Technology
Throughout the Nelson brothers’ narratives, they grapple with the increasingly technological nature of the world around them. This grappling is evident in their detailed explorations of boats, sleds, telescopes, ice skates, and other items. Subjecting phenomena that are often unfamiliar to them to the same rigorous evaluations that they subject their cameras to in their journals, it is apparent that the Nelson brothers’ real-life interests in technology informed their imaginative pursuits. It is likely that their labor during sugaring season contributed to these descriptions as well, as experience with boilers and other sap-related machinery afforded the boys the kind of tactile understanding necessary to imagine other forms of machinery in vivid detail.
An ornate depiction of a furistic telecsope in "The War News." "Mounted" and "already" for shipment!
Pond hockey in Chit Chat! Note the vivid color and the quaint New England village setting in the background.
10,000 spectators turn out as the Long Continent Skating Club takes on the Round Continent Skating Club! For a hierarchy of late 19th-century skating equipment, look no further.
Ever wonder how to go about building a sled? What about a 19th-century "traverse"? The Nelson brothers have got it covered!
A possible inspiration for the January edition of Chit-Chat's "traverse?"
In Nelson Narratives:
Little City Democrat and Trapper:
Describing a race between formidable New England ice skating clubs, the boys create an imagined chronology of the development of ice skates in the thirty years leading up to the narrative. Distinguishing between the “inferior quality and pattern” of the “speed skate” and the “grand” steel clamp skates that enable one club to outstrip the other, and chronicling the ingenious transition from iron to steel blades, the Nelson brothers’ intimacy with ice skates is readily apparent. The difference between the skates is palpable: once equipped with steel clamp skates, the plodding Long Continent Club finds itself “close on the heeles” of the vigorous Round Continent Club, with the contest between the two thousand-person teams a site to behold for the ten thousand-person crowd!
The Intellectual Farmer, April Edition:
On page three, the boys describe the intricate detail of the “Derry Harrow,” a “new article only being introduced in 1894.” As the Harrow resembles a hoe, the boys may well have used a similar item on their family farm. The boys’ description, once again, goes into extensive technical detail, imagining everything from materials to design: “It consists of about 40 steel spikes set in a solid elm stick about 2 inches apart. The spikes being about 1 foot long to this attached a swinging pole or sharves to which the team is hitched the pole being allowed to swing only up and down.” Furthermore, the boys offer a two-part diagram, with the first image depicting the Harrow’s various parts, and the second image “showing how to set it in deep”!
See also: Page 8 of Chit-Chat January 1893 Edition, for a similar diagram of how to assemble a “traverse,” a good old-fashioned New England sled!
The Mountain News:
The six issues of Mountain News (Feb. 5th, Jan. 30th, Mar. 7th, March 11th, undated, and undated (2)) shows the Nelson brothers’ bureaucratic imaginations at work, as they describe various cities’ expansions. Greenville has ten new sawmills, a snow tunnel of 800-1,000 miles has been constructed along the route between Twin Pass and Farmington, and there is a “great solar refinery” erected at Greenville, among many other marks of forward progress in their paracosmic world. Throughout the narrative, the Nelson brothers explore the idea of nation-building, describing various installations and repairs of crucial (and non-crucial) infrastructure. It is apparent that they have an appreciation for bureaucracy, and that they believe in mankind’s ability to master nature in the interest of making life more convenient.
A two-part diagram of "The New Derry Harrow," a hoe-like device that can really dig in "deep"! See the April edition of The Intellectual Farmer for more.
The entrance to "Twin Pass" fort, home of the aforementioned giant telescope. It strikes an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star from Star Wars, does it not?
An alternate view (left) of the giant telescope, dissecting its "lower end." Also depicted: an esquimaux stove (right).
The latest and greatest in military technology: "the torped slinger" and "the new bomb"! The Nelson brothers investitage dynamite technology.
