Sunday, March 25, 2018

Funerals! With Wulfride Blitzen (Unedited Transcript)



[13:59] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Hallo, Herr Steadman.
[14:00] Steadman Kondor: greetings herr baron
[14:00] Steadman Kondor: hope you have been well
[14:00] Fauve Aeon: Greetings Herr Kondor
[14:00] Wildstar Beaumont: greetings!
[14:00] Fauve Aeon: Greetings Admiral
[14:00] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Good evening everyone :)
[14:01] Fauve Aeon: Good Day Grafin, I hope you are well!
[14:01] Kailyn Stormraven (kailyn.bravin): Good evening
[14:01] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Slowly recovering from flu, still tired though.
[14:01] Fauve Aeon: Hello Miss Stormraven, welcome
[14:01] Kailyn Stormraven (kailyn.bravin): Thank you
[14:02] Fauve Aeon: I am very glad you are on the mend Frau Grafin *hugs*
[14:02] Fauve Aeon: Welcome Melanippe, lovely to see you again
[14:02] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) *hugs* and smiles
[14:02] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Ooo, that was excellent aim on my part!
[14:02] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Greetings to our new arrivals
[14:02] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): I think everybody else scattered to various suppers and bed, so I had to come.
[14:03] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): What in the world are you wearing?
[14:03] Fauve Aeon: it has been a very busy weekend here with events on the grid for sure!
[14:03] Lady Sumoku kisses Wulfi on the nose.
[14:03] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Futuristic clothes.  Nyah.
[14:03] Coleen (coleen88mcgee) looks for a comfy chair
[14:03] Fauve Aeon: Welcome Coleen
[14:03] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Hello!
[14:04] Coleen (coleen88mcgee): 'ellos all
[14:04] Fauve Aeon: Welcome Laird Tamlorn
[14:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Guten Abend, everyone.
[14:04] Fauve Aeon: Welcome Miss Blackwater
[14:04] Larlotte Blackwater (larlotte): Thank you
[14:05] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): Greetings all.
[14:05] Fauve Aeon admires Melanippe's hat
[14:05] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3 whispers: Fauve Aeon has set down an absinthe goblet, places a slotted spoon and sugar cube, starts the cold water drip, waiting in anticipation for the louche.
[14:05] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) feels eyes on her head and grins
[14:06] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:06] Fauve Aeon prepares some absinthe doses
[14:06] Fauve Aeon: ((and kicks the spelling bot))
[14:06] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3: Louche has bloomed, anyone can click goblet to attach.
[14:06] Fauve Aeon: I see we have some of His Blueness's cookies as well
[14:07] Fauve Aeon: mind the 'slpodey ones
[14:07] Ravenghost Absinthe Goblet (r) whispers: The louche has bloomed, herbal aromas fill the air, the absinthe is ready to drink.
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Indeed. Excellent selection.
[14:07] Fauve Aeon: The louche has bloomed, herbal aromas fill the air, the absinthe is ready to drink.
[14:07] Fauve Aeon: please do click and take a glass if you indulge, it is ready
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Welcome to March's Aether Salon, home of Dauphine Fauve's talkative absinthe.
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): A few points of order before we start.
[14:07] Fauve Aeon hiccups wistfully
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1) To ensure you can hear the speaker, stand or sit on the patterned carpet.
[14:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 2) Sit wherever you might like in the provided seating. If you would prefer a wearable chair, please contact me in IM. The director's chairs are for Tinies.
[14:08] Fauve Aeon: ((welcome Mr Falconer))
[14:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 3) Please remove all lag-feeding thingamajigs you might be wearing.
[14:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 4) A tip jar is out for our speaker. Do please show your appreciation!
[14:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 5) Any tips to help support the establishment will also be welcome - just click on one of the support signs or this handsome clank floating above us.
[14:09] Larlotte Blackwater (larlotte): Mr Falconer! So good to see you!
[14:09] Wildstar Beaumont waves at Liz
[14:09] Ranulf Falconer: "Greetings everyone.' -- bows to Dee and Lar.
[14:09] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): I don't see many chairs, have they simply not rezzed yet?
[14:09] Fauve Aeon: ((Welcome your Grace))
[14:09] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): They have not rezzed yet, but I can give you one.
[14:09] Dee Wells (promiscute) waves :)
[14:09] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Just a moment.
[14:09] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Welcome, welcome :)
[14:09] Fauve Aeon: (( Welcome Mr Tenk))
[14:09] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 6) If you are not a member of the AEther Salon group, there are signs that will let you join up. You'll be most heartily welcome.
[14:09] Fauve Aeon ((waves to Dee))
[14:09] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 7 ) Edited and unedited transcripts of these proceedings will be posted at http://aethersalon.blogspot.com.
[14:10] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 8) Tea and treats are set out - help yourself! Beware of possible Hatchies guarding the sweet biscuits.
[14:10] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3 whispers: Fauve Aeon has set down an absinthe goblet, places a slotted spoon and sugar cube, starts the cold water drip, waiting in anticipation for the louche.
[14:10] Fauve Aeon: (((shhhhh...)))
[14:10] Larlotte Blackwater (larlotte) nods to Tenk
[14:10] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Our speaker today is a long-time resident of several of the Steamlands, a responsible citizen and a highly regarded staff member with the Embassy.
[14:11] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3: Louche has bloomed, anyone can click goblet to attach.
[14:11] Ravenghost Absinthe Goblet (l) whispers: The louche has bloomed, herbal aromas fill the air, the absinthe is ready to drink.
[14:12] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): She is also an archeologist of long standing, and finds all kinds of history fascinating. Today she will fascinate us with funeral traditions and history. Wulfrithe Blitzen, everyone.
[14:12] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) applauds
[14:12] Fauve Aeon claps wildly
[14:12] Lady Sumoku cheers cheeringly
[14:12] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) claps.
[14:12] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Danke, Herr Baron and thank you all for being here today.
[14:12] Fauve Aeon: ((welcome to all you late-niks))
[14:12] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) must support fellow Amazons
[14:13] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Before I start, I would like to make a note - I am recovering from a very bad flu infection and wrote this during the worst period - it is not as polished as I would like.
[14:13] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Secondly, if at any point, you have a question, please ask!
[14:14] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) smiles as she listens and wonders why anyone would dislike having to fly.
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It is hard for us to understand the Victorian preoccupation with death.
Although they were familiar with death and did not welcome it, they did relatively feel rather at ease with it. They celebrated it for no other stage of life demanded such elaborate rites of passage. We in the 21st century are now the opposite; with many people 'erecting fences' when the matter is brought up and instantly changing the subject. In African and some Asian cultures, it is a time of partying and joy. We know about the New Orleans Jazz funerals, but have you ever seen Ghana Coffin Dancers who perform feats of strength while carrying the coffin to the gravesite to wild music?
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/untitled-1.gif
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): A small gif of them in action
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In this talk, I will cover the rituals and habits of the English, which were to some extent copied in America for a set period of time. Some information may surprise you and I hope to dispel some of the more lurid and false Internet myths that have sprung up about the Victorian way of death. I am however just scratching the surface - there is an awful lot more to learn.
[14:15] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Before Death:
Preparations for the funeral might take place well in advance by both rich and poor - the actress Sarah Bernhardt famously kept her coffin in her boudoir and was photographed in it, something she undertook on a regular basis it was claimed. The poor too: one period writer commented on his village carpenter making his own coffin then turning it into an upright storage space and cupboard until the time came for it to be used. Earlier there are several accounts of generals setting off to war and battle complete with their coffins strapped to the back of their coach.
[14:15] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): There she is, looking languid and Gothic
[14:16] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) kisses Zanta's hand
[14:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The Earl of Essex was one such general who at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 became a butt of jokes when his coffin, winding sheets and other funerary items was said to slow down his regiment during marches. Some accounts survive of dying ladies being visited by friends to approve the wreaths they will put upon their coffin and graves. This was far from a morbid visit and usually depicted as a happy social time where the dying person would be cheered by having a 'good funeral'.
[14:16] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) settles in quietly
[14:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The role of Undertaker did not exist before the mid 17thc when everything was left to family and friends. Traditionally women washed and prepared the body before the funeral. So many people died in the great plague of 1665 that the role grew from a small group of volunteers who offered to take away the diseased corpse as no one else would touch them. In just twenty years it became established as a very profitable business with its own traditions and trappings.
[14:16] Fauve Aeon smiles at the Queen's lovely presence
[14:17] Dee Wells (promiscute) waves to Zanta :)
[14:17] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the image on the right you can see an invitation for a night funeral.
[14:17] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Mourning:

