Story

I think it's safe to say, that 18th century erotica ran the gammut from the vulgar to the sublime, with something for every socio-economic niche. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/382...hecostumersmani and with as much controversy as it does today http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:18t...x-education.jpg This woman's webpage explores the issue, a bit http://www.costumes.org/MWBH/100pages/quillsdesade.htm Also a friend of mine has reproduced sets of playing cards, with European-style semi-clothed women in positions worthy of the Kama Sutra. That would seem to appeal to the low and middlin' classes, while there were bronzes and oil paintings that were obviously only affordable to the upper class.

Sloops could be cramped vessels, shallow draft and broad-beamed. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's cross-cut view of a sloop-sized slave ship, circa late 18th century, shows this pretty well. https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbnail/1...8th-Century.jpg Since there's not allot to sloops, cross sections should show pretty much the same thing, starting from bottom up. 1. The hold, with ballast at the bottom and topped with kegs of water, wine, consumable liquid either for crew survival or cargo. 2. The orlop, where you'd find magazines or general cargo. That'd be where the slaves are, above. 3. The gundeck, which in a sloop would also be the main deck. This is a pretty good treatise on what to find http://www.mexconnect.com/en/articles/249-...s-and-corvettes and http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/nautical_lexicon.html By comparison, a galleon's cross section http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/gall...rosssection.gif from http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/pirates/pirateships.html Included just for inspiration's sake, some model kits of late 18th century men-o'-war cross sections http://www.naturecoast.com/hobby/oc16800.htm http://im.quirao2.com/qimage/p/gde/p8/hist...onstitution.jpg

Submitted for the general amusement of all, as I suspect few would be able to attend. http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/4/...ntury-literatu/ By Angela Case Published April 9, 2009 Professor Kathleen Lubey of St. John's University likes porn, specifically the history of porn. Lubey presented a lecture titled "Dirty Minds: Eroticism and the 18th Century Imagination" Thursday at Tate Hall. In the talk, Lubey discussed and compared various examples of pornographic literature produced between 1660 and 1760. "Functioning at once as lectures and as entertainment, fiction of 18th-century England burdens itself to educate young readers on moral and social matters, while remaining alluring and compelling narratively," Lubey said. Lubey then dissected and compared works, such as William Hogarth's "The Analysis of Beauty," John Cleland's "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" and Samuel Richardson's "Pamela." The lecture concluded with a question-and-answer session in which Lubey elaborated on several of the points presented in her lecture. Lubey, an English professor specializing in 18th-century British literature and sexuality and gender studies, said she became interested in the topic when she began pursuing her master's degree about 10 years ago. "I ended up writing my master's thesis on the commonality between novels of virtue and pornographic novels," she said. Lubey also said as an undergraduate, she became interested in the feminist objections to pornography. "To see that these questions were already being circulated in the 1740s, if not earlier, I just thought was great," she said. "The history of pornography became completely, endlessly fascinating to me." Lubey's lecture was the first-ever event presented by the 18/19th-Century British Studies Student Group, the group's founder and President Emily Friedman said. "This group was formally brought together last fall," she said. "We're basically a core group of English and history students who have been going to conferences together. This is our way of contributing to the community." The group plans to host more events and talks in the future if funding is available, she said. The primary function of the group is to bring together people who are interested in the study of the 18th and 19th century. "Whether they are scholars or professors or interested undergraduates or anyone who's interested in these kinds of texts," she said. The group strives to make its discussions relevant to contemporary events. "I would imagine with the next 'Jane Austen and zombies' wave of Austen adaptations, we'll probably be talking about those types of issues as well," said Friedman, referring to Seth Grahame-Smith's new book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." "As 18th centrists, we believe that our work illuminates the 20th century in all kinds of cool ways," Friedman said, citing a focus on sex as an example. In its discussions and events, the group tries to highlight those similarities, Friedman said.

- would be my guess, as fireworks where initially used by Chinese warlords as a psychological weapon. Ever stick a bunch of bottle rockets in the end of a pipe, with the rocket part hanging out, then light the fuses and hold the pipe? Same thing. Check http://img.qihoo.com/qhimg/bbs_img/0_0/1/336/294/f5e12c.jpg http://img3.pcpop.com/upimg3/2007/11/21/0004375031.jpg from wiudwing.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html PS - I thought this thread was going to be about the eggrolls I had for lunch yesterday.

