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The Consequences of Flight (8647 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 8/?
Fandom: Murdoch Mysteries
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: William Murdoch/James Pendrick
Characters: William Murdoch, James Pendrick, Julia Ogden, Inspector Brackenreid, Georges Crabtree, James Gillies, Dr. Roberts (Murdoch Mysteries), Thomas Edison, Auguste Lumière, Gustave Eiffel, Marcel Guillaume, Antoine Lumière, Alphonse Bertillon
Additional Tags: A host of OCs - Freeform, A host of historical figures, Diary/Journal, Fake Academic Essay, Historically Accurate, Bycicles
Series: Part 2 of The Dancing Suite
Summary:

The following is taken from a recently defended Master’s cognate in History entitled « The Consequences of Flight : The Rediscovered Diary of a Canadian Homosexual in the Late-Victorian Era. »

The Murdoch Diary, part 2:

Paris

10 and 15 April, 1900

10 April, Tuesday.

The World Exhibition opens to the public on Sunday and we are very much looking forward to it. The city is teaming with scientists and inventors, many of James's acquaintance. Tickets for the Fair are 1 franc each. We are working on a budget to allow us 4 francs a week to visit as much as we can cover during the summer. We obtained an interesting touring guide, published by the pneumatic tire maker Michelin^1^. It is bright red and well done but of little use to us without a motor car. Hachette publishes a better guide that is much more complete^2^.

The Exhibition site is still closed, there are already many fine lectures being presented. Last night, we sat in the main hall of the Académie des Sciences where Paul Villard presented a fine paper on the rays emitted by radium and the use of cathode rays in their analysis^3^. James mused that we may have lost our lives this year but we did not lose knowledge. It is a bitter thought.

I continue à the Banque and have fallen into a useful routine. James has found a pupil, a young boy, son of an Italian.

War against the Boers again^4^. Famine in India^5^. With of our Science, why do we still kill eachother [sic.]?

15^th^ April, Easter Sunday.

Exposition Universelle opens today.

I met James at the Porte Binet exhibition entrance after Mass. It is the most monumental entrance to the Exhibition grounds. He had gone there to be among the first in.

Easter mass was soothing. Saint Denis church^6^ -- from the 13^th^ century! -- was resplendent as it should be on the most Blessed day of the Sacred year. Yet it was rather empty, on account of the Exhibition I gather. I did not take Communion, since I cannot make confession. I am broken-hearted, but I cannot imagine finding a priest here as understanding as Father Lanahan^7^. Confessing in the silence of my heart is all I can hope for. Perhaps I could find absolution in the Reformed Church, but this would be a greater betrayal than I am willing to make.

The Exposition is beyond description. Pavillions [sic.] and exhibit halls rival the most grandiose architecture in the world, but they were built of wood, concrete and plastered jute! They will be torn down in the Fall.

Today we tried the mechanical sidewalk^8^, "the street of the Future" where the sidewalks move for us. The circuit is a little over a miles and a half long and stands above ground, giving us an excellent view of the whole site. We made a list of the bigger marvels we wish to visit most urgently.

the Grand roue^9^
the Sidérostat^10^
the Celestial Globe^11^

James is also making a list of the most promising demonstrations and lectures. There are quite a few national exhibits I wish to see as well. It is a fortuitous time to live in Paris.

Michelin published its first guide in 1900, which was given for free at garages, tire and petrol sellers.
Murdoch may be referring toParis Exposition 1900. Guide Pratique de l'Exposition Universelle de Paris 1900 (Paris, Hachette, 1900), 486p. Hachette also published that year Paul Joanne, Paris et ses environs et un appendice sur l'exposition universelle (Paris, Hachette, 1900). 500p.
Villard was presenting on what would later be identified as gamma rays. Paul Villard, "Sur la réflexion et la réfraction des rayons cathodiques et des rayons déviables du radium," presented 9 April 1900, Académie des Sciences, Paris.
The Second Boer War, 11 October 1899 -- 31 May 1902.
The famine in the north on India, in 1899 and 1900, killed between 1 and 4.5 millions individuals, and garnered an unprecedented international relief effort.
Saint-Denys-de-la-Chapelle was built in 1240 on the site of a roman temple dedicated to Bacchus. Joan of Arc is said to have spent a night of prayer there in 1429. Still situated at 16, rue de la Chapelle today, we can posit that if this was Murdoch's parish church, he lived within a few blocks from it. Later mentions of businesses tend to confirm this hypothesis.
A Father Roan Lanahan was one of the priests serving at the semi-rural St. Joseph parish of Leslieville, east of Toronto, from 1890 to 1901. Father Hugh Joseph Canning was pastor in 1899 at the time of the men's disappearance. We can posit that this was Murdoch's preferred place of worship in Toronto, despite the fact it stood nearly 35 km from Rosedale; Murdoch implies that Lanahan knew of his sexual orientation. Further, following the church building's destruction by arson in 1898, Murdoch was put in charge on the investigation and no other than James Pendrick spearheaded the reconstruction project. Their disappearance in 1899 put a temporary stop to the project, but the new building was finally inaugurated in 1909. The building was replaced with the current church in 1958.
The "Rue de l'Avenir" was a wooden rolling sidewalk three kilometres long circulating the Exhibition grounds between the Les Invalides palace and the Seine river.
This ferris wheel was a 100 metres in diameter and stood on de Suffren street until 1922, when it was disassembled. It was the tallest of its kind at the time.
Also known as La Grande lunette, it was a large optical instrument invented by astronomer Léon Foucault (best-known for the eponymous pendulum). It consisted of a flat mirror that was turned slowly by a motor to reflect a given region of the sky continuously into a fixed telescope. It housed two 1.25 metre lenses. It was dismantled in 1909.
Le Globe céleste was a large sphere 45 metre in diameter with a walkway circling its top. It sat on an 18 meter high base with four pillars that housed stairways and elevators. Outside, it represented constellations and the zodiac. Inside, visitors could sit to watch astronomical panoramas on its inner surface.