person from the free corps. He wrote his own memoirs in the book From the War of 1864 (1892). Interestingly, according to Ernst, Chris(tian) Madsen used Hoffmann's identity during his scams of collecting money for a trip to France in order to enlist in the Foreign Legion. Photo: The Royal Library

In the American Cavalry, 1876-1891

Then, in mid-January 1876, Chris Madsen stood at the harbor in New York. Here he was enlisted as a soldier. Because of Chris Madsen's own information about military experiences from European wars, he was sent without new military training directly to the battlefields out west, where a fierce war against the indigenous population was being fought at the time. It rarely happened in the US military that newly enlisted immigrant soldiers were sent directly to war in this way, so the conversations and examinations Chris Madsen underwent with the enlistment authorities must in various ways have confirmed that he possessed military skills.

It was a demanding campaign against the Native American population launched by the U.S. military in the Wild West. Initially, things did not go well for the American forces, who suffered heavy defeats. For example, at Rosebud on June 17, 1876, and again at Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. Chris Madsen ended up in the middle of this dramatic campaign, where he quickly came to the forefront and was himself wounded in various skirmishes, for example at the BBattle of Slim Buttes in Dakota Territory on September 9, 1876.

(I am delaying the Wounded Knee Massacre until 1892, to fit this timeline, but you must remember that the American army had a visceral in the gut humiliation about the Lakota and the Cheyenne. They will seek vengeance, which will have consewquences. I have not work what those outcomes will be yet. M.).

Supply wagon in trouble from General Crook's campaign in July-September 1876. Chris Madsen participated and survived, unlike many other American soldiers. The campaign, aimed at capturing the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians who had annihilated General Custer's force at Little Big Horn, Montana, on June 25, 1876, ran into serious problems from the outset. The force had little knowledge of the terrain and had to endure extreme weather conditions, with first heat waves, droughts and prairie fires followed by weeks of torrential rains and heavy thunderstorms that made it nearly impossible for Crook's 4,000-man force to advance in the remote areas of Montana-Dakota where the Indians were located. The Indians waged guerrilla warfare with pinprick operations against the force, which fell in number to less than half before the campaign ended in mid-September 1876. Chris Madsen's best comrade, a private soldier named Milner, was killed in such an ambush on September 12, 1876. Chris Madsen nearly lost his life in the same skirmish. Photo: ©Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, X-31757

Chris Madsen did extremely well under the extreme conditions of this war. Thus, the American officers described the war as far more difficult than the Civil War (1861-65). The casualty rate of American forces in the War of 1876 was 20-40%, far higher than in the 2nd Infantry Division. Schleswig War, which Chris Madsen (perhaps) had experience from. If Ernst/Samuelson is right that Chris Madsen came directly from a period of several years of fraud and imprisonment in Denmark, it is a mystery that he appeared as such a competent soldier in the very demanding and arduous campaign he went headlong into. Several sources document Madsen's exploits in the Indian Wars, such as Wilson Rankin's book Reminiscences of Frontier Days (1938). On this basis, it could even be argued that he actually plays down his own role in these wars in his autobiographies.

It can therefore be stated that Chris Madsen proved himself as a skilled soldier who made a fine career in the American cavalry for the next 15 years. He participated in several other wars and battles against the Indians and continued to do well in extreme conditions, such as weather and climate. He was indeed promoted as far as possible for a non-officer-trained soldier. He also gained a good understanding of the situation and perspective of the Indians and made many personal friends among America's indigenous peoples, which was not entirely trouble-free for him. The same can be said of him when he later became a law enforcement officer: he tried to understand the criminals and, for example, kept good contact with their families.

Chris Madsen as American cavalryman. Photo: Familien Madsen, USA

U.S. Marshall 1891-1915

After 15 years in the U.S. Cavalry, Chris Madsen was given a trusted and coveted office in 1891 as Deputy U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma (which was still just a "territory" in the "Wild West", not yet a state). He retained his position as marshal for over 20 years, until about 1915, interrupted by a period in which he was recalled for military service in the war against Spain in 1898-1899.

As US Marshal, Chris Madsen played an important role in the fight against large-scale organized crime. For example, he was heavily involved in capturing the notorious Dalton and Doolin gangs, who were feared bank and train robbers not only in Oklahoma, but also in neighboring states such as Kansas and Texas. They did not go out of their way to kill bank staff and policemen when carrying out their robberies. Chris Madsen achieved a kind of hero status together with his colleagues Bill Tilghman and Heck Thomas. The three law enforcement officers were later referred to as 'The Three Guardsmen of Oklahoma'. Nancy B. Samuelson, however, has pointed out that their heroic status was somewhat exaggerated, arguing that they were sometimes more concerned with side jobs than with attending to their public office. In this connection, she argues that it was actually more armed civil protection (Vigilantes, that is lynch mobs. M.), that targeted the gangs than 'The Three Guardsmen'. Other American historians disagree with that assessment. (See my comments art the end of this article. M.)

Chris Madsen as U.S. Marshal, circa 1892. Photo: University of Oklahoma Libraries. Western History Collection. Fergusson 226

At the beginning of the marshal period, Chris Madsen also started a family. He married Maggie Morris and had two children with her, a boy named Christian Reno Madsen (1890-1981), and a girl named Marion Morris Madsen (1889-1952). His son, Christian Reno Madsen, participated in the preparation of the biography Trigger Marshal. The Story of Chris Madsen, published in 1958.

Chris Madsen's granddaughter, Joan McGrath Madsen, visited Denmark in 1984 and contributed to the research that TV producer Stig Thornsohn did for DR in connection with the production of a drama documentary about Chris Madsen's life. The documentary follows the sources that were available at the time. Jens Okking played Chris Madsen in this film, which was broadcast on DR in 1987. Here are Joan McGrath Madsen and Jens Okking during the recording. © Hanne Lund Larsen.

Chris Madsen contracted malaria during the war against Spain in 1898 and was seriously ill for almost a whole year. However, he returned to his old job as U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma around 1900. He was also active in the burgeoning conservation movement and in various organizations working to improve conditions for America's indigenous population. Chris Madsen led President Arthur's expedition to the Yellowstone area in 1883. The expedition contributed to the creation of Yellowstone as the world's first national park.

