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The Aneurin Great War Project: Timeline Part 8 - The War Machines, 1870-1894 Copyright Notice: This material was written and published in Wales by Derek J. Smith (Chartered Engineer). It forms part of a multifile e-learning resource, and subject only to acknowledging Derek J. Smith's rights under international copyright law to be identified as author may be freely downloaded and printed off in single complete copies solely for the purposes of private study and/or review. Commercial exploitation rights are reserved. The remote hyperlinks have been selected for the academic appropriacy of their contents; they were free of offensive and litigious content when selected, and will be periodically checked to have remained so. Copyright © 2013-2021, Derek J. Smith. First published 09:00 BST 5th July 2014. This version 09:00 GMT 20th January 2021 [BUT UNDER CONSTANT EXTENSION AND CORRECTION, SO CHECK AGAIN SOON] This timeline supports the Aneurin series of interdisciplinary scientific reflections on why the Great War failed so singularly in its bid to be The War to End all Wars. It presents actual or best-guess historical event and introduces theoretical issues of cognitive science as they become relevant. UPWARD Author's Home Page Project Aneurin, Scope and Aims Master References List FORWARD IN TIME Part 1 - (Ape)men at War, Prehistory to 730 Part 2 - Royal Wars (Without Gunpowder), 731 to 1272 Part 3 - Royal Wars (With Gunpowder), 1273-1602 Part 4 - The Religious Civil Wars, 1603-1661 Part 5 - Imperial Wars, 1662-1763 Part 6 - The Georgian Wars, 1764-1815 Part 7 - Economic Wars, 1816-1869 FORWARD IN TIME Part 9 - Insults at the Weigh-In, 1895-1914 Part 10 - The War Itself, 1914 Part 10 - The War Itself, 1915 Part 10 - The War Itself, 1916 Part 10 - The War Itself, 1917 Part 10 - The War Itself, 1918 Part 11 - Deception as a Profession, 1919 to date The Timeline Items 1870 Charles A. Elliott [1850<=>d. 1877 (9th October)] retires from Elliott Brothers [1850<=>1876]. [THREAD = WW1 CYBERNETICS, COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE, AND FIRE CONTROL] [THREAD = THE WW1 FINANCIAL AND ARMAMENTS INDUSTRIES] 1870 The Scottish-born Canadian John L. Johnston [Wikipedia biography=>1888] wins a contract from the French War Department to supply it with "fluid beef", a nutritious and hermetically sealed beef extract. [THREAD = WW1 LOGISTICS] 1870 The Smith and Wesson Company [<=1861] puts its six-shot .44" calibre Model 3 Revolver [image] on the market. Its 1875 "Schofield" variant is popular in both 5" and 7" barrel versions in the American West. [THREAD = WW1 SMALL ARMS] 1870 The University of Zurich sets up its own psychiatric clinic at the Burghölzli [modern homepage=>1898] with Bernard von Gudden [Wikipedia biography] as its first medical director. Around the same time the British neurologist Henry Maudsley [Wikipedia biography=>1907] presents a paper entitled "Body and Mind" [full text online] in which he reflects, amongst other things, on the origins of "certain forms of degeneracy of mind". His views still make interesting reading (and the issues he raises are still far from resolved) ... "But it is only in a small proportion of cases of insanity that we can discover such a direct physical occasion of disease. In a great many cases - in more than half, certainly, and perhaps in five out of six - there is something in the nervous organization of the person, some native peculiarity, which, however we name it, predisposes him to an outbreak of insanity. When two persons undergo a similar moral shock, or a similar prolonged anxiety, and one of them goes mad in consequence, while the other goes to sleep and goes to work and recovers his equanimity, it is plain that all the co-operating conditions have not been the same, that the entire cause has been different. What, then, has been the difference ? In the former case there has been present a most important element, which was happily wanting in the latter — there has been a certain hereditary neurosis, an unknown and variable quantity in the equation. Perhaps of all the erroneous notions concerning mind which metaphysics has engendered or abetted, there is none more false than that which tacitly assumes or explicitly declares that men are born with equal original mental capacity, opportunities and education determining the differences of subsequent development" (pp42-43; emphasis added). Maudsley's work is noteworthy in the present context because it will represent one of the main schools of thought in the shellshock debate when it comes. [THREAD = WW1 MILITARY MEDICINE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE] 1870 The London-born chemistry student Sidney G. Thomas [Wikipedia biography=>1875] attends lectures on iron-making at Birkbeck College, London, and studies how phosphorus impurities might be removed during the smelting process. [THREAD = THE INDUSTRIAL AND SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION] ********** CLASSIC PAPER IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE ********** 1870 The German research physiologists Eduard Hitzig [Wikipedia biography] and Gustav Fritsch [Wikipedia biography] publish a paper entitled "Über die elektrische Erregbarkeit des Grosshirns" [in English as "On the Electrical Excitability of the Cerebrum"] in which they (a) review earlier studies of electrical stimulation of the surgically exposed cerebral cortex in animals, and then (b) describe investigations of their own using two dogs as subjects. They observe that excitation of the posterior aspects of the frontal lobe can initiate visible limb/postural movement, and they suggest this is a "Centrum die willkürliche Bewegung" [= "centre of/for voluntary movement"]. [THREAD = WW1 MILITARY MEDICINE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE] 1870 [... Continued from 1863 (11th March)] The Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, equips its "D Block" [given that he ran the place for several years, the best factsheet is C. Stanford Read's (1920) "Military Psychiatry in Peace and War" [full text online]] to handle psychiatric patients. [THREAD = WW1 MILITARY MEDICINE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE] ASIDE - "D BLOCK" IN WW1: During WW1 the Royal Victoria Hospital's D Block will treat some 15,000 psychiatric casualties, discharging those it can but sending on those requiring longer treatment. Its patients included Wilfred Owen [=>1915 (21st October)] prior to his transfer to Craiglockhart. 1870 The British neurologist Henry Maudsley [Wikipedia biography=>1907] presents a paper entitled "Body and Mind" [full text online]. [THREAD = WW1 MILITARY MEDICINE AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE] 1870 Jean de Reffye [<=1863] completes his latest project, the "Reffye 85", an 85mm rifled breech-loading cannon [Wikipedia factsheet=>1873]. The weapon is noteworthy in the present context for introducing easy-to-load brass cartridge ammunition. [THREAD = WW1 ARTILLERY] 1870 Alfred Nobel [1867<=>1871] collaborates with Paul Barbe [Wikipedia biography] and a consortium of French investors to establish Dynamit Nobel and set up a dynamite manufacturing plant at Liverdun in north-eastern France. [THREAD = THE WW1 FINANCIAL AND ARMAMENTS INDUSTRIES] 1870 August Schluga von Rastenfeld [<=1866] continues to feed his Prussian spymasters valuable intelligence reports on the situation in Paris. [THREAD = WW1 ESPIONAGE AND INTELLIGENCE] ********** OIL BECOMES BIG BUSINESS ********** 1870 [10th January] The U.S. businessman John D. Rockefeller [Wikipedia biography] and others found the Standard Oil Company [Wikipedia factsheet=>1911 (15th May)]. [THREAD = THE WW1 FINANCIAL AND ARMAMENTS INDUSTRIES] 1870 [3rd March] The Cardwell Reforms: The British Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell [1st Viscount Cardwell]1874 [<=1868 (3rd December)] initiates an extended parliamentary debate on plans to modernise the British Army (Hansard). One of the first iniquities to go will be the system whereby commissions can be purchased by those who can afford to do so, regardless of their ability as strategists, tacticians, or leaders of men. Other improvements will include the abolishing of flogging as a punishment and the withdrawal of 26,000 troops from overseas. [THREAD = WW1 ARMIES, TRADITIONS, AND TACTICS] ASIDE: Do not confuse the "Cardwell Reforms" with either the "Childers Reforms" [=>1880 (28th April)] or the "Haldane Reforms" [=>1905 (10th December)]. 1870 [12th March] The Bulgarian Exarchate: The Ottoman emperor, Abdülaziz [<=1861 (25th June)] grants special religious dispensations to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in its ongoing confrontation with the Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople [continues at 1876 (20th April) ...]. [THREAD = THE SHAPING OF WW1 EUROPE] 1870 [30th April] Designed by Cowper Coles [<=1862 (29th April)], HMS Captain [1867 (30th January)<=>6th September] enters service. As finally fitted out she has two twin turrets, rather than one as originally specified. Ominously the weight of this additional turret causes her to ride lower in the water than her designed (and already minimal) eight foot freeboard can cope with, and shifts her centre of gravity 10" [= 254mm] higher than it would otherwise have been, thereby rendering her dangerously top-heavy. [THREAD = THE WW1 SURFACE NAVIES] 1870 [19th May] Irish Home Rule [I - The Home Government Association]: The Irish lawyer-politician Isaac Butt [Wikipedia biography=>1873 (18th November)] forms the "Home Rule Association" [Wikipedia factsheet=>1873 (18th November)], a political discussion group in favour of Irish independence [continues at 1873 (18th November) ...]. [THREAD = THE SHAPING OF WW1 EUROPE] 1870 [14th June] Britain's Queen Victoria [1856 (19th May)<=>1876 (1st January)] is blessed with a