AtDtDA23: The Austrian Alps in Particular

[Dave Monroe]

"The Austrian Alps in particular were just hopping...."  (AtD, Pt. III, p. 652)


Karawankenbahn

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karawankenbahn

A series of tunnels constructed as part of a huge Austrian public
works project in the first years of the 20th century. They are named
for ranges of mountains and hills they pass through. The objective was
to develop rail transport to the port of Trieste....

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677#Page_652
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Karawankentunnel_construction_train.jpg
http://members.a1.net/edze/enzyklopaedie/images/triest_hinterland.jpg

"the Tauern and Wochein ranges"

http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.t/t105381.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohinj_railway


"at the Simplon"

Brigue

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig,_Switzerland

Domodossola

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domodossola

"two parallel galleries"

Cf. ...

Mittelwerke
German: "Central Works"; Given to the Soviets per the Yalta Agreement,
273; primary A-4 factory after RAF raid on Peenemünde in August 1943,
located in abandoned gypsum mine near Nordhausen and next to Dora
prison camp; evacuated in February and March 1945; 283; designed like
a ladder with Stollen (rung-tunnels), 299 ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/m.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/mittelwerke_map.html

The description of the Simplon tunnel project seems to be close to the
facts. The Simplon tunnel consists of two parallel tubes, the first of
which was opened in 1905, the second not until 1921. The second
gallery this passage refers to was built alongside the first tube in
order to supply the workers with fresh air. It was later extended.

The Simplon Tunnel is a 12.3-mile long railway tunnel consisting of
two separate single-track tunnels completed 16 years apart — the first
one opened on June 1, 1906 and the second one October 16, 1922. For
half a century it was the world longest railway tunnel. It was planned
by Alfred Brandt of the Hamburg firm of Brandt & Brandau, and its
construction began in 1898. It was a tremendous feat of engineering in
almost impossibly difficult conditions. It seems that Pynchon in
describing the tunnel work followed closely How the Swiss Built the
Greatest Tunnel in the World.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplon_Tunnel

Francis Fox, "How the Swiss Built the Greatest Tunnel in the World" (1905)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1905simplon.html

The Simplon Tunnel

http://www.atypon-link.com/ITELF/doi/abs/10.1680/imotp.1907.17284


"new Brandt drills"

Brandt & Brandau were Hamburg engineers responsible for the tunnel project.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677#Page_653

The adoption of the Brandt hydraulic drill not only enables the
gallery to be driven at least three times the usual speed, but it
avoids the creation of dust, which in mining is so productive of
miner's phthisis. Not a single instance of this fell disease has
occurred during the work, and although a well-appointed hospital was
provided at each end of the tunnel, the beds were generally empty.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1905simplon.html

"mounted on tripods like Hotchkiss machine guns"

The Brandt drill consists of a stretcher-bar (itself an hydraulic ram)
mounted on a portable carriage ...

http://www.atypon-link.com/ITELF/doi/abs/10.1680/imotp.1907.17284

Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hotchkiss_cannon.jpg

Hotchkiss M1909 Benet-Mercie machine gun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_M1909_machine_gun


"Nikos, Fulvio, Gerhardt, the opera singer, the Albanian"

Cf., e.g., ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Company_%28comics%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Fury_and_his_Howling_Commandos


"a passionate heart"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0260948/
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=heartoftheworld
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=2017095248

Cf., e.g., ...

"And a Soul in ev'ry stone" (GR, Pt. IV, p. 760 )

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/stones.html