Chris Madsen remained active as a law enforcement officer until about 1915, when he entered the new booming film industry at the age of 65. He co-founded a film company that produced westerns. However, he also continued with police and security work in various ways, volunteered in nursing homes and worked as a film consultant well into his life. He died from the complications of a fall accident in 1944.

Legacy
Chris Madsen's Danish past is still controversial and partly undocumented. Research is therefore still ongoing into what actually happened before his emigration in 1875. Conversely, it is with his 67 years in the United States: They are very well documented and described, but his legacy is also controversial in the United States. Here, the discussions are mainly about his personality: Was he a true hero, or was he more of an opportunist who took advantage of circumstances and situations to his own advantage? In the United States, it is also debated to what extent Chris Madsen actually participated in the concrete crime hunts and gunfights: Was he more of an administrator and desk officer than the classic gun hero he is also portrayed as?

(Translated with Chat GPT and with several dictionaries. Any errors are mine. M.)

As to that question of his role in the United States, I can answer it 575 . He participated in the deaths of 300 outlaws and the incarceration of more than a 1,000. He was a BLOODTHIRSTY expletive deleted. This is well documented through Topeka Kansas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; also at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and in Austin. Texas in their state law enforcement and trials archives. He was "Porthos".

Miletus

Last Edit: Jul 16, 2023 21:51:33 GMT by miletus12

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 17, 2023 19:57:59 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 17, 2023 19:57:59 GMT

You may wonder where I arrived at the basis for the Great Circus Train Robbery?

United States – Delta, California: An elephant traveling on a Southern Pacific train removed a coupling pin from a car. The forward portion of the train traveled 20 miles (32 km) before the locomotive crew discovered the split. This incident happened in the first week of December of 1891. I like to think it happened on 7 December for historical symmetry, as in that the elephant Pearl Harbored the train.

Source: George B. Abdill (1959), Pacific Slope Railroads, p. 126. Seattle: Superior Publishing.

I find the weirdest stuff anywhere for this timeline to create the story.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Untold stories - Elephants, Native Americans and my Grandad

This is my grandfather, Samuel Horrocks Williams in the 1920's. He took to farming in Canada instead of following the family mill business in Manchester, England. My great grandfather told him he has to start, like everyone else, at the bottom sweeping the floor. Grandad had schooling and did not want to start at the bottom so took off for fields a new and became a farmer in Ontario, Canada.

My grandmother, his second wife (his first wife Mollie died of T.B.) had most of his photograph albums and some other things of his that were not tossed out or passed on to other members of the family. Last year, Gran died. Almost a year after my mum was able to ship over some of Grandad and Gran's things, reminders of them that have no real value, other than sentimental and keepsake memories. But Mum threw in a photo album from which the photo above is from. The album has opened a few questions in the family which cannot be answered, but one of my favorites is this photograph.

Grandad is, I think, the one with what looks like a tan shirt and silly hat on! This photo, as with all the photos in the album, are from Ontario, Canada. Look at the houses in the background. And here he is, presumably in one of the farm's fields with a small herd of elephants and a Native American. And we are left with this great question: What on Earth is going on here? The only thing we have come to is that the elephants and maybe some of the people in the photo are from a traveling circus. The elephants, I presume, have been let off the trailers, be they pulled, or from a railway locomotive, to eat and stretch. But I wish I knew the story of this image.

Grandad died in the 1980's and I had never seen this photograph album. Most of the photos taken pre-Gran were not let out or looked at. And Gran has gone so I cannot ask her. My one surviving aunt from my grandfather's marriage to Molli also has no idea, as most of the photos in the album are from Grandad's first trip which he made before coming back to get Mollie.

I love the photo and the mystery it has created. Grandad loved animals and the letters of recommendation we have from this time period state this categorically. And I love the fact that Grandad could ride a horse sans saddle.

Peace,
Simon

LETTER:

C/O United States Post Office / General Delivery
24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA
5 January 1892

Doctor Norman Oswald Bates DP
C/O The Athenaeum
107 Pall Mall
London, United Kingdom

My dear Norman:

You may have read in “The Times” a curious human interest story about the recent business demise of the world-famous Boondoggle Circus of Toronto, Canada fame? I must admit that my associates and I were the proximate cause of that outcome. Believe me, Norman, if I had known that I was to be involved in another fiasco, like Jumbo,^1 was for the British Empire, I would have begged off, if I had known, but at the time, the game I hunted was these rapscallions, the Wild Bunch ^2, not elephants.

But I write you, sir, I would have preferred to use my Lee rifle on those brigands than what would await me.

I have enclosed photographs, we took of the place, azfvter, to illustrate what a nightmare it was for B-troop to get in there and chase all of the animals which escaped from the derailment. I believe at the end we accomplished the capture of some nine lions, five or six tigers, more bears than I can remember, and I mean the huge American ones, not the tiny ursines who roam Europe.

But the most dangerous, the most intelligent and the most cunning, Norman, were the elephants. I had no experience with those devilish beasts, having left that affair to our Indian Mahouts of the 15th Lancers.

We had to let the elephants roam unchallenged across that inhospitable country for the two weeks it took for the Americans to invent the giant electric lances, we finally used to corral and steer the pachyderms. I have a sneaking suspicion, that that insane woman in Boston, had something to do with it. We needed such coercion to stand our hooves with the African monsters. Especially Matilda, as we named her, proved difficult and cunning. She would turn and facwe any riders who approached her. The unfortunate Lieutenanrt William Pierce, being typically brash and aggressive, as a West Pointer, is trained to be, poked Matilsd between the eyes with his long pole, shocked her and was rewarded by the elephant wrapping her trunk around his torso and yanking him off his horse. She swung him around a bit in the air as if he was a baton held by an orchestra conductor and then she threw him a good forty feet until he impacted the ground. I feared he was dead. It took eight of us to finally shock her senseless. Multiply that performance again four times.

