Gear and Technology

Technology in Puerto de Maio
One of the many strange reports that emanate from Puerto de Maio is that technology does not function there as it does elsewhere. Despite the many technological achievements of recent history, in Puerto de Maio, nearly all motorized and mechanized items simply do not work. From automobiles to automatic rifles, Puerto de Maio seems, in some ways, at odds with sophisticated machinery in common use elsewhere.

However, this situation seems to have a beneficial side. The mystery of malfunctioning technology has prompted many prominent Mechanologists to study the problem up close. So far unable to reverse the problem, experts can only speculate that it has something to do with the proximity to the Clocktower - itself a marvel of engineering. But Puerto de Maio's ruins have unexpectedly turned up large numbers of disassembled gearworks, and many Mechanologists have turned instead to developing functioning mechanical items from these pieces. The only mechanical technology that seems to perform correctly - even better than expected in many cases - seems to be gear-related. It has even been reported that when these gears are assembled in precisely the correct arrangement, the resulting item will operate without any apparent power source. This has attracted many Galvanists and Mechanologists to the area, who hope to study how this wondrous new technology might be developed and improved. Puerto de Maio now boasts a thriving engineering community.

Note: Please see the Gear chapter for a list of in-game items Mechanologists can create.

Inventions and Discoveries
The following information covers important inventions and discoveries in the areas of technology and science over the last 100 years.

1804: Richard Trevithick (England) invents first steam-powered locomotive
1829: George Stephenson invents first practical locomotive with multiple-fire-tube boiler
1835: Samuel Colt invents the first revolver; Charles Babbage invents "analytical engine," together with the underlying theory of computer programming
1838-1839: Modern cell theory (cells are the basic building blocks of all organisms) developed by Theodor Schwann, Matthias Schleiden
1839: Paul von Mauser invents first bolt-action rifle
1839: Charles Goodyear invents the vulcanization process to create rubber
1842-1843: Jules von Mayer (1842) and James Joule (1843) promulgate first law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another.
1843: Anesthetics first used on humans (ether)
1849: Safety pin invented by Walter Hunt.
1850: Alexander Twining and James Harrison invent the first refrigerator
1850: Rudolph Clausius discovers second law of thermodynamics (heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a warmer body)
1851: Isaac Singer invents first continuous-stitch sewing machine
1856: Synthetic dye process invented; Henry Bessemer develops the Bessemer process for steel production.
1857: Otis develops first safe passenger elevator.
1859: Charles Darwin publishes his theory of natural selection
1862: Riuchard Gatling develops the hand-cranked multibarrel machine gun
1862-1877: Louis Pasteur creates germ theory of disease
1867: Christopher Sholes and Carlos Glidden invent first typewriter; Alfred Nobel invents dynamite
1869: Dmitri Mendeleev invents periodic table of chemical elements
1870: First chicle-based chewing gum invented
1873: John Broadwood produces first modern piano (pianoforte) with sustaining and damper pedals
1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone
1877: First microphone invented; Alexander Graham Bell founds Bell Telephone Company; Monier invents reinforced concrete
1878: Thomas Edison patents first phonograph
1879: Thomas Edison invents electric light
1880: John Milne invents first accurate seismograph
1881-1882: Edison creates the Pearl St. plant in New York City, the first permanent central electric-light power plant in the world.
1884: Hiram Maxim invents the single barrel, belt-fed machine gun; first modern bicycle developed
1885: Gottlieb Daimler invents first gasoline-engine motorcycle.
1886: Coca-Cola invented
1891: W. L. Judson invents the zipper
1892: Nikola Tesla invents first alternating-current generator and alternating-current motor
1895: Lumiere brothers introduce motion pictures; Guglielmo Marchese Marconi sends first radio signals
1896: First electric stove used
1899: Dr. Felix Hoffman of Germany invents aspirin; Valdemar Poulsen invents first magnetic steel tape recorder
1900: First astronomical calculator, the Antikythera device, (developed in first century B.C. in Greece) found off island of Antikythera
1901: Gillette markets first safety razor; Marconi sends first wireless signals across the Atlantic
1904: Christian Hulsmeyer invents first radar (limited to one-mile range); Sir John Fleming invents the vacuum electron tube, forming the basis for radio telephony.
1906: Lee de Forest invents the triode amplifying tube
1907: J. Murray Spangler produces first modern upright electric vacuum cleaner
1910: Leo H. Baekeland invents first completely synthetic plastic ("Bakelite")


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