Although black is traditionally worn we have to bear in mind that until the 1840's when chemical dyes were invented, black was a very expensive colour reserved for the rich. The poor made do with a black ribbon or wore 'drab', consisting of dark grey or browns (another Roman tradition). However, in some countries white is worn instead. And until the 1920's white was worn in England for children's burials, unmarried women and girls who died in childbirth with their first child. Modern children's coffins are still white but people now wear black, although in England at least a new trend is emerging where mourners are asked to dress in bright colours to celebrate the life of the person. White was, before Queen Victoria, a rare colour to wear at a wedding because of its connection to death, and some people at the time found it more than a little shocking.
[14:18] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) grins
[14:19] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The image of the Queen of Holland is not a wedding, but of her in mourning. The Dutch Royal family still adhere to this tradition today
[14:19] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the left is a 'Mute', in this instance to a child funeral
[14:19] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Pardon, what are those wrapped poles?
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Mourning had become very strictly observed by the Regency period, where rules stated how long you wore mourning, what type of mourning if you were a child, right down to the fabric used. Silk Crepe had become a fashionable mourning fabric as far back at the late 18thc, and society demanded that a widow wore black crepe up to four years before she was permitted to revert to fashionable clothing again. Half-mourning was permitted after two years, but a woman remarrying before the end of the mourning period was considered utterly scandalous. Mourning wasn't so strict for children who had passed away, being mostly one year. Poor people would wear black armbands.
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Ah, the poles have various names including 'Muffler'
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It was a Victorian hang up from the medieval habit of displaying a banner with a coat of arms
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They traditionally led the procession at the front
[14:21] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the UK today you sometimes see a solitary man walking in front of the coffin, so his role, although less fabric covered, still exists
[14:22] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The start of the 17thc started a new craze for mourning rings, and by the late 18thc a fashion for hair braid lockets woven into intricate styles became fashionable. They actually started off as a sweetheart brooch, a gift between lovers or even just friends as before then mourning jewellery were rings. By the Regency era hair brooches became more intricate, often featuring a weeping willow tree made from the hair of the deceased. This pushed sweetheart hair gifts to a new direction, braided hair necklaces or bracelets, and sometimes these are mistaken for death or memento mori items. By the 1850's mourning hair brooches were a huge seller, and you could even buy empty ones to place your own hair into.
[14:23] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The brooch on the left is using hair to great effect, but this fell out of fashion by 1850
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I must briefly mention the so-called post-mortem photos, as many bloggers have posted thousands of these online. Unfortunately far too many are mistakenly labelled as post-mortem. Fake post-mortem photos, whether categorized in error or intentionally mislabelled to sell for a profit, have in recent years become widespread on the Internet. They fill online galleries of Victorian oddities and accumulate on Pinterest and Instagram—even otherwise reputable websites have contributed to the myths.
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The image in the centre is often cited, but is NOT of a dead child.
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Though unfortunate, it’s also understandable: there’s clearly something compelling about a lurid, not-so-distant culture engaging with death in a way we don’t. People have created fake history and its peculiarity is such that people want to believe it. Many are of people very much alive held in clamps to keep still for the long posing time, of children falling asleep during photo sessions, and of sick people being photographed because family feared the worst. People then did what people do now; look away at the wrong moment, get distracted, move...use your common sense, folks!
[14:24] Fauve Aeon has a book on this topic and wonders how many are fake...
[14:25] Lady Sumoku: Probably a lot.
[14:25] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): She looks either ill or about to nap.
[14:26] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): There's some new sites springing up which debunk these photos. Even a Twitter feed
[14:26] Liz Wilner: a bit of both
[14:26] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Embalming.
Although there have been great efforts for thousands of years for the preservation of the corpse it was rather a hit and miss affair. Embalming was rare and the preserve of the very rich, so bodies were washed, dressed within a 'winding sheet' often held together with pins and ties and then left to rest for a few days to ensure the person was really dead. It was already well known that some burials in lead coffins survived 'uncorrupted', but they did not understand the causes. However, by the late 18thc, the population boom made burials more urgent, and that was when rumours increased of live burials.
[14:27] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Heres' some examples of 'Avoidance of Live burials'
[14:28] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They are American - they seemed rather petrified. Even Washington demanded that his body be left for a couple of days to make sure he was utterly ded.
[14:28] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): *a
[14:28] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The Dauphine is rubbing off on you.
[14:28] Liz Wilner: good precaution
[14:28] Fauve Aeon snickers and hiccups loudly
[14:28] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The idea of these crypts were that you were removed from your coffin and slid, feet first, into the tomb
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Food and drink was provided, as was air
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In an emergency, you could reach back and open the door
[14:29] Ranulf Falconer looks over at Coleen
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the time of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18thc there was a sudden interest in new scientific methods, so much so that one eccentric, Martin Van Butchell of London advertised in 1775 that visitors were welcome to come and see his wife who had passed away and that he had embalmed in the utmost scientific way. She remained on display in his front window till his second wife demanded its removal. There are also records taken down in a scientific way of medieval coffins opened that had well-preserved incumbents where the liquid they were found in was sniffed and even tasted (I kid you not, they really did this).
[14:30] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) chews happily on licorice root as she listens.
[14:30] Dee Wells (promiscute): Ew
[14:30] Steadman Kondor dry-retches
[14:31] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): If you don't believe me, there are several accounts out there :p
[14:31] Ranulf Falconer whispers: "Licorice... yuck.'
[14:31] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the mid 19thc Arsenic was commonly used to preserve bodies and came into its own during the American Civil War as bodies had to often be transported for great distances to relatives. By the 1920's this was replaced with Formaldehyde.
[14:31] Wildstar Beaumont: dinner stay down, please
[14:31] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): They believe you, they're just disgusted.
[14:31] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) continues chewing.
[14:32] Dee Wells (promiscute): hehe Nika
[14:32] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) hides her garum.
[14:32] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) lets that sink in for a moment
[14:32] Fauve Aeon impassively sips her herbal absinthe
[14:32] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): I thought arsenic was a beauty agent.
[14:32] Lady Sumoku: Medicinal
[14:33] Lady Sumoku: Arsenic was many things.
[14:33] Liz Wilner: it was in makeup for a very long time
[14:34] Fauve Aeon: if the first wife remained so Well Preserved, I can see why the second mortal ageing woman might request the removal...
[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Oddly they only stopped using arsenic when it was pointed out that it was poisoning the water table and causing problems in criminal cases where poisoning was suspected
[14:34] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Oooooh
[14:34] Steadman Kondor quietly wonders how long it took them to work that out.
[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): So, how would you like to be furnished in your last journey?
[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Burial habits and change is usually marked by great social upheaval or devastating loss of life in war or disease. The Celts and the Romans practised bed burials which carried on into the early Christian period when beds were replaced with Biers, a kind of flat litter that was carried by four or six men to the gravesite, a tradition that still takes place today in Europe. Medieval parishes would have their own for communal use of the poor, complete with parish coffin for those too poor to afford more than a winding sheet. In those cases the body would be taken to the gravesite, removed from the coffin and buried. Many English churches still have their Victorian or older biers on display. Biers eventually gained wheels before evolving into the horse-drawn hearse.
[14:36] Fauve Aeon has already decided that all her lolita dresses will serve to line her coffin
[14:36] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the middle is a selection of gravestones, and how they changed - 17th, 18th and then the mad period of 19thc realism and the grand 'showing off to the Joneses'
[14:36] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): 'My grave is bigger than your grave'
[14:37] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) wonders how Zanta will bury him.
[14:37] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the upper left is a Pauper's Bier and Parish coffin
[14:37] Liz Wilner snickers
[14:37] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Underneath that in contrast is the gigantic cast iron monster used to carry the coffin of the Duke of Wellington in his 1850's State funeral
[14:38] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): You can still go and see it collecting dust at the Wellington family home
[14:39] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the right is a 'covered Bier', for when there was no coffin at all. It was presented to a small English church as a present by the village priest on the occasion of his birthday
[14:39] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): No cakes for him...
[14:39] Liz Wilner: lol
[14:39] Lady Sumoku: Happy birthday
[14:39] Steadman Kondor: i knew there would be beer at this talk :)
[14:39] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) laughs
[14:40] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): From Roman times onwards the wealthy were buried in lead coffins and archaeologists in the UK still find them in various states of preservation, sometimes with beautiful decoration. By the medieval period they were small and tightly wrapped around the body in an anthropomorphic shape. Even Kings were buried this way. By the 18thc century a good burial was considered to be a lead coffin inside a red or black velvet covered oak coffin. This of course was excellent news to the undertakers, who began to cheat and hid inferior construction under the velvet.
[14:40] Njal Edwyn entered the region (168.86 m).
[14:40] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Tsch.
[14:41] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now these are London burial crypts
[14:41] Liz Wilner: at least in boxes and not the skulls hanging out in holes in the walls of crypts
[14:41] Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:41] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In stark contrast with American crypts (having space), London had none and its common to see piles and piles of coffins
[14:41] Lady Sumoku: They have those too, in places.
[14:42] Wildstar Beaumont: hey ... I haven't taken you yet in to Roman catacombs
[14:42] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Many are still used too
[14:42] Liz Wilner: :)
[14:43] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now with the 'gentrification' of London crypts are being emptied and reburied elsewhere, and specialist archaeological teams have sprung up - it's still possible to catch Smallpox from crypts
[14:43] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I'm one of the last to have the Smallpox vaccination, so I get asked on occasion
[14:44] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Liz Wilner!
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I'm not that old, some European countries were still vaccinating against smallpox in the 1970's
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): :p
[14:44] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): As a side note, plague pits are deemed a danger to public health and when found are usually covered up and sealed
[14:45] Lady Sumoku: Possibly to hide evidence of zombies.
[14:45] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It was discovered that a sample taken from a victim still had living plague virii
[14:45] Dee Wells (promiscute): Good Lord
[14:45] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
[14:45] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now to the interesting part!
