Grantville Gazette, Volume 73

by Bjorn Hasseler

  "I'd forgotten, Archie. This is Labor Day, isn't it?" Anse Hatfield swept his eyes across the crowd. "No parades and no politicians speechifying, though." His wife, Leonore, was somewhere in the mass of people likely with Marjorie Mitchell or Gaylynn Johnson. Leonore had arrived unexpectedly last autumn. She married Anse Hatfield not long after that.

  Servers, hired for the event, circulated with trays of drinks, pitchers of beer, and platters of finger food. The lawn was littered with open tents and long tables and chairs positioned under the few trees remaining after the previous year's clearance. A wagon rolled up to one tent, and the carters unloaded a number of barrels of beer. Everyone appeared to be having a great time. Here and there, one of his security guards could be seen wandering through the crowd, keeping the peace.

  "Maybe not, but we do have the picnic, and Suhl, Incorporated, is picking up the tab. Have you reported all this to your boss?"

  "Pat? Why should I? He's right over there." Pat Johnson was conversing with a man just ten feet away.

  "No, your other boss, Francisco Nasi," Archie said.

  Anse turned towards Archie. "So . . . you know about that." He wasn't asking a question, he was confirming to Archie a poorly kept secret.

  "I get copies of every message sent and received by the radio station, Anse. The station is administered by the court, and guess who supervises the operators?"

  "Does anyone else know?"

  "No, why should they?"

  "Then why do you . . ."

  "You forget who I work for—Judge Fross. I keep him in the loop whenever I think it's appropriate. I may be on the Board of Suhl, Incorporated, but my primary loyalty is to the SoTF. There's no conflict of interest. That said, speaking as one of the Board of Directors, Suhl, Incorporated, doesn't mind Nasi knowing what we're doing. He's known officially since he helped us collar that spy. I suspect he is one of our original investors and probably gets copies of our progress updates from the Abrabanels. I wouldn't be surprised if Nasi won't be one of our better marketeers."

  On the far side of the crowd, under one of the trees, musicians started playing, and Archie could see couples dancing to the music. "As for others?" Archie continued, "like the Hart boys? Well, we preferred to keep our business to ourselves, keep it all a secret until we were ready to announce the news—like now."

  He saw Pat Johnson, Gary Reardon, and Ruben Blumroder head for the reviewing stand. He knew what was coming next. Archie grinned, "I think the show is about to start," he said changing the subject. "Shall we join them?"

  ****

  The weather was still warm for the gathering. Anse Hatfield left to join his wife and the members of his National Guard unit. Archie estimated that just about all of the corporation employees were here. So were the others from Suhl who had a connection with the company and the project in one form or another, including those who had helped when the storm had ruined RJ City the previous year. The festivities were being held on the lawn of the Suhl, Incorporated administrative headquarters outside Suhl. Maps of the Reservation were on display at several locations showing the layout of the plant, the fabrication buildings, the brassworks, the powder mill, and the storage bunkers.

  Those maps had initially given Archie some concern but on reflection, everyone in Suhl knew the layout already. Moreover, as far as outsiders—spies—were concerned, they could get a copy of the Reservation map easily. The Reservation contained forty-seven buildings and bunkers in all. The black powder mill was Nicki Jo's last project. It was in a separate area of the Reservation divided into five buildings and bunkers.

  Everyone was dressed in their finest. Archie knew Marjorie and the other wives had plotted and planned to help those who couldn't afford any expensive finery. He couldn't help but compare Marjorie with the other wives. Marjorie had a fashion mind of her own as the down-timers discovered. She and Archie were dressed alike, more or less. Marjorie had altered one of his black suits that had come with them through the Ring of Fire. She had his suit jacket shortened to waist length and the buttons replaced with silver ones. The alterations allowed him to wear his 'church' regalia—black polished cowboy boots, black pants, and a silver and turquoise belt buckle that he had bought on their last vacation in Arizona. Add to all that was his white shirt, black bolo tie with silver and turquoise clasp, his tooled leather holster for one of his Colt .45 revolvers and topped off with his freshly cleaned and blocked off-white Stetson.