The look, the feel of the 18th century comes to Frederick Originally published March 09, 2009 By Stephanie Mlot News-Post Staff http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/...m?StoryID=87494 Showcasing the golden age of piracy, the Sea Rat Atlantic Historical Maritime Crew offered a look at traditional 1710-era pirate weapons.

http://www.newspostonline.com/uncategorize...p-2009040147200 Washington, April 1 (ANI): Archaeologists have recovered a treasure trove of artifacts from a recently recovered ship of the infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard. According to a report in the National Geographic News, some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate. We feel pretty comfortable that thats what this is, said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Annes Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.

An NYT article from a year ago Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/fashion/...70&emc=eta1

If art is anything that inspires us, and if art imitates life, then take a look at this forgotten post Civil War steamship design and ponder how it inspired Verne. http://home.att.net/~karen.crisafulli/CigarBoats.html

Here's another map that might suit your purposes http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/11/1...alkans-version/ and check out the WEIRD WEST RPG, for more inspiration.

What's it call, 'the Doxy & Tart Catcher'? And check this - Turn your Nerf launcher steampunk. http://gizmodo.com/349300/steampunk-nerf-weaponry

Look at the Lemat revolver's classic lines http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Confederate-Re...h/dp/B001B3YO0M and what was cobbled up for FIREFLY http://www.yourprops.com/view_item.php?movie_prop=8633 http://www.austinbrowncoats.com/whedonware...a2fb12788a09ad9 I get where they were going with it, but can y'all see how the mid-19th aesthetic has been lost-in-translation? Still, it'd be a great baseline for someone to start on.. check this working modification of an original Lemat http://www.johnnyringo.net/lemat.htm

Engine vibrations from the airships, man. Why ask why? Just sssshhhh and drink your beer.

She gets +3 for Attitude alone. Nice 1917, too. Remember Jayne's revolver in SERENITY? The black powder Lemat percussion modern copies go for over $700 US, but there's a reasonable alternative for a tenth of the price. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-Confederate-Re...h/dp/B001B3YO0M

Leave that with me and a couple of pounds of raisins, canned peaches, sugar and some bilge water, come back in 18 hours and we'll party.

Pirates class at University of Chicago among most popular courses for spring It covers Johnny Depp-style Caribbean pirates, plus software piracy, investment 'pirate' Bernard Madoff By Jodi S. Cohen Chicago Tribune March 18, 2009 If you were looking for more proof that pirates are popular, here's some news from the University of Chicago: More undergraduates registered for the anthropology class "Intensive Study of a Culture: Pirates" than almost any other course for the spring quarter, which begins March 30. "As eggheady as our students are, they also are very much of their generation and in touch with mainstream culture," said assistant anthropology professor Shannon Lee Dawdy, who teaches the class. But don't expect this will be all Johnny Depp, all the time. Students in the class, a first-time offering, will study traditional Caribbean pirates as well as contemporary software piracy and "pirates" such as Bernard Madoff, who recently pleaded guilty to defrauding thousands of investors. The class also will take a trip to the Field Museum's "Real Pirates" exhibit. "It is almost too fun for the University of Chicago, so I will make sure they read a bit of theory every week," Dawdy said. Arrrrrrgh!!! The top three classes requested by U. of C. students are an eclectic mix. Global warming topped the list, with 377 students requesting the course. Introduction to Microeconomics, taught by popular professor Allen Sanderson, was next, followed by a hands-on drama course. "One never knows" which classes will be popular, said Michael Jones, an associate dean at the college. To avoid sinking students' dreams of learning about pirates, Dawdy increased the size of her class to 150 students, up from the original maximum of 90. As of Tuesday, all but one spot had been taken.

A well-versed friend of mine pointed out the following: The problem here though is that they're using modern black powder, produced with modern production processes to fire their shot. Pre industrial revolution production methods ended up with different strengths of powder, and my copy of the 1770 Encyclopedia Brittanica has a whole section on how to test the strength of gunpowder. Plus, contractors probably cut the stuff with whatever to increase their profit!