Though the Nelson brothers didn't sail the kind of grand ships that they write about in their narratives, they had experience "boating" the lakes of New Hampshire!
War News:
Other phenomena of note in War News' Jan. 19, 1895, Nov. 13, 1896, June 24, 1895 issues are the Nelson Brothers’ futuristic and technological imaginations. Within the first few pages, they have already conceived – in ornate detail – of “Twin Pass Fort,” an elaborate fortress akin to something out of Star Wars, and “The Great Big Telescope,” which they describe as a “monster” that can see even the smallest particles on Earth (4-5). These descriptions, along with rigorous examinations of “Esquimaux stoves” and “dynamite cartridges,” capture the Nelson Brothers’ imaginative flights as they attempt to make sense of technological advancement in their society. Amazed at such innovations, they subject it to their own imaginative evaluation, fleshing out parts and mechanisms on the page, where their hands do not have access to such materials. This is a fascinating moment in the development of authorial agency, as the authors attempt to sound out the universe in ways that their hands cannot necessarily enact.
Chit-Chat January 1893 Edition:
In this piece, the boys attempt to explore the exotic, grappling to conceptualize natural phenomena that they are unfamiliar with, just as they do below with notions of emerging technology and industrialization in War News' Jan. 19, 1895, Nov. 13, 1896, June 24, 1895 issues. Here, however, they focus primarily on the jungle and the nautical. In their section, “The Cast A Ways of Mink Island,” they feel out nautical language, exploring the dynamics of life on a ship as they weave their tale. “Vessel,” “plank,” “rudder,” and similar technology figure heavily – often in a heavy-handed manner – and one can imagine the gears of understanding churning as the boys attempt to conceive of nautical technology (3) – a natural methodology that the boys likely did not have firsthand exposure to.
The Complete History of Big Continent:
In The Complete History of Big Continent, the boys devote an entire chapter – “Chapter 7: New Inventions” – to new inventions that ingenious members of their budding nation dream up. In relaying this series of firsts, the boys attempt to capture the forward-looking, modernist spirit of their era, as the portion of the nineteenth century that provided the backdrop for their childhood was an especially potent time for American invention. In their childhoods, the boys witnessed the inventions of the diesel engine, the AC motor and transformer, smokeless gunpowder, and – perhaps more pertinently – the roller coaster and Coca-Cola. This modernist spirit is evident in the tone of their narration below:
“Why should they not be proud of their bridge any nation would about this time little Jimmy Allen the son of President Allen thought of a way how to make an engine to go by steam he took a big [can?] and [had a fire?] boy under it then had a steam valve on the top and a smoke stack and had a [shakt?] connected with the steam valve to the wheals this ran on a track and could go most as fast as he could run he was the first one to think of the steam power all the boys came to see his wonder full engine and after this he was a hero than Allen then came one thousand dolars to Jimmy for thinking of it and then went oto [sic] work and made big engines and cars to ride in.
The first trane ran from Picnic City to Happy City and the first steamer carried a load of granite from Picnic City to Happy City harbor as it came up to Happy City harbor a great shout went up and the whole Happy City population came down they were given rides by turn and then the steamer went back and now steamers are every where on the little lakes and rivers as well as on the ocean the train carried pasengers from Picnic City to Happy City it could go a mile in five minutes and trains were run every where in a little while and now some go as far as a mile in all most a minute this is a great spread. The Long and Round Continenters now were going to make an atack now for it had been a long time in fact many years since they had made trouble with Big Continent and so they were going to make trouble now and so were going to atack Happy City and now Ethan Allen was up to Mountain City when he heard of it. He took the train right to Picnic City” (The Complete History of Big Continent 27-30).
The Nelson brothers at work with their Ideal Camera.
The train to Contoocook.
A detailed description of fictional character Jimmy Allen's skis, complete with diagram, from War News.
War News, the Nelson periodical that "tells all about the latest inventions of the age"!
More Nelson machinery from the Intellectual Farmer (April Edition): bean planters and "Arimoters"!
