Cover Story
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Assistant Editor's Preface
Wow. Here we go again. Grantville Gazette, Volume Nine. Who knew, back a few years ago, just how many people would be interested in the continuing soap opera of Grantville, WV, United States of Europe? I certainly didn't, but I spend part of every single day being happy that I picked up that book with the pickup truck and hillbillies on the cover.
Featured Stories
This is only a selection of the stories in this issue. There are lots more!
To see additional stories click on a department in the menu to the left
Mail Stop
Martin Wackernagel drew up his horse, first looking back at the route he had just completed and then forward toward the walls of Frankfurt am Main. Via regia. Die Reichsstraße. There would never be anything to equal the Imperial Road. Sure, if you wanted to be prosaic, it was just one more trade route, a commercial connection between the great cities of Frankfurt and Leipzig and their fairs. It had been for centuries.
Those Daring Young Men
The door into the building opened, spilling young men and sunlight into the space. "Rotgut, Henrich, all around. And the paint." "We're out of the Grantville Rotgut. You'll have to make do with the Italian version." "As long as it's corn liquor, and burns, it will do."
NCIS -Young Love Lost
I rode to the crime scene in the early morning calm of Magdeburg's streets. It was not difficult to find. The area, surrounded by the flickering light of torches, oil storm lamps, and at least one up-time flashlight, was in one of the worst-looking parts of town, and in a city that has been subjected to sacking and burning, that says a lot.
Those Daring Not So Young Men
"Thank you for coming." "Of course we came, lass." "At least it's over now." "Over? What's over?" "This steam nonsense." "Tisn't nonsense, lass. Your grandfather died because he got the last bit working." "It's still nonsense, Mr Iverson." She pointed at the "monster" in the work-yard. "What does it do that the mill doesn't do now?"
A Matter Of Taste
Cory Joe Lang looked down at his empty place mat. He had a bad feeling about the group's latest action. There had been mutterings about the food before, but this time they'd sent it back untouched. Even he hadn't been prepared to try Chef Magnus' latest offering, and with Velma Hardesty for a mother, he'd grown used to eating just about anything that was put on the table
Those Not So Daring
BANG!!! Karen leaned her head towards the cellar. No more explosions were forthcoming. "The boards worked." "Yes. It appears that one doesn't shatter another now."
Anna the Baptist
Julio stacked clean glasses under the bar. "Damn it Ken! I don't know what's got you riled but I'm sick of it! Back off or I'm goin' home. I don't have t' have this job. I only took it to help you out." Julio didn't mention his fear of losing his regular job to what he thought of as cheap foreign labor. The fear drove him to drink, something he'd done little of before the Ring of Fire. He did his drinking in the one place a man didn't have to put up with "krauts." This led to a part time job.
Fly Like a Bird
Paul Meinhart left Grantville in the autumn of 1632, but not before he spent several months in the Grantville jail. He'd been imprisoned for such a stupid little thing, yet the Americans had treated him like a murderer. The one good thing that came out of his imprisonment had been knowledge.
Gearhead
It was quiet. Way too quiet. Of all the things Trent Haygood hated about the seventeenth century, the quiet was the worst. He missed the sounds of engines. Internal combustion engines. Hell, he'd be happy with some noise from a steam engine. As he sat on the front porch of his parents' home, he leaned forward and listened.
Water Wings
The line arcing off the boat kinked between deck and water. Eric, watching for just that, yelled to the crew uncoiling the stiff hose, "Hold it! Back it up!" Then the kink swelled a bit. Eric screamed, "Back it up! Back it up now!"
Under the Tuscan Son
Curzio Inghirami had learned a great deal during his visit to Grantville, but he now was back home at Villa Scornello, the family seat. It was a few miles outside of Volterra, a town in the grand duchy of Tuscany. He beckoned to one of the family servants. "Tell Father that Lucrezia and I are going fishing." Lucrezia, his younger sister, giggled for no apparent reason. "Have Cook pack a picnic lunch for us, and then meet us out back in half an hour."
Wings on the Mountain
The regulars left the table nearest the fire when the strangers came in. At the base of the Matterhorn summer nights are chilly, so a fire is welcome starting in the late afternoon. Strangers paid much higher prices for everything and the whole village, not just the innkeeper, profited. Everyone made strangers welcome.
Pocket Money
Kloee glared at Emery, as Dakota held up a dried cob. "So this is the big deal you found to get us some extra money?" Kloee and her kin were meeting in Papaw Murray's barn because it was the one place they could go without some adult looking over their shoulders.
Moonraker
The black hull towered above Monsieur De Roche. It was the pinnacle of his dreams and the final blow to his shipyard. Copper cladding gleamed in the late afternoon sun.
The Minstrel Boy
"Well, that's that." Bill Frank lowered the hood of the new rail engine. "Though I have no idea how we're going to deliver it." Hagen Filss, who had been handing him tools, responded, "Maybe when Sergeant Hatfield and Private Schultz get back they will know, Herr Frank."