By comparuison, the Burmese tiger pit, a lion cage fall, and the bear pen traps, most which are variations of familiar animal snares to the Americans, were fairly easy, if expensive in live cattle used as bait.

Nevertheless, I do not propose an African safari as a good experience in this country of Wyoming, filled as it is, with human hostiles of every description and sort, who make a look over the shoulder an absolute necessary distraction, while you hunt lions.

If any good news comes from this calamity, it is that American military medicine is very good. The troopers of 2nd platoon were able to splint Lieutenant Pierce's legs and save his life. He will not suffer amputation, which is what our field butchers would have done to him.

As for the animals we captured, we conveyed them with great difficulty, by train, to the frontier town of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is there that the Americans, as I write this, build a zoo, to house our captives. Have you any idea, how hard it is to move a four ton senseless elephant, Norman?

Our ever ingenious Africanp-American, Lieutenant William Fritch, found a way: with A frames, rope, sledges, logs, horses and improvised nautical block and tackle that he somehow scrounged together in the middle of a godforsaken country hundreds of miles from the nearest port.

I must revise my estimate of our dark skinned cousins. Apparently Darwin is wrong about them, being inferior.

Your friend in the land of the American buffalo;

Brandon Croyden Wycliffe, ESQ. OM FRS.

============================================================

(Yes, reader, that IS the Cheyenne Zoo, complete with elephants. You think I make this stuff up? M.)

(The Wild Bunch, Circa 1900. M.)

(Site of the fictional robbery attempt, notice the terrain? Imagine that the locomotive is one of the Goss Davenport ELCO 4-6-4s. M.)

In macroscale;

(The bridge is what you see after the tunnel grade turns out onto the Wind River. M.)

^1

JUMBO THE ELEPHANT: THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF THE LARGEST ANIMAL IN THE WORLD

Posted by Charlie Hintz | Sideshow

Jumbo the elephant, the animal P.T. Barnum called the “largest animal in the world,” was struck and killed by a train on September 15th, 1885. But that was far from the end of Jumbo’s story.

Jumbo was taken from the African savanna by a group of nomadic hunters when he was just four years old. They killed his mother, and sold him to the London zoo in 1860. He lived there in a small stable, giving rides to children day after day. The public was fascinated by the gigantic animal. Among those in awe of the magnificent creature were Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and even the queen of England herself, Queen Victoria’s children got a ride on Jumbo’s back.

In 1882, the then 21 year old elephant was in declining health and becoming difficult to control as he was entering the elephant equivalent of puberty. The safety of zoo visitors was becoming a concern.

That’s when legendary showman PT Barnum made his move. The Barnum & Bailey Circus – the “Greatest Show on Earth” – needed the “largest animal on earth.” Elephants were essential to the success of a circus show back then, but Jumbo was special and Barnum knew he would draw larger crowds then any other. He offered the zoo $30,000, an offer they couldn’t refuse.

But Jumbo didn’t want to go.

A huge crate was built to transport Jumbo, but he would not go in. It took weeks of gentle coaxing to lure him inside. The British people sympathized with Jumbo, which lead to a great public outcry. 15,000 people a day visited Jumbo to pay their respects, bring him food, and protest the sale.

Despite the objections – even Queen Victoria expressed her disappointment – zookeepers eventually got Jumbo into the crate and Barnum won.

It was clear that handling the difficult elephant was going to be a challenge. There was one man Jumbo would listen to – his trainer Matthew “Scotty” Scott. Scotty had been caring for Jumbo ever since his arrival in London. He shared a bottle of beer with the elephant every night before bed.

Barnum hired Scotty and they departed for New York. Scotty would care for Jumbo for the rest of his life.

ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK

Jumbo was greeted upon his arrival by a crowd of 10,000 people eager to get a glimpse of the legendary animal. His crate was pulled up Broadway by a team of horses while the crowd cheered.

The first two weeks of ticket sales alone, Barnum noted in his memoirs, more than covered the cost of purchase and shipping.

But Jumbo spent just three years touring with Barnum’s circus before the tragedy that took his life.

JUMBO VS THE TRAIN

On September 15, 1885, Jumbo was struck and killed by a train during a stop in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Jumbo and another well-known elephant, a dwarf named Tom Thumb, were being loaded into a boxcar after the show when suddenly an unscheduled freight train came around the bend and was bearing down on them.

As Barnum told the story, Jumbo was trying to save Tom Thumb from the oncoming train by nudging the little elephant off the tracks. Tom Thumb survived with little more than a broken leg, but Jumbo, running from the train, couldn’t get out of the way in time. The train slammed into him and dragged him 300 feet down the track before it finally derailed.

Scotty ran to him and quickly realized that Jumbo was dying. Scotty stayed by his side, and Jumbo held his hand with his trunk until the end. It was only a matter of minutes.

In the aftermath of the accident, someone had cut off part of Jumbo’s ear as a souvenir. Those nearby said Scott had flown into a rage when he discovered it.

Rumors abound that Jumbo had already been sick and dying from mistreatment, and was lead deliberately into the path of the oncoming train to prevent accusations of animal cruelty. Nothing ever came of came of it, but it was enough to cast doubt over Barnum’s account of the day’s events.

A crowd poses with the lifeless body of Jumbo the elephant

Jumbo was dead, but Barnum wasn’t about to let his investment go. A dead elephant could still make money. He called in expert taxidermists from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York.

“Let him show like a mountain!” Barnum instructed.

Ward sent taxidermists William J. Critchley and Carl Akeley to articulate Jumbo’s massive skeleton and mount the hide. At Barnum’s request, they stretched the hide to make the final mount taller than Jumbo had been in life.

“It is worth $100,000 or more per year for exhibition in our show,” Barnum said of the taxidermy mount.

In 1886, Barnum bought another elephant named Alice from the London zoo. Alice had been Jumbo’s companion. Newspapers called her “Jumbo’s Wife” and, after his death, his “grief-stricken widow.”

