Dancing Suite, part 2: The Consequences of Flight, 18/19

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The Consequences of Flight (15895 words) by Tournevis
Chapters: 18/19
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, Louis Lumière
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

7 July and 17 October 1900

7 July, Sunday

We decided we will no longer visit the Exposition. We have seen all the inventions we care about, with the exception of the telescope, but it is no matter. We decided the frustration brought by missing out on the presentations of those discoveries are likely to be much smaller than that of avoiding those men of science who would recognize James. We hope to continue to take in lectures whenever possible. One can hide in a crowd. However, our Sunday afternoons will now be spent at St Geneviève library^1^ reading scientific journals and the past week's foreign papers. Much more satisfying.

To wit: on July 2^nd^, Zeppelin's men successfully tested a prototype airship^2^. A rigid-framed, fully dirigible airship! What a time to be alive; the time of human flight is upon us. With this type of vehicle, Man will soon fly around the world, like Verne imagined, but in comfort and luxury. Imagine, one day, we might even return to Canada, across the Atlantic through the air.

James, who is looking over my shoulder, reminds me that we are yet ignorant of what physical effects or medical consequences would occur from prolonged, high-altitude flight, and that [end of manuscript]

[Partially-torn loose leaf inserted between pages 94 and 95.]

[Front of leaf] 17 October [Wednesday]

James noticed a short news item in an American newspaper, not the Times, that has sent him in a tizzy. Apparently, two men in Ohio^3^ are attempting controlled, heavier-than-air, manned flight. They have already constructed a glider. James is attempting to ascertain how different from Lilienthal's glider^4^ theirs is. In any case, he has been useless since Sunday, leaving me to take the brunt of analysis. Thankfully, it is a light week.

[Back of leaf]

  • Pain

  • Lait

  • Encre noire

  • Beurre

  • Boeuf

  • Onions et al.^5^

Thé -- 352, St. Honoré^6^

  1. Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, one of Paris's oldest and biggest fully public libraries, was founded in 1851 and is still situated on Place du Panthéon in the 5^th^ arrondissement.

  2. Murdoch is referring to Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) and the LZ-1 (Luftschiffbau Zeppelin 1), the first prototype airship was tested over Lake Constance on July 2nd, 1900. The flight was considered a success despite it being cut short after 18 minutes due to structural failure. It was designed by Theodor Kober (1869-1930), constructed by Carl Berg (1851-1906) and piloted by Hauptmann Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld (1861-1902). This was the first step in the development of Zeppelin's well-known airships before the Second World War.

  3. The reference to Ohio and a glider indicates Murdoch is referring to Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville Wright (1871-1942), who tested their very first prototype in 1900, ahead of their first motorized flight in 1903.

  4. Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) is regarded as the first human to make repeated, documented, successful flights with gliders, from 1894 to his death from injuries incurred in a crash.

  5. Interesting that this undated grocery list, in Murdoch's own hand, is entirely in French with the exception of the spelling of onions, in French "oignons".

  6. Paris city books for 1900 show this to be the address of Forster et Compagnie, a tea seller, situated in the first arrondissement near Place Vendôme.