[14:46] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Change was afoot, and Fisk cast iron burial cases were patented in 1848 by Almond Dunbar Fisk in Rhode Island. He claimed his new coffins were totally airtight, hygienic and perfect for the preservation of your loved ones.  While pine coffins in the 1850s would have cost around $2, a Fisk coffin could command a price between $40 to $100. Nonetheless, the metallic coffins were highly desirable by more affluent individuals and families for their potential to deter grave robbers.  These coffins came at a time when death and burial began to become a multi-million pound and dollar enterprise. Cast iron coffins became a huge success, even with some people finding the Egyptian style creepy even for their tastes. By 1860 their style changed into one still seen today with American metal caskets. They were sold around the world but America proved to be their main market. The traditional Brits preferred their lead-lined coffins and fitted guard rails on the graves if they could afford it.
[14:46] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Does any of our American guests recognise these?
[14:47] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Fisk patented these cast iron coffins in the 1840's, and before long they became the must have thing for the rich.
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They even came with a little viewing window
[14:48] Liz Wilner: beware if the person inside waves back
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They were sold to deter grave robbing, airtight and hygienic mode of burial
[14:48] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Robotnika Resident!
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): And he claimed they preserved the body too
[14:48] Lady Sumoku: Looks like an iron lung gone wrong.
[14:48] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Fauve Aeon!
[14:49] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Recently two were recovered and the Smithsonian opened one and managed to reconstruct the occupant, a teenage boy
[14:49] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They agree they did indeed preserve their incumbent.
[14:50] Lady Sumoku: Now we know.
[14:50] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They changed shape by the 1860's and became the recognizable modern American style
[14:50] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 1850's the English developed a collective fear of being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave and began to set up co-ops where for a small weekly donation they would be able to put some pennies into a fund to help with their burial. The very poor in workhouses could not afford this and continued to be buried in simple unmarked graves, or if in a big city, large mass graves.
[14:51] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): A population boom, large-scale people movement into the cities soon followed and graveyards began to fill up alarmingly fast. One such site was the Cross Bones graveyard in London, in use since the medieval period for the burial of prostitutes, executed criminals and suicides. It was closed in 1853 because it was "completely overcharged with dead", and further burials were deemed "inconsistent with a due regard for the public health and public decency. This began to be repeated around London and new sites had to be found urgently. Highgate Cemetery is probably one of the most famous of these new sites, and still on occasion allows funerals there if certain conditions are met.
[14:52] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Burials took place at all hours of the day and night, often at 11pm (finishing at the 11th hour) being the latest. Usually the coffin was followed by friends and family with the men at the front and ladies at the back. If you were wealthy enough you could afford professional male mourners known as Mutes, or even some feather bearers. Maybe a team of horses. You walked behind the coffin unless you were lucky enough to own a carriage. Mutes have a long history going back thousands of years, originally being female weepers, who by Roman times collected the tears to put in a bottle to bury with the deceased.
[14:52] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 18thc they led the procession to the church, then to the grave. In the UK you will still see undertakers do this role in large funerals, although the title of Mute is now seen as archaic. Medieval habits persisted, with black hooded cloaks with Liripips (similar to modern academic gowns) eventually being replaced by the late 18thc with a wide sash made from Crepe silk worn over the shoulder and around the hat.
[14:53] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): From the 17thc onwards funerals began to be ticketed, especially if the person was popular or famous. The cards usually contained several reminders that one day, it will be your turn *and don't you forget it!*...or the people who invited you. Funeral biscuits with crosses and often made of shortbread were given to all mourners who turned up, another ancient tradition that sprung from the pagan feasts held around the dead. Funeral biscuits fell out of fashion by World War 1 and the Wake replaced them. There is presently an attempt at reviving this tradition.
[14:53] Fauve Aeon likes liripips and funeral biscuits
[14:54] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Cremation, although ancient in practice, was shunned by the advent of Christianity as a 'Pagan habit' and consequently only began to be used relatively recently. Some groups still oppose its use, but with modern graveyard sites running out of room and land becoming more of a commodity these thoughts may change over time. It was resisted in England during the 1860's when graveyards became a health hazard due to powerful religious leaders stating that one had to rise for the resurrection complete. It was not until 1874 that the Cremation Society, a secular organisation, was formed in London to campaign for cremation, mainly on the grounds of hygiene and cost.
[14:54] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): Oliver Twist was for a time employed as a Mute
[14:55] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Yes, Mutes were young and old. Today, you even see young ladies
[14:55] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 1880s the mere act of organizing a large showcase funeral had reached the upper working classes who pulled out all the stops emulating the rich and state funerals. Naturally, like all these things are wont to do the rich scowled and suddenly found large, over the top funerals gauche and tacky and began to settle for more simple affairs.
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Dressed up Mutes, Feather bearers and several horses slowly trickled into being seen as a sign of those 'lower sort', and the wealthy settled for just the hearse and a couple of carriages for the immediate family only. Gone were the velvet covered and lead-lined coffins, being replaced with simpler wooden affairs, now with rails for carrying by family members on the shoulders. By 1905 the only people who hired Mutes et al were the working classes who clearly had not got the memo yet that it was unfashionable and downright vulgar.
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The photo behind me is a record of the last great funerals of London's East End
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): He was a shopkeeper but he has a huge team of horses, mutes, feather bearers...
[14:57] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Tamlorn Resident!
[14:57] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By now the upper classes thought this was vulgar
[14:57] Lady Sumoku: And wooly Daleks.
[14:57] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): So, as we have run out of time, I shall end this talk today. Thank you for coming
[14:58] Liz Wilner applauds
[14:58] Kailyn Stormraven (kailyn.bravin) claps
[14:58] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): Thank you very much!
[14:58] Larlotte Blackwater (larlotte) claps, "Thank you!"
[14:58] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Kailyn Bravin!
[14:58] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) blinks at Lady Sumoku and wonders whatever is a Dalek.
[14:58] Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (diogenesteufelsdrockh) claps enthusiastically
[14:58] Wildstar Beaumont: fascinating talk ! thank you !
[14:58] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) claps happily.
[14:58] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Coleen88McGee Resident!
[14:58] Steadman Kondor: Wunderbar!
[14:58] Lady Sumoku claps
[14:58] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Steadman Kondor!
[14:58] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, DiogenesTeufelsdrockh Resident!
[14:58] Liz Wilner: well done...and so very interesting!
[14:58] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
[14:58] Coleen (coleen88mcgee) applauds vigorously
[14:59] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Lady Sumoku!
[14:59] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) applauds
[14:59] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I know its a sad topic, but there's a lot of fascinating things *cough* buried in there
[14:59] Wildstar Beaumont: good night everyone !
[14:59] Lady Sumoku salutes
[14:59] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas) groans
[14:59] Liz Wilner: I must dash...have a wonderful evening everyone :)
[15:00] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Night, and have a good week!
[15:00] Tamlorn Carterhaugh Wood (tamlorn): Cheers
[15:00] Steadman Kondor: The whole point though is that they thought they would be woken up on judgement day isn't it?
[15:00] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): Good night, Liz
[15:00] Steadman Kondor: Literally from the Grave.
[15:00] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Yes exactly Mr Kondor
[15:00] Kailyn Stormraven (kailyn.bravin): I spent more than 400 EU in going to London for a 3 days trip and explore one graveyard for my book. The snow made it impossible. I have learned more here
[15:00] Coleen (coleen88mcgee) entered the region.
[15:00] Lady Sumoku: For some of them, I think it was also an attempt to outlive their bodies.
[15:01] Lady Sumoku: "People will remember me"
[15:01] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Nods
[15:02] Fauve Aeon hears the train whistle calling the Grafin away soon...
[15:03] Lady Sumoku: Sooner than soon.
[15:03] Steadman Kondor: Thank you for the talk and for organising this .
[15:03] Steadman Kondor: Till next time!
[15:03] Lady Sumoku claps
[15:04] Fauve Aeon: I have toured a hair museum in Kansas City, fascinating stuff, the owner teaches the art still...maybe we can organize a followup next year, funerals, food and art *grins*
[15:04] Lady Sumoku: The train came early. >.>
[15:05] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) applauds
[15:05] Fauve Aeon waves the Grafin on through the Aether
[15:05] Fauve Aeon offers last nips of absinthe
[15:05] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3 whispers: Fauve Aeon has set down a absinthe goblet, places a slotted spoon and sugar cube, starts the cold water drip, waiting in anticipation for the louche.
[15:06] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) gets up and decides to take one last attempt at the projector.
[15:06] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) blinks a little fuzzily.
[15:06] Fauve Aeon: (( I will ask for the photos for the transcript))
[15:06] Lady Sumoku: Projectiles?
[15:06] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Long day.  I'm sorry I missed her going.
[15:06] Nika Thought-werk (robotnika) grabs a wrench next to her and walks home.
[15:06] Lady Sumoku: She crashed.
[15:06] Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Melanippe Karas!
[15:06] Fauve Aeon: she did crash I think and ran off when the trolley came by *grins*
[15:06] Ravenghost Antique Absinthe Fountain 1.3: Louche has bloomed, anyone can click goblet to attach.
[15:07] Ravenghost Absinthe Goblet (l) whispers: The louche has bloomed, herbal aromas fill the air, the absinthe is ready to drink.
[15:07] Lady Sumoku: She's gone silent in the interwebs so I assume her network has gone amiss.
[15:07] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Oh dear.
[15:07] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): I appreciate Fauve coming and trying to educate the Romans.
[15:08] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) grins
[15:08] Lady Sumoku: A valiant attempt?
[15:08] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Is that what you call it now?
[15:09] Fauve Aeon: they are lovely and I will run off in bare feet and toga once again soon to be educated myself, the rite was lovely!
[15:09] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Gratias!
[15:09] Fauve Aeon: I suspect Zanta's Ladies might be fierce chariot racers also if given 1/2  a chance
[15:09] Zantabraxus (zantabraxus.aristocarnas): Heh
[15:10] Fauve Aeon *grins*
[15:10] Lady Sumoku: And an interwebs free of trolley stops.
[15:10] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): I'd love to have more charioteers!
[15:10] Fauve Aeon: do you have practices to teach us to manage them I wonder?
[15:10] Fauve Aeon: before the races?
[15:10] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Practices are every Monday.
[15:11] Fauve Aeon: oh splendid, I will relay the info, expect some green haired ladies to join the fun *smiles*
[15:11] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): I announce on Aether Chrononauts, too.
[15:12] Fauve Aeon: thank you, I will look for the message
[15:13] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I am closing up the building.
[15:13] Dee Wells (promiscute) waves and runs off screaming
[15:13] Lady Sumoku will take the hint.
[15:13] Fauve Aeon reluctantly packs up her absinthe kit
[15:13] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Heh.
[15:13] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I have a rezday to visit briefly.
[15:13] Lady Sumoku: You can lay it out in your living room now.
[15:14] Fauve Aeon: we will sweep up, sir.
[15:14] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): We had festival all day, I need to go nap.
[15:14] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas): Valete, omnes, and gods bless!
[15:14] Lady Sumoku waves
[15:14] Fauve Aeon hugs Melanippe and Lady
[15:14] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Guten Abend.
[15:14] Melanippe of Themiscyra (melanippe.karas) waves and poofs

