AtDTDA: 19 l'heure vertigineuse [529]

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Short-skirted Fatou suggests something from the picric family.

The Pynchonwiki tells us:

          picric family
          The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. 
          For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder

http://tinyurl.com/27p68h

There's also a link to this Britannica article:

          PICRIC ACID, or TRINITROPHENOL, C6H2  .OH• (NO2)3 
          [I'2'4'6], an explosive and dyestuff formed by the action of 
          concentrated nitric acid on indigo, aniline, resins, silk, wool, 
          leather, &c . It is the final product of the direct nitration of 
          phenol, and is usually prepared by the nitration of the mixture 
          of phenol sulphonic acids obtained by heating phenol with 
          concentrated sulphuric acid (E . Eisenmann and A . Arche, 
          Fag. pat., 4539 (1888) . It may also be obtained by oxidizing 
          the symmetrical trinitrobenzene with potassium p . 352) . It 
          crystallizes from water in yellow plates melting at 122.50 C., 
          which sublime on careful heating, but explode when rapidly 
          heated . It is poisonous and possesses a bitter taste. . . .

http://tinyurl.com/2pqcxw

The idea of picric acid being both a dye and an explosive—cyclomite, 
anyone?—intrigues as well for all-those colors drawn out of the Earth 
from coal tars In GR. Not to mention:

          . . . .forms of mayonaisse—whose color schemes ran to indigos 
          and aquas, often quite vivid, actually . . .
          pg. 526

"l'heure vertigineuse'—the green hour, though [as the pw points out]:

          Green Hour and l'heure vertigineuse
          Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, l'heure 
          verte, so vertigineuse (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun 
          on the word for "green."

Back to the Digue:

          The Green Hour often stretched on till midnight.
          "Or, as we like to say, l'heure vertigineuse."

We first encounter Rocco & Pino, a melancholic/choleric combo, a twining
of opposites not unlike Mason & Dixon, plotting the assassination of King 
Leopold, planning to blow up his yacht with their manned torpedo. 

>From the Chumps of Choice Blog:

          Joining forces with Young Congo are a pair of comical "Italian naval 
          renegades, Rocco and Pino, who had stolen from the Whitehead 
          works in Fiume the highly secret plans for a low-speed manned 
          torpedo, which they intended to assemble here in Belgium and go 
          after King Leopold's royal yacht." I assumed this was more fiction, 
          but it turns out the Englishman Robert Whitehead (1823-1905) was 
          real and he did have factories in Trieste and Fiume where the first 
          torpedo was invented.

http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/search?q=Policarpe