  Marjorie wore a short black Bolero jacket similar to Archie's, including matching silver buttons, with a long, ankle-length black pleated skirt that left her silver-toed black boots exposed. Like Archie, she wore a white blouse—hers was ruffled—and a silver and turquoise brooch at her throat. She also wore a tooled leather belt and holster around her waist holding her Smith and Wesson Model 25 in her customary cross-draw position on her left hip.

  Her pistol gleamed brightly. It had been polished and blued by Pat's gun shop in compensation for its use during the research and development of the primers. The Mitchells stood out from all the seventeenth-century dress as if they were Hollywood celebrities at a premier showing of a movie.

  The other up-timers present wore variations of their up-time suits except for Pat Johnson. He chose to join the locals and was dressed in stockings, knee pants, buckled shoes, frock coat, and ruffled shirt. All he needed to be mistaken for a down-timer was a sword. Instead of a sword, he wore his revolver, freshly hot-blued like Marjorie's. A number of pistols had been reblued after Pat finally gotten around to building his hot-bluing tank. That was one reason Archie was wearing his revolvers. His matching Colt Commanders were in that tank being reblued.

  "If I may have your attention, please!" Gary Reardon called. The crowd was so large that he used a speaking trumpet to allow everyone to hear. He turned in a circle repeating his call.

  When the crowd quieted, he began, "Thank you all for coming." His voice sounded hollow through the megaphone. "Tonight is our celebration. The Project, as some of you have called it, is finished. I hope all of you have received your performance bonuses. You finished a month ahead of the plan. You came in ahead of schedule despite the storm that hit RJ City last year. That storm put us behind schedule by a month. But you—every one of you—buckled down and didn't let that stop you. You met and exceeded your goals at every stage—even when behind! You not only made up the time from the delay after the storm but when we had to build our own powder mill, you chipped in and built it in two months. You all are to be congratulated," he said amid the applause.

  "I would like to announce the completion of two final project tasks before you rejoin the celebration. First, I've sent out a press release to Grantville, Bamberg, Magdeburg, to Nicki Jo and Katy, and a few other places. The press release announces the creation of a new, wholly owned subsidiary of Suhl, Incorporated---SMC! The Suhl Metallic Cartridge company!"

  He waited again for the applause and shouting to subside before he continued. "Some members who worked on the Project deserve some special recognition . . . Marjorie Mitchell, would you come up here, please?"

  Marjorie was surprised at the request. She and the other wives had been busy preparing the celebration. It had grown to be a much larger festival than they had planned, but nothing in the party agenda had included her.

  When she walked up and joined Gary, he motioned her to stand at his side. "Marjorie has been one of the most important people in the Project. Not because she is some technical expert, not because she provided some special knowledge, although we're very happy she lent us her pistol for some of the testing. No, Marjorie is special because she was there for all of us right when she was needed. When the storm hit RJ City, Marjorie organized the emergency kitchens to keep everyone fed until the mess halls were repaired and back feeding people. When Katy Boyle went back to Essen, Marjorie stepped in to fill her spot. Nicki Jo told me how much that helped before she left to join Katy. When Jurgen Holtz fell and broke his leg during the construction of the chemical fabrication building, M
arjorie and some of the other wives helped the family care for their kids, and Jurgen, too, so Jurgen's wife could take a job in our headquarters. When someone needed help, Marjorie was there."

  "For that, and many other reasons, we have something for Marjorie. Ruben—do you have it?"

  "Right here," Ruben answered from the front of the crowd. He walked up to the steps of the reviewing stand, carrying a large case of polished wood under his arm and joined the two. By the way he carried it, it obviously had some weight. One of the party workers set up a portable table next to Gary and Ruben laid the case on it.

  Gary continued, "I know all of you can't see this. It will be on display here for the rest of the evening. Ruben will you make the presentation?"