In Nelson Sketches:
In their sketches, the Nelson brothers highlight their real-life intimacy with machinery. In the following vignettes, both the technical descriptions of cameras and the firsthand knowledge of sugaring provide windows into the experiences that likely informed the way that they wrote about technology.
Our Cameras:
“During the spring and early summer of 1896, Arthur was getting subscribers for the Youth Companion in order to get himself a rifle, and among the premiums which he got was a Harvard camera using a 2-1/2 x 4 plate and a Phoenix camera using a 2-1/2 x 2 plate. We received them the 3rd of July, we liked the looks of them very much and they seemed very simple. The larger one Arthur gave to me and the smaller to Walter. We were soon trying them. I first tried the house but did not get a good one, but after a few attempts I got a good one. The first pictures we took by order were for Horace Sholes of his hayfield. We had taken several up to the time that we began to go to school at the River, then began our business, for Arthur and I went into partnership, some of the time we took so many that with going to school we could not keep up with our orders. We took so many that we soon ran out of material and had to send for more, after school was done we did not take so many pictures, though we were called on quite frequently, from different parts of the town. Among the pictures we prize the highest, our taking are several of the 3rd N.E.Crusade Band. And now though it is the middle of the winter and we do our photographing mostly out of doors, we are still at it. We have used up to the present time, March, about a hundred and twenty-five plates and have sold over twenty-six dozen pictures, but have sold them so low that our gain has been very small. Walter has not done much with his camera except take pictures for his own pleasure. (PHOTO 7. ELMER H. NELSON, OCT. 1897)” (Sketches of Our Home Life Volume 1, pg. 27).
Uncle Oren, stoking the sap boiler!
Outside of the sugaring house.
Sugaring in the Youth's Companion, 1895.
Our Ideal Camera:
“After using our little Harvard Camera about a year Elmer and I decided to get a larger one.
We consulted the catalogues of half a dozen different firms for about two weeks then at last decided upon the Rochester Optical Cos. Ideal Camera made of mahogany. With reversible back and ground glass for focusing. With rack and pinion rnovrnent. Extension leather bellows. size plate used 4-1/4 x 6-1/2. Camera fitted with Single achromatic lenses and Premo shutter.
Our Camera and outfit cost us twenty six dollars and sixty nine cents. It is a beauty. Arthur Nelson” (Sketches of Our Home Life Volume 2, pg. 12).
Sugaring:
Though sugaring is not a prevalent subject in the boys’ narratives, a column of the Weekly Telegram from April 19th of 1894 suggests that the boys found this work particularly taxing – or even grudging!
News from Mapleton, page 3:
“We have had a great many visitors here lately. Sugaring is done for the year and most everyone is glad of it. We have been having some very fine weather.”
"Sugaring" in Sketches of Our Home Life, Volume 1:
“The spring of 1891, the first spring on our place Hial took Lorenzo Chamberlins sugar place to carry on in connection with our own, as they lie side by side; almost inunediately after getting the trees tapped he was taken with the Grippe, so the boys & I helped all we could.
The next two springs Elmer worked for his Uncle Oren, the next spring he commenced work the first of March & worked till the first of Sept. only missing three days. It was rather harder than a boy of seventeen ought to do; as Oren's wife was sick all spring & summer so that Oren had to be in the house a great deal, leaving elmer to do the work. One week in sugaring Oren did not go near the sugar house from Monday morning till Saturday night, Mr. Corkum doing the gathering, and Elmer having the entire charge of the Evaporator, putting the syrup into cans, &c.
Sister Nellie was very, very sick that year, we little thought she could ever be well again, but God spared her to us in answer to prayer.
Last spring Hial and Arthur worked for Oren in sugaring and Elmer and Walter carried on ours, Walter running the Evaporator and Elmer doing the gathering. Hial worked out considerable during the year and the boys did the work” (Sketches of Our Home Life Volume 1, pg. 4).