The New York Times wrote:

“When Alice first saw the stuffed skin of Jumbo she seemed like one in a trance. Then she touched his skin with her trunk and again burst into a flood of tears. She knew at last that he was dead, and as she looked into his glassy eyes and fondled his stuffed forehead with her trunk she seemed to say: ‘My poor old Jumbo, your Alice weeps for you.'”

Jumbo’s skin and articulated skeleton continued to tour with the circus for the next several years.

ELEPHANT OF FORTUNE

Moving Jumbo into Barnum Hall, 1889

Jumbo being moved into the Barnum Museum at Tufts Museum, 1889

In 1889, Barnum donated Jumbo to Tufts University in Massachusetts, of which Barnum was a founding trustee and benefactor.

Jumbo joined the collection of the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tufts, taking his place as the centerpiece among other rare and valuable taxidermied creatures from the circus. The entrance to Barnum Hall had to be disassembled so the 1,500-pound elephant would fit through.

Jumbo was known to smell a bit on rainy days, but students loved him. It soon became tradition to tug on his tail or drop coins into his trunk for good luck before a tough exam or a big game.

“One of the senior members of the faculty, zoology professor Bud Carpenter, would carefully collect the pennies,” Biology Professor Emeritus Nancy Milburn related in an oral history. “He made enough money to replace the ashtrays in the lounge that students kept stealing for their rooms.”

Students put pennies in Jumbo's trunk for good luck

Over the years, pieces of Jumbo’s tusks were broken off for souvenirs. One story says that Barnum himself once threw a party that served gelatin made from them. And the tail that was pulled for good luck was eventually tugged right off.

Jumbo was in rough shape, but he was beloved, and was adopted as the school mascot.

BARNUM HALL FIRE

In 1975, Barnum Hall was gutted by an electrical fire. No one was hurt, but Jumbo and the rest of the natural history collection was reduced to ashes. Only the metal armature inside Jumbo that held him upright remained in the charred ruins.

But, as the Tuft website says, Jumbo’s spirit lives on.

And a few pieces of him.

The building smoldered for days. When it was safe to enter, Tuft athletic director Rocky Carzo and administrative assistant Phyllis Byrne hatched a perpetuate Jumbo’s legacy.

They sent a maintenance man in with a Peter Pan peanut butter jar to collect ashes.

“I put this jar in my office until I retired,” Carzo said, “and they turned it over to my successor, Bill Gehling.”

The jar of Jumbo’s ashes remains on a shelf in the athletic director’s office to this day, passed down ceremoniously to each new successor.

The ashes of Jumbo the elephant in a peanut butter jar at Tufts University

“It’s an honor for me to be the keeper of the ashes while serving as athletics director,” John Morris, who currently holds the position at Tufts, said in an interview.

Students still rub the jar for good luck.

In 2015, a bronze statue of Jumbo was erected outside the rebuilt Barnum Hall to commemorate the 125th anniversary of his arrival on campus.

REST IN PIECES

Tufts keeps several small pieces of Jumbo in a cardboard box in the university archives – pieces of skin, slices of trunk, a whisker. And, of course, his tail – which remains quite popular.

“It is so frequently requested we keep it in easy reach,” Anne Sauer, former director of Digital Collections and Archives, told The Guardian during her tenure at Tufts.

Jumbo’s heart was saved during the taxidermy process. Henry Ward sold it to Cornell University for $40, where it was preserved with alcohol in a massive 2-foot tall specimen jar.

The jar was rediscovered in the 1940s. It was empty, with only an old label describing what it had once contained.

The skeleton of Jumbo the elephant

When Barnum sent the taxidermy mount to Tufts in 1889, he also gifted Jumbo’s skeleton to the American Museum of Natural History. It remained on display in the museum until 1969, when memory of the great elephant had faded.

The display was brought out again in 1975, probably due to a briefly renewed interest after the Tufts fire, and then packed away in deep storage.

Jumbo’s enormous bones didn’t make another public appearance until 1993, when the museum put them back on display briefly to mark the 200th anniversary of the circus in America.

Most recently, a team of researchers along with David Attenborough, David Suzuki and a crew of Canadian and British filmmakers gained access to Jumbo’s bones in 2017 to solve a few mysteries surrounding the death of the world’s most famous elephant. ^1a

Was Jumbo mistreated? Was his death a conspiracy? And most importantly, was he really the biggest elephant in the world?

Jumbo giving rides to children at the London zoo

The team found evidence that Jumbo’s soft diet of hay, oats and grasses, rather than than the barks, twigs and leaves elephants eat in the wild, caused painful deformities in his teeth.

From his time giving rides or being chained up, they found that Jumbo’s joints looked like those of a 60-year-old elephant, not 24.

“Just the overall configuration of the knee joint really yelled out to me that this was not a normal elephant’s knee,” mammal expert John Hutchinson said. “This was an animal that had problems.”

As for the conspiracy theory that Jumbo was intentionally lead directly into the oncoming train?

The impact of the train did not break any of Jumbo’s bones – it was massive internal trauma that killed him – but a recently rediscovered photo showed abrasions along his rear flank to support that he was hit from behind.

And finally, was Jumbo the biggest elephant that ever lived?

Barnum claimed Jumbo was 13 feet tall.

The team measured Jumbo’s femur and determined he would have stood 10.5 feet tall. That’s obviously a bit shorter that Barnum boasted, but it was still 20% larger than the average for elephants his age – and he still had another 16 years of growth ahead of him.

According to Hutchinson, “He was exceptional.”

Vint0age circus poster shows Jumbo with his keeper Matthew Scott, 1882

Jumbo with his keeper Matthew Scott, 1882
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

^1a David Attenburrough grinds my professional gears.

I have no use for lying incompetent malicious publicity seekers. David Attenburrough damages the genuine cause with his expletive deleted nonsense. Therefore, based on his past record, any claim he associates himself with, that Barnum mistreated Jumbo, when the likely expletive deleteds, who caused the dietary and arthitic bone conditions discovered in the elephant, which bwould take a decade or more of mistreatment, were the expletive deleted London Zoo people; who were desperate to unload their sick elephant onto an "American Rube". From our accounts, Jumbo was exercised and fed the closest approximate diet to his African rouphage, the Americans could manage. They wanted that elephant to live as long as possible to make money off of him.

