It's 1837 . . .

[voluptuary_manque]

And the Babbage Engine stirs!

Will Mia and Prof. Merely respond? Will Mycroft Holmes intervene? And what of the nefarious Moriarty . . .

 

[Handley_Page]

And the Babbage Engine stirs!

Will Mia and Prof. Merely respond? Will Mycroft Holmes intervene? And what of the nefarious Moriarty . . .

I sincerely hope so.
IBM engineers had all manner of problems making the Difference Engine which, I'm told, worked.

Hang on. Holmes is unlikely to have been born in 1837 !.

 

[3113]

Will Mycroft Holmes intervene? And what of the nefarious Moriarty . . .

Hang on. Holmes is unlikely to have been born in 1837 !.

I was going to say! Sorry VM, but at best Moriarty and Mycroft would be being pushed around in prams about then, going at each other with rattles

Let's remember, Sherlock Holmes' first story appeared in 1887. That's a whopping 50 year gap. I'm not sure any of those characters would even have been born.

More likely Disraeli or Dickens would be involved. Or C. Auguste Dupin ;-) who a mere four years later, would solve that pesky murder mystery in the Rue Morgue.

 

[Handley_Page]

I was going to say! Sorry VM, but at best Moriarty and Mycroft would be being pushed around in prams about then, going at each other with rattles

Let's remember, Sherlock Holmes' first story appeared in 1887. That's a whopping 50 year gap. I'm not sure any of those characters would even have been born.

More likely Disraeli or Dickens would be involved. Or C. Auguste Dupin ;-) who a mere four years later, would solve that pesky murder mystery in the Rue Morgue.

Given his experiences before practising as a detective, I'd put Holmes on the nearside of 40 by 1887.
This might account for his having retired to Suffolk to keep bees after WW1.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Though Babbage had most of his designs completed c. '37, the Engine itself would have been at least the size of a locomotive, a big one. In order to get it up to reasonable capacity, more likely the size of a barn! That would have taken years to build and by normal calculations, Mycroft was born in '47. Given what a prodigy he was, there is no reason to disbelieve that he would have been deeply involved from his early teens or even before. So I think we can pretty much figure that the era of Steampunk doesn't really get off the mark until the post-Civil War period.

Hmmm, if we can keep Prince Albert alive and therefore keep Vicky hot-pants and happy, Literotica could have been born (via telegraph) perhaps by 1875? Wouldn't that be a hoot!

Internal combustion powered airships arrived in 1851 after decades of development of steam powered craft. Yeah, it could have been exciting!

 

[ishtat]

And the Babbage Engine stirs!

Will Mia and Prof. Merely respond? Will Mycroft Holmes intervene? And what of the nefarious Moriarty . . .

Shame on you Bear! Every schoolboy knows that Linda Lovelace was the genius who blew Charles Babbage's mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

The Holmes brothers... they sucked...pipes generally.

 

[Handley_Page]

Shame on you Bear! Every schoolboy knows that Linda Lovelace was the genius who blew Charles Babbage's mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

The Holmes brothers... they sucked...pipes generally.

I didn't know Mycroft was a 'pipe' man ?. I though he was a cigar enthusiast.