Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
In 4e, the B-17 would be late TL6 but the B-29 is early TL7. I do not necessarily think 1940 is a great place to draw the line but that's where 4e puts it.
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The years are
approximations not hard fast "lines in the sand":
Television, which GURPS states is a TL7 device, goes back to 1909 which is firmly in the realm of TL6. Furthermore the first commercial TVs similar to what we would recognize appeared in the 1930s and were used to show the 1936 Summer Olympics and the coronation of George VI in 1937.
Similarly, personal computers (TL8) appeared before 1980+: Xerox PARC's Alto (1972), MITS Altair 8800 (1975), and the Apple II (1977) are some of the better remembered ones today.
Heck, we have fledgling artificial intelligence and robot cars (TL9) right now...well before the 2025+? date given by GURPS. Also GURPS puts fuel cells at TL8 even though the first reference of them occurs in 1838...well in TL6. The Gemini and later Apollo spacecraft used fuel cells and that is firmly in TL7.
GURPS 4e puts alternating current as TL6 (1880+) but first alternating current generator was invented in 1832 and the first public use of AC systems were in the late 1870's...well before the "start" date for TL6.
I should mention that I have been to the
National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH many times and there is a
virtual tour of it online. In the collection is Bockscar the B29 that dropped Fat Man and there was a mock up of a a B17 you could walk through to get a feeling just how cramped it was on most of the bombers. The B17 and Bockscar are refined TL6 but still TL6.
An actual example of
very early TL7 would be the Heinkel He 178 from 1939, the first jet aircraft though practical jets would not appear until about 1943-4.