^2

The Wild Bunch

August 18, 2009 webadmin Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen

The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang (Bill Doolin, pictured left), was a group of outlaws based in Indian Territory, that terrorized Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s—robbing banks, stores and trains, and killing lawmen.

The group had its origins following the Dalton Gang’s botched train robbery in Adair, Oklahoma Territory July 1892. Two guards and two townspeople, both doctors, were wounded, and one of the doctors died the next day. Bob Dalton told William “Bill” Doolin, Newcomb, and Pierce, he no longer needed them so Doolin and his friends returned to their hideout in Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. On October 5th, the Dalton Gang, what was left of them, would be wiped out in Coffeyville, Kansas.

The Wild Bunch Begins Its Reign:

November 1, 1892 – Doolin and his new gang robbed the Ford County Bank at Spearville, Kansas, making off with all the cash and over $1,500 in treasury notes. The Stillwater, Oklahoma Territory city marshal recognized Ol Yantis, the newest member of the gang, from the postcard descriptions he received. Shortly thereafter, Yantis was cornered and killed in a shootout with the marshal’s posse.

The gang held up a Santa Fe train west of Cimmaron, Kansas on June 11, 1893 and took $1,000 in silver from the California-New Mexico Express. A sheriff’s posse eventually caught up with them and engaged the gang in a gunfight that left Doolin with a bullet in his left foot.

September 1, 1893 – a posse organized by the new U.S. Marshal, Evett Dumas “E.D.” Nix, entered the outlaw town of Ingalls with the intent to capture the gang. Three of the fourteen lawmen died as a result of the ensuing battle. Two townspeople also died; one was killed protecting the outlaws. Of the outlaws, Newcomb was seriously wounded but escaped, and Arkansas Tom Jones, the killer of the three deputies and one citizen was captured.

January 3, 1894 – Pierce and Waightman robbed a store and post office at Clarkson, Oklahoma Territory. On January 23, the gang robbed the Farmers Citizens Bank at Pawnee, Oklahoma Territory, and March 10, the Wild Bunch robbed the Santa Fe station at Woodward, Oklahoma Territory, of over $6,000.

March 20 – Nix sends out a directive to have the Wild Bunch taken care of. The directive stated in part, “I have selected you to do this work, placing explicit confidence in your abilities to cope with those desperadoes and bring them in—alive if possible—dead if necessary.”

April 1, 1894 – the gang attempted to rob the store of retired US Deputy Marshal W.H. Carr at Sacred Heart, Indian Territory. Carr, although shot in the stomach, managed to shoot Newcomb in the shoulder and the gang fled without getting anything.

May 10, 1894 – the Wild Bunch robbed the bank at Southwest City, Missouri of $4,000, wounding several townspeople and killing one.

May 21, 1894 – jurors in Arkansas Tom’s trial found him guilty only of manslaughter in the killing of the three Deputy US Marshals. Frank Dale, the territorial judge hearing the case, returned to Guthrie, the territorial capitol, and told E.D. Nix, ” … you will instruct your deputies to bring them in dead.”

Meanwhile, Bill Dalton left Doolin to form his own gang. On May 23, 1894, the Dalton Gang robbed the First National Bank at Longview, Texas. This was the only job by the gang before three of its members would be killed by various posses and the last one was sent to prison for life.

April 3, 1895 – the Wild Bunch, without Doolin, held up a Rock Island train at Dover but when they were unable to open the safe containing $50,000 in army payroll, they robbed passengers of cash and jewelry instead. Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Madsen and his posse took a special train to Dover, surprising the gang around noon. The marshals killed Blake and scattered the gang. This would be the last robbery by the Wild Bunch as a gang, although its members kept up the robberies and killings for which they were known.

How they all Died:

Bill Doolin’s passing was as violent as the rest of his gang. All of their deaths were by gunshot.

Ol Yantis — killed November 29, 1892, Orlando, Oklahoma Territory by a sheriff’s posse.

Arkansas Tom Jones — captured September 1, 1893, in Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory; pardoned 1910; killed August 16, 1924, in Joplin, Missouri, by Joplin police detectives.

Bill Dalton — killed June 8, 1894, near Elk, Indian Territory, by an Anadarko posse.

Tulsa Jack Blake — killed April 4, 1895, near Ames, Oklahoma Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals Will Banks and Isaac Prater.

Bitter Creek Newcomb — killed May 2, 1895, Payne County, Oklahoma Territory by Bounty Hunters, called the Dunn brothers.

Charley Pierce — killed May 2, 1895, Payne County, Oklahoma Territory, by the Dunn brothers.

Little Bill Raidler — shot and captured September 6, 1895, by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman; paroled 1903 because of complication from wounds received when he was captured; died 1904.

Bill Doolin — captured January 15, 1896, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman; escaped with Dynamite Dick Clifton; killed August 24, 1896, Lawson, Oklahoma Territory, by a posse under Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas.

Red Buck Waightman — killed March 4, 1896, near Arapaho, Oklahoma Territory, by a Custer County posse.

Dynamite Dick Clifton — captured June, 1896, by Deputy U.S. Marshals from Texas; escaped with Bill Doolin; killed November 7, 1897, near Checotah, Indian Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals under Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen.

Little Dick West — killed April 8, 1898, in Logan County, Oklahoma Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals under Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen.

Last Edit: Jul 17, 2023 21:59:19 GMT by miletus12

575
Captain

There is no Purgatory for warcriminals - they go directly to Hell!

Posts: 2,730

Likes: 4,107

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 17, 2023 20:57:14 GMT miletus12 likes this

Quote

Post by 575 on Jul 17, 2023 20:57:14 GMT

Jul 17, 2023 19:57:59 GMT miletus12 said:

You may wonder where I arrived at the basis for the Great Circus Train Robbery?

United States – Delta, California: An elephant traveling on a Southern Pacific train removed a coupling pin from a car. The forward portion of the train traveled 20 miles (32 km) before the locomotive crew discovered the split. This incident happened in the first week of December of 1891. I like to think it happened on 7 December for historical symmetry, as in that the elephant Pearl Harbored the train.