Victorian /American Civil War period military fashion in Commonwealth (including Canadian) artillery units saw officers and NCOs wearing a leather pouch belt. Some where tricked out with a silver chain, whistle, and belt badge. RA officer's undress "collapsing" pouch. Black leather gilded fittings .Cannon ornament extra-(see Metalwork section) http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~thinred/belts.html http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~thinred/...collapspuch.htm If not UK, then perhaps some Southern American country's knockoff (military fashions frequently being copied).

It may appear primitive, but this cannon marks the point when Britannia began to rule the waves. Britain's 'first weapon of mass destruction' was discovered on a warship that sank in the Channel in 1592. It could fire a cannonball at close to the speed of sound - fast enough to punch through the solid oak planks of an enemy galleon 100 yards away. The extraordinary power of the 7ft 'Elizabethan supergun' was revealed when a replica was test-fired in a disused quarry. Mensun Bound, a marine archaeologist at Oxford University, said: 'No gun of this type and period had ever been tested before and the results were surprising. 'Muzzle velocities were achieved that were almost the speed of sound and the shot that was fired was able to punch through 4in of oak with ease. Complete article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11...id-oak.html??97

I've not seen it mentioned here, but I could see where a hemp holster (made from scrap lengths of cordage) would be better in wet climates, as the hemp would breath better than leather and be less likely to unleash the Rust Demons upon one's pieces. Ok, so who is up for knitting a sample or two?

Only if you can balance the wine bottle on her head.

'Massive Funeral Complex' Unearthed By Miguel Angel Gutierrez , Reuters MEXICO CITY (Feb. 11) - Archeologists have found a mass grave in Mexico City with four dozen human skeletons laid out in neat lines that could reveal clues about the 16th century Spanish conquest that killed millions. Archaeologists in Mexico City announced Tuesday that they've found a "massive funeral complex" likely dating back to the 16th century. The grave, seen above, was unearthed in the capital's Tlatelolco area, which was once a political and religious center for the ancient Aztec elite. (Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker) The investigators found the 49 skeletons, all lying face up with their arms crossed, as they searched for a palace complex in the Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political center for the ancient Aztec elite and now a district in the north of the sprawling Mexican capital. "We were completely taken by surprise. We didn't expect to find this massive funeral complex," Salvador Guilliem, in charge of the site for the government's archeology institute, said when the discovery was announced on Tuesday. Historians think the Aztecs built Tlatelolco in the early 1300s along with the nearby city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire and now the heart of Mexico City, which the Spanish founded after they conquered the Aztecs in 1521. It is likely the indigenous people buried in the grave died in battle against the invading Spanish or fell victim to diseases that wiped out large swaths of the native population in 1545 and 1576, Guilliem said. Many Aztec fighters died resisting the Spanish invasion and millions also perished during a four-year epidemic of hemorrhagic fever that began in 1545, killing 80 percent of indigenous Mexicans. The 13-by-32-foot burial site differs from other conquest-era graves because of the reverential way the bodies were buried, following Christian customs of the time, unlike thousands of contemporary graves at other Aztec cities where bodies were thrown in at random. "It is a mass grave, but they were very carefully buried," Guilliem said. The burials were likely ordered by Spanish overlords but carried out by Aztecs since most of the artifacts found around the bodies, such as copper necklaces and bone buttons, are from pre-Hispanic cultures, he said. The skeletons of two children, a teenager, and an old person wearing a ring that could signify higher status, were found along with 45 young adults in the tomb. The scientists expect to find at least 50 more bodies as excavations continue at the massive Tlatelolco complex, home to 67 ancient structures, including massive pyramids. "The discovery is filling us with more questions than answers at this point," Guilliem said. Mexico mass grave may be Aztec resistance fighters By MARK STEVENSON AP MEXICO CITY -Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City said Tuesday they found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of the Aztec holdouts who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes. The unusual burial holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adult Indians who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the Aztec capital. The pyramid complex, in the city's Tlatelolco square, was the site of the last Indian resistance to the Spaniards during the monthslong battle for the city. Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem, the leader of the excavation for Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the Indians might have been killed during Cortes' war or during one of the uprisings that continued after the conquest. Guilliem said many burials have been found at the site with the remains of Indians who died during epidemics that swept the Aztec capital in the years after the conquest and killed off much of the Indian population. But those burials were mostly hurried, haphazard affairs in which remains were jumbled together in pits regardless of age or gender. The burial reported Tuesday is different. The dead had many of the characteristics of warriors: All but four were young men, most were tall and several showed broken bones that had mended. The men also were carefully buried Christian-style, lying on their backs with arms crossed over their chests, though many appear to have been wrapped up in large maguey cactus leaves, rather than placed in European coffins. The mass grave contained evidence of an Aztec-like ritual in which offerings such as incense and animals were set alight in an incense burner, but Spanish elements including buttons and a bit of glass also were present. Susan Gillespie, an archaeologist at the University of Florida, said the grave was unusual, both because it was unlikely the Spanish would have bothered with such careful burial of Aztec warriors, and because the Indians themselves would have been more likely to cremate any honored dead. But Gillespie, who was not involved in the excavation, also noted that little is known about the period immediately following the fall of the city, when Cortes razed most pyramids and temples, then abandoned the largely destroyed metropolis. He lived on the city's outskirts before returning to rebuild a Spanish-style city on the ruins. It may have been in that interim period after Cortes left that the Aztecs returned to bury their dead, Guilliem said. Gillespie agreed the burials could be those of disease victims or rebellious Indians from later years, rather than warriors who fell in the 1521 battle, and said more research was needed, such as a skeletal analysis to show cause of death. Another possibility, she said, was that the men could have been held by the Spanish for some time and killed later. That was the fate that befell the leader of the Aztec resistance, emperor Cuauhtemoc.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090201/NEWS...higan+shipwreck The French government said it still owns the Griffon (also spelled Griffin), a 17th-Century ship built by legendary explorer La Salle that may have been discovered in northern Lake Michigan. France filed a claim to the vessel Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, escalating a legal battle over who owns and has authority to retrieve artifacts from the long-lost vessel. See also http://greatlakesexploration.org/expedition.htm