Funerals! With Wulfride Blitzen (Edited Transcript)



[14:04] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Guten Abend, everyone.
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Welcome to March's Aether Salon, home of Dauphine Fauve's talkative absinthe.
[14:07] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): A few points of order before we start.
1) To ensure you can hear the speaker, stand or sit on the patterned carpet.
2) Sit wherever you might like in the provided seating. If you would prefer a wearable chair, please contact me in IM. The director's chairs are for Tinies.
3) Please remove all lag-feeding thingamajigs you might be wearing.
4) A tip jar is out for our speaker. Do please show your appreciation!
 5) Any tips to help support the establishment will also be welcome - just click on one of the support signs or this handsome clank floating above us.
6) If you are not a member of the AEther Salon group, there are signs that will let you join up. You'll be most heartily welcome.
7 ) Edited and unedited transcripts of these proceedings will be posted at http://aethersalon.blogspot.com.
8) Tea and treats are set out - help yourself! Beware of possible Hatchies guarding the sweet biscuits.

Our speaker today is a long-time resident of several of the Steamlands, a responsible citizen and a highly regarded staff member with the Embassy. She is also an archaeologist of long-standing and finds all kinds of history fascinating. Today she will fascinate us with funeral traditions and history. Wulfrithe Blitzen, everyone.

[14:12] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Danke, Herr Baron and thank you all for being here today.

[14:13] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Before I start, I would like to make a note - I am recovering from a very bad flu infection and wrote this during the worst period - it is not as polished as I would like.
[14:13] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Secondly, if at any point, you have a question, please ask!
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It is hard for us to understand the Victorian preoccupation with death.
Although they were familiar with death and did not welcome it, they did relatively feel rather at ease with it. They celebrated it for no other stage of life demanded such elaborate rites of passage. We in the 21st century are now the opposite; with many people 'erecting fences' when the matter is brought up and instantly changing the subject. In African and some Asian cultures, it is a time of partying and joy. We know about the New Orleans Jazz funerals, but have you ever seen Ghana Coffin Dancers who perform feats of strength while carrying the coffin to the gravesite to wild music?
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/untitled-1.gif
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): A small gif of them in action
[14:14] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In this talk, I will cover the rituals and habits of the English, which were to some extent copied in America for a set period of time. Some information may surprise you and I hope to dispel some of the more lurid and false Internet myths that have sprung up about the Victorian way of death. I am however just scratching the surface - there is an awful lot more to learn.

