Nonfiction
Assistant Editor's Preface
Eric said, in the preface to Grantville Gazette Volume Five: "Sigh. Not one of these stories deals with Ye Big Picture. Not one of them fails to wallow in the petty details of Joe or Dieter or Helen or Ursula's angst-ridden existence. Pure, unalloyed, soap opera, what it is." And we continue in our grand soap operatic tradition with Grantville Gazette (count 'em) Volume Seven.
The Mechanical Reproduction Of Sound: Developing A Recorded Music Distribution Industry
Sound, no matter how complex, is just waves like the ripples in a pond. It can be considered as the displacement of molecules from their place of rest. A more technical definition would be: Sound is a series of compression and rarefaction waves in a substance, solid, liquid or generally in our experience, gas. Our aim in recording is to precisely reproduce these waves in another place and/or at a different time.
Mass Media In The 1632 Universe
This article is to run in conjunction with Chris Penycate's discussion of the material technology required to produce down-time records and record players. In addition to Chris' hardware, this article discusses the software of the media industry down-time, the challenges and the requirements to create a "mass media" in early modern Europe.
Railroading In Germany
The railroads will be the steel backbone of the inter-modal rail/water transportation system of the United States of Europe (USE). The first rail line will provide a link for Grantville into the existing road-and-river transportation network and to the capitol in Magdeburg.
Harnessing The Iron Horse: Railroad Locomotion In The 1632 Universe
The principal focus of this article will be on how the USE will design its first locomotives, but first I will explain what Canon (the entire set of 1632 series novels and anthologies) tells us about railroading after the Ring of Fire (RoF).