  Ruben stepped forward, gave the crowd a glance, nodded to Gary Reardon and turned to Marjorie. "Gladly, Gary. Marjorie, I, and some others—Hockenjoss and Klott, and Georg Rohn over there, had parallel plans running with the Project. It was all well and good to produce cartridges in .45 Long Colt but there were few existing pistols chambered in that caliber. To sell ammunition, there needed to be a market, something that would shoot the ammunition. Suhl, Incorporated is announcing a new revolver they are placing on the market. It is a copy, as close as we can make it, of Marjorie's Smith and Wesson Model 25. The Model 1 will be chambered in .45 Long Colt. It will be available is various barrel lengths and is a six-round revolver with swing-out cylinder. We're including a cleaning kit, fifty rounds of SMC ammunition, and four speed-loaders with every pistol."

  Ruben paused to clear his throat while the crowd clapped and cheered. He held up his hand to quiet them. "In this case is a special SI Model 1. It is one of five," he explained. "The first to be produced by Suhl, Incorporated. We gave these five some . . . special treatment. My people engraved each one. The model and serial number is engraved on the barrel and inlaid with gold script. This one says, "SI Model 1, .45LC, Number Five. Georg Rohn built the case and carved the oak grips. Another contributor provided the speed loaders. The case contains the engraved pistol, cleaning kit with rod, and one hundred rounds of SMC ammunition. That's why the case is so heavy."

  The audience laughed. Many of them knew about the special pistols. They just didn't know who would get them.

  "Serial Number One goes to Emperor Gustav Adolf, Number Two goes to Ed Piazza, Number Three to Mike Stearns, and Number Four . . . well, I can't disclose that yet. I think you all will understand when it's finally announced."

  Archie stood watching the presentation. He had been told earlier that afternoon about Marjorie's pistol. It wouldn't have been possible if Osker Geyer hadn't been able to improve his steel to be near-up-time quality. He was extremely proud of his newly revamped company, Geyer Steel. He had borrowed a number of Archie's manuals and had used them, along with the information he brought back from the Grantville library, to produce a close copy of 4140 and 4150 ordnance steel. Geyer hadn't been able to obtain enough molybdenum to match the amount called for in the up-time formula, but he had experimented and found an intermediate compromise, one that would do until he found a better source for molybdenum. Using Geyer's steel, the new SI revolver weighed almost the same as did Marjorie's original revolver. Geyer had other plans, too. He had told Archie that he was opening a steel and copper wire drawing plant in a couple of months. He said he already had orders on hand for copper wire of several gauges and for steel cable.

  Pat Johnson appeared from within the crowd, walked up to Archie and joined him watching the rest of the presentation. When the presentation was finished, Pat turned to Archie, "I have something for you, Archie." He placed a wooden box in Archie's hand. It was smoothly finished and varnished with brass hinges. Overall, it was slightly larger than his hand.

  "Open it, Archie."

  Archie unlatched and lifted the lid. Inside were rows of shiny, new .45 Long Colt cartridges . . . ten rows of ten cartridges. The inside of the lid was engraved with a logo of the letters, SMC, imposed over crossed SI Model 1 revolvers and the company name, Suhl Metallic Cartridge Company. Under that was a line that said Wholly-owned subsidiary of Suhl, Inc.

  "Take a closer look," Pat instructed.

  Following Pat's orders, Archie pulled one of the fat cartridges from its felt-lined hole. He had to squint to read the headstamp. It read, SMC, 45LC and Suhl 35. At first, Archie wasn't sure what was so special about the cartridges...and then it hit him. He looked at the bullet. It was copper! And it had a hole in it! "JHPs!"

  "Yep," Pat said when he saw Archie had discovered his surprise. "When I was figuring out how to draw brass, I came across a page in one of your manuals about swaging lead to make jacketed bullets. After that it was simply a matter of drawing the copper over the lead and molding the hollow-point and cannelure."

  "Thank you, Pat. I really appreciate this."

  "These are black powder, but I hope for something better in the coming year."

  "Better?"

  "You heard why Nicki Jo sent Katy back to Essen?'

  "Yeah, something about a contract."

  "To safely make guncotton . . . nitrocellulose."

  "Oh!"

  "Yeah, just a short step away from smokeless powder. I think Poudre B was made from nitrocellulose. I gave her a cup of each of your smokeless powder that you used to reload .45ACP cartridges. I hope you don't mind?"

  "No! If she can make smokeless powder, I don't have to worry about running out of .45ACP ammo."

