The Chase introduced a new character and series for Clive Cussler, "tall, lean, no-nonsense detective" Isaac Bell. His stories take place in the early 1900s. This first book in the series was published in 2007.
It rose from the depths like an evil monster in a Mesozoic sea.
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time. The era began in the wake of the Permian-Triassic event, the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous-Paleogene event, another mass extinction which is known for having killed off non-avian dinosaurs, as well as other plant and animal species.
It is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. The division of time into eras dates back to Giovanni Arduino, in the 18th century, although his original name for the era now called the "Mesozoic" was "Secondary" (making everything after, including the modern era, the "Tertiary"; the current term Quaternary was later proposed for the modern era, following the same numbering principle). Lying between the Paleozoic and the Cenozoic, "Mesozoic" means "middle life", deriving from the Greek prefix meso-/μεσο- for "between" and zōon/ζωον meaning "animal" or "living being".
The Mesozoic was a time of tectonic, climatic and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses which would eventually become the seven continents we are familiar with today. The climate of the Mesozoic was varied, alternating between warming and cooling periods. Overall, however, the Earth was much hotter than it is today. Dinosaurs would become the dominant terrestrial vertebrate group late in the Triassic period, and would occupy this position for over 150 million years until their demise at the end of the Cretaceous. Mammals also evolved during this era, but would remain small and modest until their ultimate rivals, the dinosaurs, disappeared.
A steam locomotive is raised from a lake.
Clive Cussler is making use of a real life plot device - that also inspired the Dirk Pitt novel Night Probe, published in 1981. Cussler wrote about the "Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek" in his book The Sea Hunters (1996), about a locomotive that had disappeared into a lake and been buried in quicksand. Cussler and his NUMA crew discovered that the locomotive must have been raised - so the owners got the insurance money for the lost locomotive, and also got to keep using the actual locomotive.
Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad (railway) locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of diesels was far less so. Later, when the early demand for diesel locomotives to replace steam tapered off, Baldwin could not compete in the marketplace. It stopped producing locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972.
His face was as weathered as buckskin.
Buckskin is the soft, pliable, porous preserved hide of an animal, usually deer, moose or elk or even cowhide tanned to order, but potentially any animal's hide,. Modern leather labeled "buckskin" may be made of sheepskin tanned with modern chromate tanning chemicals and dyed to resemble real buckskin. Leather is another product made from animal hide, but with a different chemical process to preserve the hide. Buckskin is preserved with a dressing of some kind of lubricant, physically manipulated to make it soft and pliable, and usually smoked with woodsmoke. Smoking gives buckskin its typical dark honey color, and is highly recommended. Smoking prevents the tanned hide from becoming stiff if it gets wet, and deters insects from eating it as well. Unsmoked buckskin is lighter, even white, in color. Coincidentally, the alkali soaking process is called bucking (from a Latin verb of the type *bucāre "to steep in lye, wash clothes"); buckskin itself is simply "the skin of a buck (deer)." Clothing made of buckskin is referred to as buckskins.
There are many ways to make buckskin, but most can probably be lumped into two categories: "dry-scraping" and "wet-scraping". Before a hide can be tanned, any flesh remaining on the hide from the skinning process must be removed, usually with a scraper. Care must be taken when skinning, fleshing, and scraping a hide to prevent leaving any cuts or nicks in it which will be visible in the finished buckskin.
No comments:
Post a Comment