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Stentorian Historian Profile picture
Stentorian Historian
@AdroitlyAbsurd
#Historian, interpreter, #educator, reenactor, etc. born a century or so too late. Randomly purveys wit, wisdom, & waffling. Opinions = mine, R/T ≠ endorsement
Oct 30, 2020 • 16 tweets • 8 min read
Tempting as it is to assume this is a clock, it couldn’t be. After all, if it WAS a clock on a French ship there would be a heck of a lot of ormolu dripping off the thing...

What time is it? Range finder time!

🔭🕓⛴🧵

/1 In grand naval tradition up to WWII, typical line-of-battle was just that: LINE of battle. Ships stem to stern, firing broadside

In ye olde days before yer fancy radar or radio (wireless, for you old-schoolers), how do you get all the ships firing on the same target? SIGNALS! /2
Oct 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The very act of banning people from LGBTQ events on threat of job loss IS taking a side

Spoiler: it ain’t a good one FFS... I’m so sick of this effort at “balance” when there isn’t a question of it

These are human rights we’re talking about; transphobia, hate, & violence aren’t the “equal balance” to equity, they’re acts of hate that we SHOULD denounce

Context:
Oct 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Here’s the thing: it may not have even been secret.

It was probably done w/o care, a symptom of systemic racism & another example of urban (usually black) cemetery destruction w/ a complete disconnect between urban redevelopment & community So many interstates bulldozed not only through homes, but through cemeteries that you’d think it was a prerequisite

And if community activism stopped the roads, well, by then the land was usually already cleared

washingtonpost.com/archive/local/…
Oct 29, 2020 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
I mean, it could be worse...

/1 Contrary to popular belief, this is not Pinhead’s steampunk stenography device

It’s the Hansen Writing Ball! Rasmus Malling-Hansen’s pincushion is actually quite ergonomic, even more impressive for something invented in 1865! /2
Feb 28, 2020 • 33 tweets • 18 min read
*cracks knuckles*

My time has come

Hang on to your hats; we’re going on a cartoon history 🧵 (content warning ⚠️), courtesy of Puck, Harper’s Weekly, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, & other period papers:
/1 Honesty, we’re in a period which closely mirrors it; it just doesn’t feel that way b/c people are futsal shuffling, twerking, & dabbing instead of twirling to a Viennese waltz or early ragtime

It’s... a *different* vibe, to be sure

/2
Sep 28, 2019 • 19 tweets • 9 min read
The railroad gauge article has been going around for ages; while I agree w/ it the point that history is important (it better be, given my chosen career!) the folksy piece has several issues, as snopes points out.

This is a good lesson in storytelling & interpretation (🧵):
/1 Track gauge has always been more based on power of precedent than anything else. It’s true that George Stephenson’s 1st engine, Blücher, used *almost* 4’ 8 1/2” because the Killingworth Colliery where he developed his early locos already used that for their horse-drawn wagons. /2