Tinkering with Ultratech Super Science

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Ironclads and pre-dreadnoughts fight in the atmosphere, dreadnoughts fight in orbit.

You haven't proposed a setting, and yet I still want to play in it!


I thought early TL5 ships just dealt with the leakage using pumps... but I suppose just making sure you had enough to deal with losses is doable. But can TL5 do good seals on working doors? maybe not in early TL5, but the rest of it does look doable. Maybe at high TL4 they have to seal the crew in from the outside?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anthony

You could probably manage something for a while (days, maybe weeks) at TL 5 using compressed air tanks, maybe with some additional chemistry to scrub CO2 or increase the percentage of O2. I don't think either the chemistry or the seals you would need exist before TL 5.

The first demonstration of a vacuum in a sealed container may have been done by Otto von Guericke in the 1600s (he becomes mayor of Magdeburg in one of the Ring of Fire novels). But the concept of "oxygen" as a chemical substance was only established by Priestly in 1775, though apparently there were earlier experimenters whose work wasn't recognized. So I think you need either a post-1775 date or some major Mad Science.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The first demonstration of a vacuum in a sealed container may have been done by Otto von Guericke in the 1600s (he becomes mayor of Magdeburg in one of the Ring of Fire novels). But the concept of "oxygen" as a chemical substance was only established by Priestly in 1775, though apparently there were earlier experimenters whose work wasn't recognized. So I think you need either a post-1775 date or some major Mad Science.

That's well within TL 5, though obviously there's a lot of difference between "possible in 1730" and "possible in 1879".

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I thought early TL5 ships just dealt with the leakage using pumps... but I suppose just making sure you had enough to deal with losses is doable. But can TL5 do good seals on working doors? maybe not in early TL5, but the rest of it does look doable. Maybe at high TL4 they have to seal the crew in from the outside?

Use and over-sized door that's inside the hull, and seal the edges with caulk and pitch. It's not like you'll be wanting to unseal it until you get to somewhere with air, so it being a pain in the neck to seal and unseal isn't a huge deal.

By modern standards a lot of these solutions are unreliable and incredible unsafe, but they're things that people used when sailing, and they work - usually. When they don't, well...

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The first demonstration of a vacuum in a sealed container may have been done by Otto von Guericke in the 1600s (he becomes mayor of Magdeburg in one of the Ring of Fire novels). But the concept of "oxygen" as a chemical substance was only established by Priestly in 1775, though apparently there were earlier experimenters whose work wasn't recognized. So I think you need either a post-1775 date or some major Mad Science.

An (al)chemist noting that the 'burning' of some of the stuff they were playing with result in 'sweet' air might be a sufficient start. They wouldn't need to know about oxygen to realise the uses if there was a strong demand for some kind of air/oxygen source.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Regarding noise, I'd imagine the Tesla Towers aren't exactly quiet (and they get louder when they actually zap something, see below), and at the very least ground vehicles make a great deal of their noise from movement rather than their engines (although my experience there is with relatively-mature TL 8 vehicles; older ones would have had much more engine noise, and even more modern ones still get loud if you "gun it," so replacing with electric engines will help), plus electric engines are by no means silent... but overall, yeah, I'd say you'd see a marked decrease in noise.

It may be common to find dead, scorched birds near a Tesla Tower - if a bird flies too close, it will likely be zapped by the tower. You'll undoubtedly find, from time to time, the body of some drunken fool in similar shape on account of trying to climb the tower -

Hmm...what happens the first time there's a downpour rain? Or freezing rain or freezing fog on the towers?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anthony

That's well within TL 5, though obviously there's a lot of difference between "possible in 1730" and "possible in 1879".

I consider the "discovery" of oxygen (actually a conceptual reframing rather than an empirical discovery; it resolved the paradox of "phlogiston" being measurable as having a negative weight) as the crucial transition to TL5 chemistry; it led to the modern definition and classification of elements—though I might consider the Periodic Table as a slightly early TL6 development. Priestley's work took place midway through TL5, but we can't have every discovery take place exactly at the boundary year between two TLs!

[David Johnston2]

Mental Translator: This Star Trek/Doctor Who inspired gizmo was slotted at TL 12 and as envisioned it requires both computers and wireless neural interface technology. But I have imagined a TL 0-1 approach to the basic concept in form of a smokable herb with hallucinogenic properties and the interesting effect that anyone under its influence can understand what anyone else under the influence is saying. Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Mental Translator: This Star Trek/Doctor Who inspired gizmo was slotted at TL 12 and as envisioned it requires both computers and wireless neural interface technology. But I have imagined a TL 0-1 approach to the basic concept in form of a smokable herb with hallucinogenic properties and the interesting effect that anyone under its influence can understand what anyone else under the influence is saying. Put that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

Like, wow, when he proposed we sanctify the turtle rabbits skittering the ground loop as a resolution to the War, it was, like, the light just transvected dude.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Mental Translator: This Star Trek/Doctor Who inspired gizmo was slotted at TL 12 and as envisioned it requires both computers and wireless neural interface technology.

It should just be TL^. Given a sufficiently large data set machine translation is TL 8-9, doing it without that dataset is magic.