MDDM "the swifter passenger conveyances" (651)

[Scott Badger]

http://history1900s.about.com/library/misc/bllighterthanair.htm

"The history of lighter-than-air flight began with the first hot-air balloon
built in 1783 by Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier in France. Immediately after
the first flight - well, float might be more accurate - engineers and
inventors worked toward perfecting a lighter-than-air craft.

Though inventors were able to make many advancements, the biggest challenge
was to find a way to successfully steer the craft. Inventors conceived
numerous ideas - some seemingly reasonable, like adding oars or sails,
others a little far-fetched, like harnessing teams of vultures. The problem
wasn't solved until 1886 when Gottlieb Daimler created a light-weight
gasoline engine."

Not quite an airship, but maybe they figured out how to harness those
vultures....

Scott

Doug:

> "Festive Lanthorns, by contrast, shine thro' the Glass of the switer
> passenger conveyances that go streaking by above the Fields, one after
> another, all hours of the day and night...." (651)
>
> A rather obvious anachronism, mixing 20th century airships of some sort
> (zeppelins, perhaps, or airplanes) in this 18th century scene.
>
> I think it was Dave that poined us to "Sari, Sorry and the Vortex of
> History:  Calendar Reform, Anachronism, and Language Change in _Mason &
> Dixon_" by Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds.  She says, "Pynchon intervenes in
the
> process of history itself with a ubiguitous deployment of anachronism" --
> near the beginning of a essay well worth reading.  I don't have the url
> handy now.