[14:15] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Before Death:
Preparations for the funeral might take place well in advance by both rich and poor - the actress Sarah Bernhardt famously kept her coffin in her boudoir and was photographed in it, something she undertook on a regular basis it was claimed. The poor too: one period writer commented on his village carpenter making his own coffin then turning it into an upright storage space and cupboard until the time came for it to be used. Earlier there are several accounts of generals setting off to war and battle complete with their coffins strapped to the back of their coach.
[14:15] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): There she is, looking languid and Gothic
[14:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The Earl of Essex was one such general who at the start of the English Civil War in 1642 became a butt of jokes when his coffin, winding sheets and other funerary items was said to slow down his regiment during marches. Some accounts survive of dying ladies being visited by friends to approve the wreaths they will put upon their coffin and graves. This was far from a morbid visit and usually depicted as a happy social time where the dying person would be cheered by having a 'good funeral'.
[14:16] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The role of Undertaker did not exist before the mid 17thc when everything was left to family and friends. Traditionally women washed and prepared the body before the funeral. So many people died in the great plague of 1665 that the role grew from a small group of volunteers who offered to take away the diseased corpse as no one else would touch them. In just twenty years it became established as a very profitable business with its own traditions and trappings.
[14:17] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the image on the right you can see an invitation for a night funeral.
(image to follow)
[14:17] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Mourning:
Although black is traditionally worn we have to bear in mind that until the 1840's when chemical dyes were invented, black was a very expensive colour reserved for the rich. The poor made do with a black ribbon or wore 'drab', consisting of dark grey or browns (another Roman tradition). However, in some countries white is worn instead. And until the 1920's white was worn in England for children's burials, unmarried women and girls who died in childbirth with their first child. Modern children's coffins are still white but people now wear black, although in England at least a new trend is emerging where mourners are asked to dress in bright colours to celebrate the life of the person. White was, before Queen Victoria, a rare colour to wear at a wedding because of its connection to death, and some people at the time found it more than a little shocking.
[14:19] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The image of the Queen of Holland is not a wedding, but of her in mourning. The Dutch Royal family still adhere to this tradition today
[14:19] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the left is a 'Mute', in this instance to a child funeral
[14:19] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Pardon, what are those wrapped poles?
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Mourning had become very strictly observed by the Regency period, where rules stated how long you wore mourning, what type of mourning if you were a child, right down to the fabric used. Silk Crepe had become a fashionable mourning fabric as far back at the late 18thc, and society demanded that a widow wore black crepe up to four years before she was permitted to revert to fashionable clothing again. Half-mourning was permitted after two years, but a woman remarrying before the end of the mourning period was considered utterly scandalous. Mourning wasn't so strict for children who had passed away, being mostly one year. Poor people would wear black armbands.
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Ah, the poles have various names including 'Muffler'
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It was a Victorian hang up from the medieval habit of displaying a banner with a coat of arms
[14:20] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They traditionally led the procession at the front
[14:21] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the UK today you sometimes see a solitary man walking in front of the coffin, so his role, although less fabric covered, still exists
[14:22] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The start of the 17thc started a new craze for mourning rings, and by the late 18thc a fashion for hair braid lockets woven into intricate styles became fashionable. They actually started off as a sweetheart brooch, a gift between lovers or even just friends as before then mourning jewellery were rings. By the Regency era hair brooches became more intricate, often featuring a weeping willow tree made from the hair of the deceased. This pushed sweetheart hair gifts to a new direction, braided hair necklaces or bracelets, and sometimes these are mistaken for death or memento mori items. By the 1850's mourning hair brooches were a huge seller, and you could even buy empty ones to place your own hair into.
[14:23] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The brooch on the left is using hair to great effect, but this fell out of fashion by 1850
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I must briefly mention the so-called post-mortem photos, as many bloggers have posted thousands of these online. Unfortunately far too many are mistakenly labelled as post-mortem. Fake post-mortem photos, whether categorized in error or intentionally mislabelled to sell for a profit, have in recent years become widespread on the Internet. They fill online galleries of Victorian oddities and accumulate on Pinterest and Instagram—even otherwise reputable websites have contributed to the myths.
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The image in the centre is often cited, but is NOT of a dead child.
[14:24] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Though unfortunate, it’s also understandable: there’s clearly something compelling about a lurid, not-so-distant culture engaging with death in a way we don’t. People have created fake history and its peculiarity is such that people want to believe it. Many are of people very much alive held in clamps to keep still for the long posing time, of children falling asleep during photo sessions, and of sick people being photographed because family feared the worst. People then did what people do now; look away at the wrong moment, get distracted, move...use your common sense, folks!
[14:26] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): There are some new sites springing up which debunk these photos. Even a Twitter feed

[14:26] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Embalming.
Although there have been great efforts for thousands of years for the preservation of the corpse it was rather a hit and miss affair. Embalming was rare and the preserve of the very rich, so bodies were washed, dressed within a 'winding sheet' often held together with pins and ties and then left to rest for a few days to ensure the person was really dead. It was already well known that some burials in lead coffins survived 'uncorrupted', but they did not understand the causes. However, by the late 18thc, the population boom made burials more urgent, and that was when rumours increased of live burials.
[14:27] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Heres' some examples of 'Avoidance of Live burials'
[14:28] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They are American - they seemed rather petrified. Even Washington demanded that his body be left for a couple of days to make sure he was utterly dead.
[14:28] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The idea of these crypts were that you were removed from your coffin and slid, feet first, into the tomb
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Food and drink was provided, as was air
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In an emergency, you could reach back and open the door
[14:29] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the time of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18thc there was a sudden interest in new scientific methods, so much so that one eccentric, Martin Van Butchell of London advertised in 1775 that visitors were welcome to come and see his wife who had passed away and that he had embalmed in the utmost scientific way. She remained on display in his front window till his second wife demanded its removal. There are also records taken down in a scientific way of medieval coffins opened that had well-preserved incumbents where the liquid they were found in was sniffed and even tasted (I kid you not, they really did this).
[14:31] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): If you don't believe me, there are several accounts out there :p
[14:31] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the mid 19thc Arsenic was commonly used to preserve bodies and came into its own during the American Civil War as bodies had to often be transported for great distances to relatives. By the 1920's this was replaced with Formaldehyde.
[14:32] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) lets that sink in for a moment
[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Oddly they only stopped using arsenic when it was pointed out that it was poisoning the water table and causing problems in criminal cases where poisoning was suspected

[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): So, how would you like to be furnished in your last journey?
[14:34] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Burial habits and change is usually marked by great social upheaval or devastating loss of life in war or disease. The Celts and the Romans practised bed burials which carried on into the early Christian period when beds were replaced with Biers, a kind of flat litter that was carried by four or six men to the gravesite, a tradition that still takes place today in Europe. Medieval parishes would have their own for communal use of the poor, complete with parish coffin for those too poor to afford more than a winding sheet. In those cases the body would be taken to the gravesite, removed from the coffin and buried. Many English churches still have their Victorian or older biers on display. Biers eventually gained wheels before evolving into the horse-drawn hearse.
[14:36] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In the middle is a selection of gravestones, and how they changed - 17th, 18th and then the mad period of 19thc realism and the grand 'showing off to the Joneses'
[14:36] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): 'My grave is bigger than your grave'
[14:37] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the upper left is a Pauper's Bier and Parish coffin
[14:37] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Underneath that, in contrast, is the gigantic cast iron monster used to carry the coffin of the Duke of Wellington in his 1850's State funeral
[14:38] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): You can still go and see it collecting dust at the Wellington family home
[14:39] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): On the right is a 'covered Bier', for when there was no coffin at all. It was presented to a small English church as a present by the village priest on the occasion of his birthday
[14:39] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): No cakes for him...
[14:40] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): From Roman times onwards the wealthy were buried in lead coffins and archaeologists in the UK still find them in various states of preservation, sometimes with beautiful decoration. By the medieval period, they were small and tightly wrapped around the body in an anthropomorphic shape. Even Kings were buried this way. By the 18thc century, a good burial was considered to be a lead coffin inside a red or black velvet covered oak coffin. This of course was excellent news to the undertakers, who began to cheat and hid inferior construction under the velvet.
[14:41] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now these are London burial crypts.