  "I thought that, too. That's why I had her sign an option to make smokeless for us when she thinks it's feasible."

  A burst of clapping erupted from the crowd.

  "You haven't been keeping all this a secret, have you?" Archie asked with a wave of his hand towards the crowd.

  "Well, secret from some, not from some others. We had a head start with SMC, and I want us to stay that way, ahead of all the others."

  "So you have orders in hand, don't you?"

  Pat grinned. "I received one today from Abel Abrabanel for 10,000 rounds."

  "Of .45 Long Colt?" That order surprised Archie. What would the Abrabanels want with 10,000 rounds of pistol ammunition?

  "No, .45-70," Pat explained. "U. S. Waffenfabrik is announcing today, in partnership with Suhl, Incorporated, of course, our new rifle, the Model 1635, a takeoff of Remington's rolling block rifle in .45-70. We have two versions, a sporter-hunter version and the M1635 military version. The military version comes complete with a ladder-sight marked out to 500 yards, a bronze cleaning rod, a cleaning kit in the butt, and a bayonet with scabbard. Abel ordered ten M1635 military version rifles, too."

  Archie chuckled, "Beating all the competition," he repeated. "I always knew you were a sneaky one, Pat."

  "But the best part is the other orders I've received."

  "Oh?"

  "From the USE Army and another group. All told, they will take about all of our current stockpile and up to 85% of our production for quite some time."

  "Eighty-five percent of what?"

  "Just about everything. I don't know if we'll get an order for the new Model 1s, but I did for the M1635."

  "I thought you said you didn't want to sell to the army?"

  "No, what I said is that I didn't want to sell solely to the army. We aren't."

  "God, Pat, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you were a Jesuit. You parse your words like them."

  Pat Johnson laughed, waved at Archie, and left to rejoin the celebrating crowd.

  ****

  Barometric Pressure

  The barometer measures air pressure. A local fall in air pressure can indicate the approach of a frontal system with associated bad weather.

  Pre-RoF Baroscopes. While the down-timers do not have barometers, they do have a baroscope (which shows pressure change without quantifying it). The earliest form was actually Drebbel's perpetuum mobile; it featured a glass tube half-filled with water, partitioned at the top with one side communicating with a spherical reservoir, and the other being perforated and thereby exposed
to the atmosphere. A lowering in air pressure would cause a drop in the water level. (A change in the temperature of the air in the reservoir would, too, so the device was also a thermoscope.) (Zittel 101). The earliest evidence of the device is from 1604, and it was presented to James I in 1607 (103). Drebbel was aware that the "perpetual motion" was attributable to the air, but didn't suggest that the device had any value other than entertainment.

  However, in 1619 the wife of the engineer Ghijsbrecht de Donckere sold to Ghent an instrument invented by her husband, "with which it is possible to see every day, through the rising of the water, bad weather, through the falling of the water, instead, the weather calming down, and, when the water rises very high and drops come out, that there will be storms at sea." (Note that this design must have differed from Drebbel's, because the direction of movement is inverted.) Similar devices were used by Henri de Heer and Jan Baptista van Helmont in the 1620s (Zittel 114-5). They came to be known as weather, storm, or thunder glasses, but these terms also are applied to true barometers (and at one time also to thermometers). It is also called the "Goethe Barometer."

  One form that I have seen is a pear-shaped glass bottle with an up-curving open spout. The water level in the bottle is above the bottle end of the spout. The spout being narrower than the bottle amplifies the effects. The device needs to be shaded to minimize temperature effects.

  Mercury Barometers. There are two basic types of liquid barometers, cistern and siphon. In the cistern barometer, the lower end of a vertical tube is within a cistern holding the liquid. Air presses on the surface of the liquid and forces it up the tube, whose upper end is sealed. Mercury barometers need to be fairly large since the density of mercury is such that average sea level air pressure will force the liquid up to about thirty inches (760 mm) above the basin level. (But a barometer based on any other liquid would have to be much larger.) Historically, the first barometers, built in the 1640s by Evangelista Torricelli (1608-47) or Vincenzo Viviani (1622-1703), were of the cistern type.