Ultralight
Flight had taken hold of Johann Rommel. Since the thirty-something merchant from Wismar first saw the American air force in action last October, he had decided he wanted one of their strange flying beasts, something they called an air craft, for himself. After several months of designing, waiting, and building the machine, he stood on a shallow slope overlooking the Baltic sea, waiting for his rendezvous with destiny.
If At First You Don't Succeed . . .
"That will never work." Margaret looked up at her younger brother, Nathan, and stuck her tongue out at him. "Says you. And what do you know, what with all your years of experience?" "Pa says it won't work. And you've wasted your time. Time you could have been doing something more useful."
Waves of Change
"I WANT TO LISTEN!!!" Joseph screamed, making it impossible for anyone to listen. "For God's sake, girl. Let your brother listen to the damned thing." "But, Papa . . ." Marie couldn't help the whine in her voice.
Try, Try Again
"It isn't right." Marie lowered her eyes so that her employer wouldn't see the glare she couldn't suppress. "Ma'am, I did what the package said to do. Twice." She picked up the container of Spirits of Hartshorn and tried to get Frau Werrin to look at it.
Little Jammer Boys
The terrified servant handed the message to Johnny von Sachsen as he and his younger brother, Augi, entered the elector's palace in Dresden. It was terse and to the point. Come to my bedchambers. Now. In their father's handwriting. John George I, Elector of Saxony, was not a subtle man.
Safe at First Base
"I tell you, I saw it in the movie. Plain as the nose on your face. And you have a large nose, Johan. The up-time device looked just like this—" "Heinrich. Listen to yourself. Movies are like dreams; they are not real. This is reality." With that, Johan pointed over the edge of the precipice, a two hundred fifty foot drop, straight down.
The Order of the Foot
"We've had another complaint about Bigfoot, Chief. This time over by the fairgrounds where the locals store their flocks before they can be sold and then processed at the slaughterhouse." Officer Ralph Onofrio looked up from his cup of coffee with a smile.
The Transmitter
"But the article says that Monsieur Bell's selenium cells had a resistance of one hundred to three hundred ohms!" Piair La Corrian pointed imperiously at a pile of papers on his desk. "That's a variation of two hundred watts. With one positive and the next negative, four hundred watts.
The Essen Chronicles, Part 3: Trip to Paris
October 1632 was an eventful month for Josh and Colette Modi. Their first wedding anniversary prompted Colette to make an appointment with Doctor Adams for her first ever gynecological exam, but it was early Ocotober of 1632 before the doctor could fit her into his schedule.
At the Cliff's Edge
Friedrich Adelsohn, Captain of the Third Company of the Mounted Constabulary of the State of Thuringia-Franconia, stared at the ox. The ox stared right back. After a moment, it lowered its gaze, and resumed its attempts to convert the roadside into a nicely trimmed lawn. Friedrich wished that, like Siegfried in the Volsunga Saga, he had tasted Fafnir's blood, and could understand the speech of animals.
Butterflies In the Kremlin, Episode 2: A 'Merican in Moscow
"Home," Boris sighed then waved at the white stone walls of the Kremlin which stood sixty feet tall and dominated the mostly wooden city of Moscow. Bernie Zeppi, after the long trip, didn't care if it was home or not. Didn't care about the view. He just wanted in out of the wet. And, judging from what he'd seen so far, Muscovy just wasn't . . . well, wasn't much. Not that there wasn't a lot of it. Lots and lots of what amounted to log cabins, all crowded together. "Where do we go first?"
Radio in 1632, Part 3
In our two previous discussions of telecommunications in the 1632 series, we focused on radio communications uniquely available to up-timers ("Radio in the 1632 Universe," Grantville Gazette, Volume One) , and to wired communications ("So You Want to do Telecommunications in 1633," Grantville Gazette, Volume Two). In this article we will discuss radio options available to down-timers both for transmitters and receivers. This will require a brief discussion of radio theory, which we will restrict to no more than one equation.
The Sound of Mica
Capacitors (also called "condensers") are one of the most basic of electronic components. Their most fundamental electrical characteristic is their capacitance (ability to store electrical energy). So how do you make a capacitor? The simplest one consists of two parallel conductive plates, and an intervening "dielectric." You can actually use a stack of plates, not just two, but the conductive and dielectric layers will alternate. One wire will be connected to the "odd-numbered" plates, and a second wire to the "even-numbered" ones.
A Tempest In a Baptistry
The question of re-baptism and the distress it caused in the sixteen hundreds, including what has at times been described as bloody murder, is still with us.
The Daily Beer
Beer was food. Before the potato arrived in Northern and Central Europe, barley, rye and oats were the main sources of nutrients. Of these, barley was the easiest and most robust crop. Barley isn't that good as bread or porridge, so almost the entire harvest was brewed into beer.
White Gold
As the gentle winds blow, you look out from the veranda of your plantation house over the acres of sugar cane. What you see isn't fields of cane. What you see is fields of gold. The white gold called sugar, slowly growing to maturity.