[14:41] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): In stark contrast with American crypts (having space), London had none and its common to see piles and piles of coffins
[14:43] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now with the 'gentrification' of London crypts are being emptied and reburied elsewhere, and specialist archaeological teams have sprung up - it's still possible to catch Smallpox from crypts
[14:43] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I'm one of the last to have the Smallpox vaccination, so I get asked on occasion
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I'm not that old, some European countries were still vaccinating against smallpox in the 1970's
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): :p
[14:44] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): As a side note, plague pits are deemed a danger to public health and when found are usually covered up and sealed
[14:45] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): It was discovered that a sample taken from a victim still had living plague virii
[14:45] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Now to the interesting part!
[14:46] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Change was afoot, and Fisk cast iron burial cases were patented in 1848 by Almond Dunbar Fisk in Rhode Island. He claimed his new coffins were totally airtight, hygienic and perfect for the preservation of your loved ones.  While pine coffins in the 1850s would have cost around $2, a Fisk coffin could command a price between $40 to $100. Nonetheless, the metallic coffins were highly desirable by more affluent individuals and families for their potential to deter grave robbers.  These coffins came at a time when death and burial began to become a multi-million pound and dollar enterprise. Cast iron coffins became a huge success, even with some people finding the Egyptian style creepy even for their tastes. By 1860 their style changed into one still seen today with American metal caskets. They were sold around the world but America proved to be their main market. The traditional Brits preferred their lead-lined coffins and fitted guard rails on the graves if they could afford it.
[14:46] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Does any of our American guests recognise these?
[14:47] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Fisk patented these cast iron coffins in the 1840's, and before long they became the must-have thing for the rich.
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They even came with a little viewing window
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They were sold to deter grave robbing, airtight and hygienic mode of burial
[14:48] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): And he claimed they preserved the body too
[14:49] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Recently two were recovered and the Smithsonian opened one and managed to reconstruct the occupant, a teenage boy
[14:49] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They agree they did indeed preserve their incumbent.
[14:50] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): They changed shape by the 1860's and became the recognizable modern American style
[14:50] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 1850's the English developed a collective fear of being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave and began to set up co-ops where for a small weekly donation they would be able to put some pennies into a fund to help with their burial. The very poor in workhouses could not afford this and continued to be buried in simple unmarked graves, or if in a big city, large mass graves.
[14:51] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): A population boom, large-scale people movement into the cities soon followed and graveyards began to fill up alarmingly fast. One such site was the Cross Bones graveyard in London, in use since the medieval period for the burial of prostitutes, executed criminals and suicides. It was closed in 1853 because it was "completely overcharged with dead", and further burials were deemed "inconsistent with a due regard for the public health and public decency. This began to be repeated around London and new sites had to be found urgently. Highgate Cemetery is probably one of the most famous of these new sites, and still on occasion allows funerals there if certain conditions are met.

[14:52] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Burials took place at all hours of the day and night, often at 11pm (finishing at the 11th hour) being the latest. Usually, the coffin was followed by friends and family with the men at the front and ladies at the back. If you were wealthy enough you could afford professional male mourners known as Mutes, or even some feather bearers. Maybe a team of horses. You walked behind the coffin unless you were lucky enough to own a carriage. Mutes have a long history going back thousands of years, originally being female weepers, who by Roman times collected the tears to put in a bottle to bury with the deceased.
[14:52] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 18thc they led the procession to the church, then to the grave. In the UK you will still see undertakers do this role in large funerals, although the title of Mute is now seen as archaic. Medieval habits persisted, with black hooded cloaks with Liripips (similar to modern academic gowns) eventually being replaced by the late 18thc with a wide sash made from Crepe silk worn over the shoulder and around the hat.
[14:53] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): From the 17thc onwards funerals began to be ticketed, especially if the person was popular or famous. The cards usually contained several reminders that one day, it will be your turn *and don't you forget it!*...or the people who invited you. Funeral biscuits with crosses and often made of shortbread were given to all mourners who turned up, another ancient tradition that sprung from the pagan feasts held around the dead. Funeral biscuits fell out of fashion by World War 1 and the Wake replaced them. There is presently an attempt at reviving this tradition.
[14:54] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Cremation, although ancient in practice, was shunned by the advent of Christianity as a 'Pagan habit' and consequently only began to be used relatively recently. Some groups still oppose its use, but with modern graveyard sites running out of room and land becoming more of a commodity these thoughts may change over time. It was resisted in England during the 1860's when graveyards became a health hazard due to powerful religious leaders stating that one had to rise for the resurrection complete. It was not until 1874 that the Cremation Society, a secular organisation, was formed in London to campaign for cremation, mainly on the grounds of hygiene and cost.
[14:55] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Mutes were young and old. Today, you even see young ladies
[14:55] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By the 1880s the mere act of organizing a large showcase funeral had reached the upper working classes who pulled out all the stops emulating the rich and state funerals. Naturally, like all these things are wont to do the rich scowled and suddenly found large, over the top funerals gauche and tacky and began to settle for more simple affairs.
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Dressed up Mutes, Feather bearers and several horses slowly trickled into being seen as a sign of those 'lower sort', and the wealthy settled for just the hearse and a couple of carriages for the immediate family only. Gone were the velvet covered and lead-lined coffins, being replaced with simpler wooden affairs, now with rails for carrying by family members on the shoulders. By 1905 the only people who hired Mutes et al were the working classes who clearly had not got the memo yet that it was unfashionable and downright vulgar.
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The photo behind me is a record of the last great funerals of London's East End
[14:56] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): He was a shopkeeper but he has a huge team of horses, mutes, feather bearers...
[14:57] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): By now the upper classes thought this was vulgar
[14:57] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): So, as we have run out of time, I shall end this talk today. Thank you for coming

[14:59] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I know it is a sad topic, but there's a lot of fascinating things *cough* buried in there
[15:00] Steadman Kondor: The whole point though is that they thought they would be woken up on judgement day isn't it?
[15:00] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Yes exactly Mr Kondor
[15:00] Kailyn Stormraven (kailyn.bravin): I spent more than 400 EU in going to London for a 3 days trip and explore one graveyard for my book. The snow made it impossible. I have learned more here
[15:01] Lady Sumoku: "People will remember me"
[15:01] Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Nods
[15:14] Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Guten Abend.
~fin~

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Verne! With Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (Edited Transcript)

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: My apologies for my lateness.Guten Abend, and welcome everyone. Our scheduled speaker had a family emergency and was not able to present today. That is kind of all of you. As you can see, you have plenty of gifts to take home with you today. I hope you enjoy them and the talk. Do let me know if there are any permissions issues with any parts. Hence my delay, trying to get this all together in time, ja.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: I am not going to introduce myself, I think you know well enough by now. Let me start right in. As I was preparing this talk, I went to our excellent R.F. Burton Library over in Babbage Canals and found the volumes boxed here at the foot of the stage gathered under the heading 'Steam Precursors', although in this case, it is more the Steam mindset than the actual machinery. For all the fascinating inventions of our ancestors, it was Verne's creations of the mind during the second half of the 1800s which inspired some of the greatest leaps of human technology.


Verne started his adult life in the study of the law, was distracted by the theatre, made a living as a stockbroker but ended as a great novelist. Let us start with 1862, and a story quoted by the Museum: There is the legend that he stood on the steps of the Paris stock exchange and declared to his associates there, "My boys, I believe that I'm about to desert you. I had the kind of idea Emile Girardin says every man must have to make a fortune. I've just written a new kind of novel, and if it succeeds it will be an unexplored gold mine. In that case, I'll write more such books while you're buying your stock. And I think I'll earn the most money!" When his friends laughed at his comments, he replied, "Laugh, friends, we'll see who laughs longest. "Indeed. There are many Verne works, more than most realize, and a very useful aether-site to explore both his work and writings about Verne is Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection at http://jv.gilead.org.il/. What I shall do here is touch on his most notable works in chronological order and let you do further exploration at your own pace.



We start with his first novel. 1863: 'Cinq semaines en ballon', or in English 'Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen' was Verne's first presentation of his dramatic trio: The Professor, the Manservant, and the Adventurer. Modelled after the explorations of Burton, Speke and Barth, the dramatic interior of sub-equatorial Africa unrolls before the reader in lush detail -- mostly accurate -- as the Englishmen travel from west to east encountering all sorts of perils. In the Paris daily 'Le Figaro' a review read, "Is Dr. Fergusson's journey a reality or is it not? All we can say is that it is bewitching as a novel and as instructive as a book of science. Never have the serious discoveries of celebrated travelers been summed up as well. This set the standard for what was to be expected from this new, fascinating author: Science of the day, applied to fantastical situations around the world.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: I should note between volumes here that many of Verne's works were republished in different size formats, lavishly illustrated. I did not have enough time to procure illustrations to share with you today, but the Gutenberg Library often has copies available to borrow.