"Drunken sailors" have been removed from the lyrics of a nursery rhyme in a government-funded books project. But the Bookstart charity says the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? has "absolutely nothing to do with political correctness". The charity says that the shift from drunken sailor to "grumpy pirate" was to make the rhyme fit a pirate theme, rather than censorship. "Put him in the brig until he's sober," has also been lost in the new version. This latest ideological spat over nursery rhymes was sparked by the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor. Complete story at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7860869.stm Wimpy version - What shall we do with the grumpy pirate? What shall we do with the grumpy pirate? What shall we do with the grumpy pirate? Early in the morning Hooray and up she rises Hooray and up she rises Hooray and up she rises Early in the morning Do a little jig and make him smile Do a little jig and make him smile Do a little jig and make him smile Early in the morning

We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend. Robert Louis Stevenson Check yer PMs.

Scientists Solve 16th-Century Sky Mystery By MALCOLM RITTER , AP NEW YORK (Dec. 4) — More than 400 years after Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe challenged established wisdom about the heavens by analyzing a strange new light in the sky, scientists say they've finally nailed down just what he saw. It's no big surprise. Scientists have known the light came from a supernova, a huge star explosion. But what kind of supernova? A new study confirms that, as expected, it was the common kind that involves the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf star with a nearby companion. The research, which analyzed a "light echo" from the long-ago event, is presented in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by scientists in Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. The story of what's commonly called Tycho's supernova began on Nov. 11, 1572, when Brahe was astonished to see what he thought was a brilliant new star in the constellation Cassiopeia. The light eventually became as bright as Venus and could be seen for two weeks in broad daylight. After 16 months, it disappeared. Working before telescopes were invented, Brahe documented with precision that unlike the moon and the planets, the light's position didn't move in relation to the stars. That meant it lay far beyond the moon. That was a shock to the contemporary view that the distant heavens we re perfect and unchanging. The event inspired Brahe to commit himself further to studying the stars, launching a career of meticulous observations that helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy, said Michael Shank, a professor of the history of science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The direct light from the supernova swept past Earth long ago. But some of it struck dust clouds in deep space, causing them to brighten. That "light echo" was still observable, and the new study was based on analyzing the wavelengths of light from that.