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Old 11-13-2016, 12:32 PM   #21
tshiggins
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Denver, Colorado
Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Answer to Q18

(I started to answer this, but then TGLS slipped his answer in ahead of mine. I'll change mine around a bit, but also post it since we largely agree.)

No, there is no superscience, in the setting, and the tech level is best described as early TL 5+1.

However, it does follow the alternate path toward ever-more powerful expansion steam engines suggested on p69 of G: Steampunk. The world has firmly moved to sextuple-expansion steam engines for use in most advanced processes, including naval vessels and factory power.

Stirling engines efficiently (but slowly) power most dirigibles, as well as small shops in the remoter parts of the world, but the most advanced navies of the world have begun to experiment with something that strongly resembles Stoddard engines for use in airships:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoddard_engine

The research is highly classified in the advanced nations pursuing the technology, and a primary target for espionage.

Electricity sees widespread use for telegraphy and to power factories in close proximity to sources of hydroelectricity. Some have experimented with the use of geothermal electrical generation, but that remains in its infancy.

Only a few locations have electrical lights, and those are primarily seen as a novelty, since the infrastructure to allow for widespread adoption simply doesn't exist. However, much of the modern world has keen interest in Nikola Tesla's wireless power transmission technology, as it would allow for greater use of electricity without the need to build an expensive distribution infrastructure.

The increasing use of dirigibles has generated considerable interest in the conditions of the upper atmosphere, and many national air services sponsor ultra-high-altitude balloon experiments, and a few odd fellows have begun to talk about the use of rockets or large cannons to put instruments in orbit -- especially the French. However, many officials who serve in the governments of the other major world powers view the work with considerable skepticism, although each nation has groups of scientists who pursue the matter enthusiastically, on their own.

Question 21
When did slavery end in North America and Brazil, and what is the status of First Nation peoples in the New World?


Technological Marvel No. 1: The massive Niagara Gorge Hydroelectric Authority (NGHA) provides motive power for the vast belt of factories that lie on either side. Built as a joint project between the Louisiana Confederacy and the British Canadian province of Ontario (with help from the UK government), a generation ago, it made the rather backward northern Confederacy territory into an industrial powerhouse. In addition, it boosted development efforts in southeast Ontario, which had struggled for many years to recover from the war with French-Canadian Quebec.

The factories powered by the Authority employ nearly a million workers, divided roughly evenly between Ontario and New York. The knock-on ripple effects result in nearly 4 million additional jobs.

The careful planning, as well as the clean nature of hydroelectric power (as compared to the shrouded factory towns of England and France, or the miasmic industry barrios of Sao Paolo), has resulted in a fairly high quality of life for industrial workers in the Niagara area.

The urban planning of the cities in the region also gave rise to "New City - New Man" theories of social development. While the influence on older industrial regions is limited by constraints of redevelopment efforts, the NC-NM concept of "orderly environments create orderly minds" has deeply impacted ongoing efforts by France and Germany to develop the Ruhr Valley.

Most surprisingly, the tremendous changes to the Niagara Gorge managed to keep the dramatic scenery of the Niagara River Falls intact, as the series of dams that drive the turbines were built further downriver. The process of taming the gorge also resulted in the creation of three stepped reservoirs used for water recreation of all sorts, although the areas immediately below each dam remain highly hazardous due to the tremendous flow-rates as the water emerges from the massive turbines.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 11-13-2016 at 12:56 PM.
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