Source: George B. Abdill (1959), Pacific Slope Railroads, p. 126. Seattle: Superior Publishing.

I find the weirdest stuff anywhere for this timeline to create the story.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Untold stories - Elephants, Native Americans and my Grandad

This is my grandfather, Samuel Horrocks Williams in the 1920's. He took to farming in Canada instead of following the family mill business in Manchester, England. My great grandfather told him he has to start, like everyone else, at the bottom sweeping the floor. Grandad had schooling and did not want to start at the bottom so took off for fields a new and became a farmer in Ontario, Canada.

My grandmother, his second wife (his first wife Mollie died of T.B.) had most of his photograph albums and some other things of his that were not tossed out or passed on to other members of the family. Last year, Gran died. Almost a year after my mum was able to ship over some of Grandad and Gran's things, reminders of them that have no real value, other than sentimental and keepsake memories. But Mum threw in a photo album from which the photo above is from. The album has opened a few questions in the family which cannot be answered, but one of my favorites is this photograph.

Grandad is, I think, the one with what looks like a tan shirt and silly hat on! This photo, as with all the photos in the album, are from Ontario, Canada. Look at the houses in the background. And here he is, presumably in one of the farm's fields with a small herd of elephants and a Native American. And we are left with this great question: What on Earth is going on here? The only thing we have come to is that the elephants and maybe some of the people in the photo are from a traveling circus. The elephants, I presume, have been let off the trailers, be they pulled, or from a railway locomotive, to eat and stretch. But I wish I knew the story of this image.

Grandad died in the 1980's and I had never seen this photograph album. Most of the photos taken pre-Gran were not let out or looked at. And Gran has gone so I cannot ask her. My one surviving aunt from my grandfather's marriage to Molli also has no idea, as most of the photos in the album are from Grandad's first trip which he made before coming back to get Mollie.

I love the photo and the mystery it has created. Grandad loved animals and the letters of recommendation we have from this time period state this categorically. And I love the fact that Grandad could ride a horse sans saddle.

Peace,
Simon

LETTER:

C/O United States Post Office / General Delivery
24 Beacon Street, Boston, MA
5 January 1892

Doctor Norman Oswald Bates DP
C/O The Athenaeum
107 Pall Mall
London, United Kingdom

My dear Norman:

You may have read in “The Times” a curious human interest story about the recent business demise of the world-famous Boondoggle Circus of Toronto, Canada fame? I must admit that my associates and I were the proximate cause of that outcome. Believe me, Norman, if I had known that I was to be involved in another fiasco, like Jumbo,^1 was for the British Empire, I would have begged off.

^1

JUMBO THE ELEPHANT: THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF THE LARGEST ANIMAL IN THE WORLD

Posted by Charlie Hintz | Sideshow

Jumbo the elephant, the animal P.T. Barnum called the “largest animal in the world,” was struck and killed by a train on September 15th, 1885. But that was far from the end of Jumbo’s story.

Jumbo was taken from the African savanna by a group of nomadic hunters when he was just four years old. They killed his mother, and sold him to the London zoo in 1860. He lived there in a small stable, giving rides to children day after day. The public was fascinated by the gigantic animal. Among those in awe of the magnificent creature were Teddy Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and even the queen of England herself, Queen Victoria’s children got a ride on Jumbo’s back.

In 1882, the then 21 year old elephant was in declining health and becoming difficult to control as he was entering the elephant equivalent of puberty. The safety of zoo visitors was becoming a concern.

That’s when legendary showman PT Barnum made his move. The Barnum & Bailey Circus – the “Greatest Show on Earth” – needed the “largest animal on earth.” Elephants were essential to the success of a circus show back then, but Jumbo was special and Barnum knew he would draw larger crowds then any other. He offered the zoo $30,000, an offer they couldn’t refuse.

But Jumbo didn’t want to go.

A huge crate was built to transport Jumbo, but he would not go in. It took weeks of gentle coaxing to lure him inside. The British people sympathized with Jumbo, which lead to a great public outcry. 15,000 people a day visited Jumbo to pay their respects, bring him food, and protest the sale.

Despite the objections – even Queen Victoria expressed her disappointment – zookeepers eventually got Jumbo into the crate and Barnum won.

It was clear that handling the difficult elephant was going to be a challenge. There was one man Jumbo would listen to – his trainer Matthew “Scotty” Scott. Scotty had been caring for Jumbo ever since his arrival in London. He shared a bottle of beer with the elephant every night before bed.

Barnum hired Scotty and they departed for New York. Scotty would care for Jumbo for the rest of his life.

ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK

Jumbo was greeted upon his arrival by a crowd of 10,000 people eager to get a glimpse of the legendary animal. His crate was pulled up Broadway by a team of horses while the crowd cheered.

The first two weeks of ticket sales alone, Barnum noted in his memoirs, more than covered the cost of purchase and shipping.

But Jumbo spent just three years touring with Barnum’s circus before the tragedy that took his life.

JUMBO VS THE TRAIN

On September 15, 1885, Jumbo was struck and killed by a train during a stop in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Jumbo and another well-known elephant, a dwarf named Tom Thumb, were being loaded into a boxcar after the show when suddenly an unscheduled freight train came around the bend and was bearing down on them.

As Barnum told the story, Jumbo was trying to save Tom Thumb from the oncoming train by nudging the little elephant off the tracks. Tom Thumb survived with little more than a broken leg, but Jumbo, running from the train, couldn’t get out of the way in time. The train slammed into him and dragged him 300 feet down the track before it finally derailed.

Scotty ran to him and quickly realized that Jumbo was dying. Scotty stayed by his side, and Jumbo held his hand with his trunk until the end. It was only a matter of minutes.

In the aftermath of the accident, someone had cut off part of Jumbo’s ear as a souvenir. Those nearby said Scott had flown into a rage when he discovered it.