1864: 'Voyage au centre de la Terre', translated variably as 'A Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and 'A Journey to the Interior of the Earth', follows the explorations of Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans attempting to wind their way through volcanic tubes from the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, eventually emerging all the way down in Italy's famed Stromboli. The genre of subterranean fiction already existed long before Verne. However, the present book considerably added to its popularity and influenced later such writings. For example, Edgar Rice Burroughs explicitly acknowledged Verne's influence on his own Pellucidar series. It would not surprise me at all if many future geologists and other earth studies scientists were impressed by this story in their youth. In turn, the novel was inspired by Charles Lyell's 'Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man' of 1863, and includes some of the fantastical thoughts of lost Edenic environments hidden in a partly-hollow planet -- as when the Professor's party encounters dinosaurs, pre-historic mammals and even a anthropodic being which they speculate could be a very early Man. Due to the imaginative scenery -- volcanoes, vast caves, an underwater sea, groves of dinosaurs -- this has been a popularly acted entertainment, appearing in many forms -- not always adhering to the original material. Added romance, Fraulein Ember. That seems to be the most persistent edit.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach chuckles

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: 1868: After a polar exploration novel, one of the 'Voyages Extraordinaire' series, Verne wrote and published 'De la terre à la lune', the remarkable 'From the Earth to the Moon'; and in the following year, 'Autour de la Lune', 'Around the Moon'. These books are a favourite of those who wish to demonstrate how scientifiction can anticipate a future reality. The novel describes the efforts of a group of American weapons enthusiasts, the Baltimore Gun Club, to create a large enough cannon to launch three men all the way to the moon. The club deals with raising sufficient funds for the project, debates over the perfect location for the launch, and considers the issues of acceleration on human payload. Verne made solid attempts at creating calculations for all of the aspects of the launch despite not being an engineer or mathematician himself.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: It is far more entertaining to compare the novels and derive what he got right compared to the Apollo space programme: The novel's launch location was 'Stone's Hill, Tampa Town, Florida'. The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, is on the opposite coast of the peninsula, only 120 miles almost due east.

* The novel suggested Americans would create this as a private project; Americans did create a moon launch, as a governmental effort.
* The novel has the passenger capsule made of aluminium; the Apollo Command Model was made of an aluminum honeycomb-sandwich bonded between sheets of aluminum alloy. The process to make it a much more common material was not developed until 1886, and before then was rare enough that plate armour of aluminium was made only for kings.
* The novel had a chemical carbon dioxide removal mechanism; the Apollo capusules and lunar landers used lithium hydroxide cartridges to do the same.
* The novel has the trip to the moon take five days; the Apollo vehicle took three, due to better calculations. It is still an excellent estimate.
* The novel has the capsule approach the 'neutral point' balancing the gravities of the Earth and the Moon; this was later designated as L1 of the five Lagrangian points possible between any two large bodies. The Lagrange points mark positions where the combined gravitational pull of the two large masses provides precisely the centripetal force required to orbit with them. The maths were discovered by Leonhard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the late 1700s.
I believe I saw mention of artificial satellites set into exactly this same point for technical purposes.
* Lastly, for our purposes: The novel has the returned capsule land in the ocean and be retrieved, all hands in good condition, by a US Naval vessel on patrol; the practice of the American space programme had always been water landings -- Gemini largely in the Atlantic, Apollo in the Pacific -- with Naval retrieval. Not bad for a law student.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: We jump ahead just a bit for the next title.1869-70: 'Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin' or 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World' appeared first in a serial format in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the 'Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation', later published in a lavishly illustrated format.

Herr Hetzel was Verne's publisher and confidant through much of his career.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Submarines were a new technology in Verne's time, and although they had actually seen combat in the American Civil War, they were rare craft indeed with similar technical problems to those of Verne's space-capsule. To have most of an exciting adventure take place on a lavishly-equipped and luxuriously-furnished boat was a look into the future.

Once again, we have Verne's stalwart trio, literally thrown into the sea for their encounter: Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story; Canadian whaler and master harpoonist Ned Land; and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil. Their rescuer, host and antagonist is the mysterious Captain Nemo -- Latin for 'no man', as he has renounced his previous life for vengeance -- who seems lost into a great maelstrom by the last sight the protagonists have of him.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Nemo and his world took inspiration from many real-world scientists and adventurers: Oceanographer Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury; Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a famous explorer who was lost while circumnavigating the globe; Dumont D'Urville, the explorer who found the remains of Lapérouse's ship; and Ferdinand Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal and the nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's expedition.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: The travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cable and the legendary submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also use diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious conditions inside the Nautilus. And, of course, the giant squid. Or octopus. It depends on the translator and the crew who build the puppet for the stage play.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: (That seems to be everyone's favourite part.)
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach chuckles

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: More of Nemo's story is shared in 'L'Île mystérieuse', but his origin was purely the work of Verne's publisher. Nemo's original Polish origin and resentment of the Russian Empire was not politic for a French novel. Hetzel's urgings had Verne change Nemo to a Muslim prince of Mysore, done badly by the British East India Company and the devastation of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: The 20,000 leagues, incidentally, is the distance travelled, not the depth to which the Nautilus plunged - which would be physically impossible. It was suggestive of Twice around the world', another of Verne's great travels.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: For the sake of time, we will jump ahead to
1872: 'Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours', translated as 'Around the World in Eighty Days', greatly popular with adapters for the performing arts. Instead of a scientist, we have a proper and chronologically-exacting British gentleman, but we still have his manservant. There is no brawny fellow who starts out on the adventure with them this time. They are acquired, however, in short order, by Scotland Yard detective, Detective Fix, who has mistaken Fogg for a suspect he is pursuing. This is one of Verne's journeys with an actual itinerary: London to Suez, Suez to Bombay, on to Calcutta. From Calcutta to Hong Kong, hence to Yokohama, then all the way to San Francisco. One long trip to New York City would launch the party to London again, just in time to meet Fogg's demanding schedule. Naturally, it all goes pear-shaped. How could it be an adventure if it did not?

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: The train to Calcutta does not go all the way through, but in travelling to the next railhead, the two men rescue a young Indian widow from funeral sacrifice, 'sati' or 'suttee’. They take her along with them to deliver her safely to a relative in Hong Kong... who has moved to Holland. More problems ensue on getting to their trans-Pacific ship, then such obstructions on American soil as herds of buffalo, while Inspector Fix has decided it's best to arrest Fogg in London instead and becomes a helper in their journey. With all the delays, Fogg is sure he has lost a day of travel, but the International Date Line comes to his rescue and he is exactly 23 hours and 55 minutes early - and wins his wager. As you can see, the combination of tension, comic relief, character conflict and ja, even a romance between Fogg and Aouda the widow actually appearing in the book, have made it one of the most adapted Verne properties ever.

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach points at the box of books.
 Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: This has inspired many non-fictional travel challenges at all stages of history since it was first printed. 80 days using public transport. 80 days as a television host. 80 days on a sailboat. It goes on. Something else that goes on is Verne's bibliography. There are perhaps three dozen more titles, most in the Voyages extraordinaires series, published after '80 Days'.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Three dozen.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: There were at least a half dozen manuscripts finished, re-written or inspiring Verne's son, and published after Jules Verne's death. Lastly, a novel he wrote predicting the 20th Century was published a century after it was written -- found in a safe-deposit box though emptied, it was held back by his publisher for being somewhat depressing. He had some amazing parallels in that novel as well. And we are nearly at the end of our hour. I hope you were all entertained, and that you enjoy your Verniana here before the stage.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: I will leave the gifts out for anyone who you might want to direct over here.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: The Gräfin and I made special effort for your balloon.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection at http://jv.gilead.org.il/
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: It has been in existence for about 20 years now.


Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Next month we will have a presentation on...

Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Funerals!
Solace Fairlady: and will it be delivered from beyond the grave?
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach: Hopefully not!
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach bows
~fin 

Editrixes - Fauve Aeon and Charlemagne Allen 

Verne! With Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (Unedited Transcript)


[14:15:41]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): My apologies for my lateness.
[14:15:59]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Guten Abend, and welcome everyone.
[14:16:08]  Caladon Rae (saeldurrae) lightly waves her fan at the Baron in greeting
[14:16:12]  Solace Fairlady: Guten abend Herr Baron:)
[14:16:21]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Our scheduled speaker had a family emergency and was not able to present today.
[14:16:22]  Darlingmonster Ember: hullo Herr Baron
[14:16:51]  Solace Fairlady: o dear, all good wishes to them!
[14:17:11]  Andrea Jones (andreajonesms): Hope it works out well for them
[14:17:33]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): That is kind of all of you. As you can see, you have plenty of gifts to take home with you today.
[14:17:57]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I hope you enjoy them and the talk. Do let me know if there are any permissions issues with any parts.
[14:17:59]  Solace Fairlady: You are going to deliver the salon in their stead?
[14:18:02]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): yay gifts!
[14:18:19]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Hence my delay, trying to get this all together in time, ja.
[14:18:36]  Solace Fairlady: bravo herr Baron!
[14:18:50]  Darlingmonster Ember settles in
[14:18:51]  Jimmy Branagh: Hallo Herr Baron!

