Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[Susan Boulton]

Any one help with this;

I want the name of a suburb of Berlin in the north west of the city circa 1943. It has to be a well established one in 1943, that had at least a train station. In is not something I can't work round, as it will be just a mention of the place as my characters (RAF POWs) are bundled on a train. Just want my POV character to notice the station name.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[goldhawk]

I have another one of my steamship questions, but hopefully a quickie.

If a ship's captain wanted to stop propulsion, would the engines be kept running in a neutral gear, or would the engines be allowed to slow to a stop and the steam diverted? (In the former case I assume there would still be quite a lot of noise, in the latter case I assume almost none.) Or would it depend on how quickly he might want to get moving again?

OK, maybe not such a quickie.

The engine would stop. A steam engine is an external-combustion engine. It's the boiler that keeps up the steam pressure. So, a steam engine can be fully stopped and started again, almost instantly. That is, as long as there's enough pressure in the boiler.

 

[HareBrain]

Thanks Goldhawk. So there would be a sudden drop in noise/vibration? Would that apply to a steam turbine engine as well as a reciprocating type? I would imagine the turbine would take a while to slow down to a stop, like a flywheel, but as you will already have surmised, I am an engineering ignoramus.

 

[Hex]

Any one help with this;

I want the name of a suburb of Berlin in the north west of the city circa 1943. It has to be a well established one in 1943, that had at least a train station. In is not something I can't work round, as it will be just a mention of the place as my characters (RAF POWs) are bundled on a train. Just want my POV character to notice the station name.

Many thanks in advance.

Curses. The sort of question I ought to be able to help with, but I can't.

There is this, though: http://www.alt-berlin.info

with scanned maps of historical Berlin, including some from the 40s.

 

[goldhawk]

Thanks Goldhawk. So there would be a sudden drop in noise/vibration? Would that apply to a steam turbine engine as well as a reciprocating type? I would imagine the turbine would take a while to slow down to a stop, like a flywheel, but as you will already have surmised, I am an engineering ignoramus.

Yes, a turbine would spin-down and would have to spin-up.

Among steam-engine enthusiasts, they have a competition called Dead Slow. This means running the engine as slow as possible without stopping. For steam tractors, their speed is measured in inches per hour. This is possible because a steam engine can develop maximum torque when stopped..

 

[Ixtila]

I have a question that's been bugging me for a while. What is it these days with compound words being broken up into their separate words? Like the word thankyou, which when I was growing up was spelled in one word but now must be given a space. Also words like into and onto seem to be now given a space. Why and what are the rules of this?

 

[chrispenycate]

Thank you has never been a single word for me, and my dictionary doesn't even offer it as an alternative.

"Into", and "in to" have slightly different meanings, as do "on to" and "onto"; normally, one or the other will feel much more comfortable.

I'm more upset about the words that are amalgamating, like the "alright" contraction for all right.

But language evolves; pedants like myself are there to slow the process enough that communication remains possible between regions and generations, not freeze it into stasis like Arabic.

 

[goldhawk]

Some words have different meanings depending on if they're broken up or not. "Anyone" always means a person; "any one" means one and only one of a selection.

 

[Ixtila]

Thank you has never been a single word for me, and my dictionary doesn't even offer it as an alternative.

"Into", and "in to" have slightly different meanings, as do "on to" and "onto"; normally, one or the other will feel much more comfortable.

I'm more upset about the words that are amalgamating, like the "alright" contraction for all right.

But language evolves; pedants like myself are there to slow the process enough that communication remains possible between regions and generations, not freeze it into stasis like Arabic.

Thanks, you are right, language changes. Maybe thankyou without the space is an Australian spelling (or maybe I just always got it wrong!)

Funny, I have always used alright not all right. (hmmm maybe it IS an Aussie thing).

I suspected that about into and in to (etc). Trouble is working out when to use them!

 

[Jake Reynolds]

I used to get very annoyed by changes in language (or rather, people not using English correctly). But then I thought to myself, 'well, you don't use thee or thou, do you?'

I got over it- unfortunately, as much as we can be purists, language is only ever correct at the time, especially in a world that is more global than it was a decade ago.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I suspected that about into and in to (etc). Trouble is working out when to use them!

Well, you turn in to a driveway, but the wizard turns you into a frog. And when the cops are on to your story, you may climb onto your roof to escape them.

 

[Hex]

Does anyone know if there's any way that soil could be blue? Say if it was full of copper?

 

[goldhawk]

Does anyone know if there's any way that soil could be blue? Say if it was full of copper?

How about blue bacteria?

 

[Hex]

How about blue bacteria?

um. There are blue bacteria? Lovely, anything as long as it's vaguely scientifically respectable that soil could be blue.

 

[MstrTal]

Arsenic, cyanide and lead poisoning will turn soil blue. A community in RI here in the States is still going through a tough time with it.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ne...anup_stops_in_ri_neighborhood_with_blue_soil/

Another thought is a high concentration of blue clay mixed in with the soil.

 

[goldhawk]

um. There are blue bacteria? Lovely, anything as long as it's vaguely scientifically respectable that soil could be blue.

Google Images produces this. Very colourful actually.

 

[Hex]

Thank you both. I'm looking for something that wouldn't be poisonous to humans (so probably not the poisoning). Blue clay is a thought.

And the bacteria are really pretty. I didn't realise they were blue. If I'd thought about it, I'd have thought those were the dyes used to make them visible (yes, ok, I know nothing).

 

[goldhawk]

yes, ok, I know nothing.

Hardly. You know when to ask questions. A useful talent in any day and age. Believe or not, there's a lot of people to think they know enough not to ask questions (and they're not teenagers).

 

[Hex]

Me again! I have lots of questions.

Does anyone know if there's a collective name for the people who wrote the Bible?

 

[Jake Reynolds]

The REMD- Roman Empire Marketing Department.