Rumors abound that Jumbo had already been sick and dying from mistreatment, and was lead deliberately into the path of the oncoming train to prevent accusations of animal cruelty. Nothing ever came of came of it, but it was enough to cast doubt over Barnum’s account of the day’s events.

A crowd poses with the lifeless body of Jumbo the elephant

Jumbo was dead, but Barnum wasn’t about to let his investment go. A dead elephant could still make money. He called in expert taxidermists from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York.

“Let him show like a mountain!” Barnum instructed.

Ward sent taxidermists William J. Critchley and Carl Akeley to articulate Jumbo’s massive skeleton and mount the hide. At Barnum’s request, they stretched the hide to make the final mount taller than Jumbo had been in life.

“It is worth $100,000 or more per year for exhibition in our show,” Barnum said of the taxidermy mount.

In 1886, Barnum bought another elephant named Alice from the London zoo. Alice had been Jumbo’s companion. Newspapers called her “Jumbo’s Wife” and, after his death, his “grief-stricken widow.”

The New York Times wrote:

Jumbo’s skin and articulated skeleton continued to tour with the circus for the next several years.

ELEPHANT OF FORTUNE

Moving Jumbo into Barnum Hall, 1889

Jumbo being moved into the Barnum Museum at Tufts Museum, 1889

In 1889, Barnum donated Jumbo to Tufts University in Massachusetts, of which Barnum was a founding trustee and benefactor.

Jumbo joined the collection of the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tufts, taking his place as the centerpiece among other rare and valuable taxidermied creatures from the circus. The entrance to Barnum Hall had to be disassembled so the 1,500-pound elephant would fit through.

Jumbo was known to smell a bit on rainy days, but students loved him. It soon became tradition to tug on his tail or drop coins into his trunk for good luck before a tough exam or a big game.

“One of the senior members of the faculty, zoology professor Bud Carpenter, would carefully collect the pennies,” Biology Professor Emeritus Nancy Milburn related in an oral history. “He made enough money to replace the ashtrays in the lounge that students kept stealing for their rooms.”

Students put pennies in Jumbo's trunk for good luck

Over the years, pieces of Jumbo’s tusks were broken off for souvenirs. One story says that Barnum himself once threw a party that served gelatin made from them. And the tail that was pulled for good luck was eventually tugged right off.

Jumbo was in rough shape, but he was beloved, and was adopted as the school mascot.

BARNUM HALL FIRE

In 1975, Barnum Hall was gutted by an electrical fire. No one was hurt, but Jumbo and the rest of the natural history collection was reduced to ashes. Only the metal armature inside Jumbo that held him upright remained in the charred ruins.

But, as the Tuft website says, Jumbo’s spirit lives on.

And a few pieces of him.

The building smoldered for days. When it was safe to enter, Tuft athletic director Rocky Carzo and administrative assistant Phyllis Byrne hatched a perpetuate Jumbo’s legacy.

They sent a maintenance man in with a Peter Pan peanut butter jar to collect ashes.

“I put this jar in my office until I retired,” Carzo said, “and they turned it over to my successor, Bill Gehling.”

The jar of Jumbo’s ashes remains on a shelf in the athletic director’s office to this day, passed down ceremoniously to each new successor.

The ashes of Jumbo the elephant in a peanut butter jar at Tufts University

“It’s an honor for me to be the keeper of the ashes while serving as athletics director,” John Morris, who currently holds the position at Tufts, said in an interview.

Students still rub the jar for good luck.

In 2015, a bronze statue of Jumbo was erected outside the rebuilt Barnum Hall to commemorate the 125th anniversary of his arrival on campus.

REST IN PIECES

Tufts keeps several small pieces of Jumbo in a cardboard box in the university archives – pieces of skin, slices of trunk, a whisker. And, of course, his tail – which remains quite popular.

“It is so frequently requested we keep it in easy reach,” Anne Sauer, former director of Digital Collections and Archives, told The Guardian during her tenure at Tufts.

Jumbo’s heart was saved during the taxidermy process. Henry Ward sold it to Cornell University for $40, where it was preserved with alcohol in a massive 2-foot tall specimen jar.

The jar was rediscovered in the 1940s. It was empty, with only an old label describing what it had once contained.

The skeleton of Jumbo the elephant

When Barnum sent the taxidermy mount to Tufts in 1889, he also gifted Jumbo’s skeleton to the American Museum of Natural History. It remained on display in the museum until 1969, when memory of the great elephant had faded.

The display was brought out again in 1975, probably due to a briefly renewed interest after the Tufts fire, and then packed away in deep storage.

Jumbo’s enormous bones didn’t make another public appearance until 1993, when the museum put them back on display briefly to mark the 200th anniversary of the circus in America.

Most recently, a team of researchers along with David Attenborough, David Suzuki and a crew of Canadian and British filmmakers^2 gained access to Jumbo’s bones in 2017 to solve a few mysteries surrounding the death of the world’s most famous elephant.

Was Jumbo mistreated? Was his death a conspiracy? And most importantly, was he really the biggest elephant in the world?

Jumbo giving rides to children at the London zoo

The team found evidence that Jumbo’s soft diet of hay, oats and grasses, rather than than the barks, twigs and leaves elephants eat in the wild, caused painful deformities in his teeth.

From his time giving rides or being chained up, they found that Jumbo’s joints looked like those of a 60-year-old elephant, not 24.

“Just the overall configuration of the knee joint really yelled out to me that this was not a normal elephant’s knee,” mammal expert John Hutchinson said. “This was an animal that had problems.”

As for the conspiracy theory that Jumbo was intentionally lead directly into the oncoming train?

The impact of the train did not break any of Jumbo’s bones – it was massive internal trauma that killed him – but a recently rediscovered photo showed abrasions along his rear flank to support that he was hit from behind.

And finally, was Jumbo the biggest elephant that ever lived?

Barnum claimed Jumbo was 13 feet tall.

The team measured Jumbo’s femur and determined he would have stood 10.5 feet tall. That’s obviously a bit shorter that Barnum boasted, but it was still 20% larger than the average for elephants his age – and he still had another 16 years of growth ahead of him.

According to Hutchinson, “He was exceptional.”

Vint0age circus poster shows Jumbo with his keeper Matthew Scott, 1882

Jumbo with his keeper Matthew Scott, 1882
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

^2 David Attenburrough grinds my professional gears.

I have no use for lying incompetent malicious publicity seekers. David Attenburrough damages the genuine cause with his expletive deleted nonsense. Therefore, based on his past record, any claim he associates himself with, that Barnum mistreated Jumbo, when the likely expletive deleteds, who caused the dietary and arthitic bone conditions discovered in the elephant, which bwould take a decade or more of mistreatment, were the expletive deleted London Zoo people; who were desperate to unload their sick elephant onto an "American Rube". From our accounts, Jumbo was exercised and fed the closest approximate diet to his African rouphage, the Americans could manage. They wanted that elephant to live as long as possible to make money off of him.

You made good use of it.

I too like to find such and twist it to fit to my writing.

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 17, 2023 22:05:37 GMT 575 likes this

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 17, 2023 22:05:37 GMT

Jul 17, 2023 20:57:14 GMT 575 said:

You made good use of it.

I too like to find such and twist it to fit to my writing

You caught me in mid-edit. I like to show that no matter how insane the fiction, when you mix human beings and bizarre circumstances... nothing is inconceivable that is remotely possible. NOTHING.

Last Edit: Jul 17, 2023 22:08:51 GMT by miletus12

miletus12
Squadron vice admiral

To get yourself lost, just follow the signs.

Posts: 7,470

Likes: 4,295

Thunder and Lightning. Jul 18, 2023 16:20:45 GMT

Quote

Post by miletus12 on Jul 18, 2023 16:20:45 GMT

Something Lieutenant William Crozier is working on with Doctor Richard Jordan Gatling and Charles F. Brush.

Electrically Powered Gatling Gun

Since the late 1860s Richard Gatling’s hand-cranked ‘machine’ gun had dominated the machine gun market being adopted by major powers across the World. However, by the last decade of the 19th century the Gatling had finally been made obsolete by Hiram Maxim’s truly automatic gas-operated machine gun first marketed in the late 1880s.

By the mid 1890s the interest in Gatling’s was fading, partly because of Maxim’s skill as a salesman but mainly because of his gun's more advanced design. In response to his gun’s downturn in market share Gatling had attempted numerous improvements to his weapon. Scaling it down and lightening the gun in the 1870s and 80s launching 'bulldog’ and 'camel’ models which were smaller and easier to transport and bring into action. However, by the 1890s more ambitious improvements were trialed, the first of these was coupling the Gatling’s action to an electrical motor, much like the modern electrically powered General Electric’s GAU-19 and M134 Miniguns and the Vulcan anti-air weapons system.

Coupled with the reliable 'Bruce Feed’ which could be topped off while firing or James Accles’ improved drum magazine, both systems made faster, smoother feeding possible. In July 1893, Gatling patented a system for attaching his weapon to an electric motor producing a weapon able to fire a theoretical 3,000 rounds per minute. The motor was designed to be attached and removed easily and at will to allow the Gatling to be fired manually as well as by the motor.

As shown in the scan of the letter above, the US Army Ordnance Department were aware that Gatling’s electrically powered gun was the fastest firing in the world eleven years after it had been first tested and remained so for almost fifty years. Interestingly, according to the Ordnance Department the second fastest firing machine gun in 1914, was the Vickers - a weapon the US Army had just recently adopted.

Sadly, the concept was not taken up by the military - at least not for another sixty years, partly because the feed systems of the day could not match the potential rate of fire, partly because the Gatling’s rivals had the advantage of being fully automatic without the need for an additional powerplant and partially because the US Army at the time were unsure on how to deploy the machine guns they had - let alone one capable of 3,000 rounds per minute.

Sources:

--Image One & Two Source
--Image Three Source
--The Machine Gun: History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons, George M. Chinn, (1951) (source)
--The Complete Machine Gun: 1885 to the Present, I.V. Hogg, (1979)
--Gatling Gun Feeding Mechanisms, ForgottenWeapons.com

LETTERs:

Doctor Irene Davenport Tesla
47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass

Irene;

The army has a mechanical problem with this contraption. (See enclosed drawings). They cannot get it to feed objects into the chute fast enough without the device seizing up and bursting asunder. I had set Richard Greenwood of Eagle Ironworks upon the problem, but he has failed me.

Can you look at it, and recommend a solution?

Charles F. Brush;
For the ACME General Board.
Covered;
The Tesla Experimental Laboratories
Eagle Iron Works
Colt
Army Ordnance Branch

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

47 1st Ave,
Boston, Mass
5 January 1892

Mister Brush:

You are an evil man, Charles. I looked at the Gatling Gun. By modifying the continuous ramp belt as used in a carbonated soda drink bottling plant, you can create an electrified feed ramp which is jam-proof. I have supplied drawings (Patented.). Your problem is that now that you have the combined electric feed mechanism and the electric rotator, where and how are you going to supply and apply the electricity? I can see its application on a ship, but where and why would the army be interested?

Irene.

Circa 1905 (^^^)

Last Edit: Jul 18, 2023 17:18:46 GMT by miletus12

Gallery Title:
Image URL:
Image Title:
Comment:
Tick this box if you would like to allow other members to add images to your gallery.Add Image

title

Post by miletus12 on Jul 11, 2023 8:16:16 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 12, 2023 14:06:46 GMT

Post by 575 on Jul 12, 2023 22:04:38 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 12, 2023 22:46:38 GMT

Post by 575 on Jul 13, 2023 6:50:09 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 13, 2023 14:48:04 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 14, 2023 13:24:04 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 15, 2023 11:38:31 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 16, 2023 11:42:25 GMT

Post by 575 on Jul 16, 2023 12:27:41 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 16, 2023 20:37:44 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 17, 2023 19:57:59 GMT

Post by 575 on Jul 17, 2023 20:57:14 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 17, 2023 22:05:37 GMT

Post by miletus12 on Jul 18, 2023 16:20:45 GMT