[14:18:54]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I am not going to introduce myself, I think you know well enough by now. Let me start right in.
[14:18:59]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) nods
[14:19:03]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): As I was preparing this talk, I went to our excellent R.F. Burton Library over in Babbage Canals and found the volumes boxed here at the foot of the stage gathered under the heading 'Steam Precursors', although in this case, it is more the Steam mindset than the actual machinery. For all the fascinating inventions of our ancestors, it was Verne's creations of the mind during the second half of the 1800s which inspired some of the greatest leaps of human technology.
[14:19:08]  Jimmy Branagh: Oy knew if Oy stepped away the Baron would arrive.
[14:19:15]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) grins
[14:19:31]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Verne started his adult life in the study of the law, was distracted by the theatre, made a living as a stockbroker but ended as a great novelist. Let us start with 1862, and a story quoted by the UnMuseum:
[14:19:35]  Jimmy Branagh chuckles
[14:19:52]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): There is the legend that he stood on the steps of the Paris stock exchange and declared to his associates there, "My boys, I believe that I'm about to desert you. I had the kind of idea Emile Girardin says every man must have to make a fortune. I've just written a new kind of novel, and if it succeeds it will be an unexplored gold mine. In that case, I'll write more such books while you're buying your stock. And I think I'll earn the most money!" When his friends laughed at his comments, he replied, "Laugh, friends, we'll see who laughs longest."
[14:20:20]  Jimmy Branagh: hehe
[14:20:33]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Indeed.
[14:20:39]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): There are many Verne works, more than most realise, and a very useful aether-site to explore both his work and writings about Verne is Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection at http://jv.gilead.org.il/. What I shall do here is touch on his most notable works in chronological order and let you do further exploration at your own pace.
[14:21:16]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): We start with his first novel.
[14:21:18]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1863: 'Cinq semaines en ballon', or in English 'Five Weeks in a Balloon, or, Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen' was Verne's first presentation of his dramatic trio: The Professor, the Manservant, and the Adventurer. Modelled after the explorations of Burton, Speke and Barth, the dramatic interior of sub-equatorial Africa unrolls before the reader in lush detail -- mostly accurate -- as the Englishmen travel from west to east encountering all sorts of perils.
[14:21:46]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): In the Paris daily 'Le Figaro' a review read, "Is Dr. Fergusson's journey a reality or is it not? All we can say is that it is bewitching as a novel and as instructive as a book of science. Never have the serious discoveries of celebrated travellers been summed up as well."
[14:22:11]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): This set the standard for what was to be expected from this new, fascinating author: Science of the day, applied to fantastical situations around the world.
[14:22:31]  Solace Fairlady: Englishmen as they were known to be crazy enough to do such things, and because the french werent:)
[14:22:37]  Darlingmonster Ember: ha
[14:22:39]  Darlingmonster Ember: lovely
[14:23:27]  Solace Fairlady waves unobtrusively to Duchess liz
[14:23:32]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I should note between volumes here that many of Verne's works were republished in different size formats, lavishly illustrated. I did not have enough time to procure illustrations to share with you today, but the Gutenberg Library often has copies available to borrow.
[14:23:41]  Liz Wilner smiles and waves to Solace
[14:23:53]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1864: 'Voyage au centre de la Terre', translated variably as 'A Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and 'A Journey to the Interior of the Earth', follows the explorations of Professor Otto Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans attempting to wind their way through volcanic tubes from the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, eventually emerging all the way down in Italy's famed Stromboli.
[14:24:18]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The genre of subterranean fiction already existed long before Verne. However, the present book considerably added to its popularity and influenced later such writings. For example, Edgar Rice Burroughs explicitly acknowledged Verne's influence on his own Pellucidar series. It would not surprise me at all if many future geologists and other earth studies scientists were impressed by this story in their youth.
[14:24:20]  Solace Fairlady: Admiral I think there is a space for you in that seat with your lady:)
[14:24:30]  Jimmy Branagh waves to Miss Liz
[14:24:41]  Liz Wilner waves to Jimmy
[14:24:56]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): In turn, the novel was inspired by Charles Lyell's 'Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man' of 1863, and includes some of the fantastical thoughts of lost Edenic environments hidden in a partly-hollow planet -- as when the Professor's party encounters dinosaurs, pre-historic mammals and even a anthropodic being which they speculate could be a very early Man.
[14:25:40]  Caladon Rae (saeldurrae): (moment. human is needed)
[14:25:44]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Artful Hammerer!
[14:26:10]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Due to the imaginative scenery -- volcanoes, vast caves, an underwater sea, groves of dinosaurs -- this has been a popularly acted entertainment, appearing in many forms -- not always adhering to the original material.
[14:26:23]  Darlingmonster Ember: snerks
[14:26:58]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Added romance, Fraulein Ember. That seems to be the most persistent edit.
[14:27:15]  Darlingmonster Ember: mmmm
[14:27:21]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[14:27:22]  Jimmy Branagh: (Wells got saddled with that too))
[14:27:35]  Solace Fairlady: a modern version would add romance between the professor and the manservant
[14:27:52]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1868: After a polar exploration novel, one of the 'Voyages Extraordinaires' series, Verne wrote and published 'De la terre à la lune', the remarkable 'From the Earth to the Moon'; and in the following year, 'Autour de la Lune', 'Around the Moon'. These books are a favourite of those who wish to demonstrate how scientifiction can anticipate a future reality.
[14:28:24]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The novel describes the efforts of a group of American weapons enthusiasts, the Baltimore Gun Club, to create a large enough cannon to launch three men all the way to the moon. The club deals with raising sufficient funds for the project, debates over the perfect location for the launch, and considers the issues of acceleration on human payload. Verne made solid attempts at creating calculations for all of the aspects of the launch despite not being an engineer or mathematician himself.
[14:29:18]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): It is far more entertaining to compare the novels and derive what he got right compared to the Apollo space programme:
[14:30:00]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel's launch location was 'Stone's Hill, Tampa Town, Florida'. The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, is on the opposite coast of the peninsula, only 120 miles almost due east.
[14:30:24]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel suggested Americans would create this as a private project; Americans did create a moon launch, as a governmental effort.
[14:30:47]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel has the passenger capsule made of aluminium; the Apollo Command Model was made of an aluminum honeycomb-sandwich bonded between sheets of aluminum alloy. The process to make it a much more common material was not developed until 1886, and before then was rare enough that plate armour of aluminium was made only for kings.
[14:31:27]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel had a chemical carbon dioxide removal mechanism; the Apollo capusules and lunar landers used lithium hydroxide cartridges to do the same.
[14:31:57]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel has the trip to the moon take five days; the Apollo vehicle took three, due to better calculations. It is still an excellent estimate.
[14:32:25]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * The novel has the capsule approach the 'neutral point' balancing the gravities of the Earth and the Moon; this was later designated as L1 of the five Lagrangian points possible between any two large bodies. The Lagrange points mark positions where the combined gravitational pull of the two large masses provides precisely the centripetal force required to orbit with them. The maths were discovered by Leonhard Euler and Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the late 1700s.
[14:33:29]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I believe I saw mention of artificial satellites set into exactly this same point for technical purposes.
[14:33:52]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): * Lastly, for our purposes: The novel has the returned capsule land in the ocean and be retrieved, all hands in good condition, by a US Naval vessel on patrol; the practice of the American space programme had always been water landings -- Gemini largely in the Atlantic, Apollo in the Pacific -- with Naval retrieval.
[14:34:25]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Not bad for a law student.
[14:34:32]  Jimmy Branagh: Nope
[14:34:36]  Darlingmonster Ember: even better for a stockbroker
[14:34:54]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Liz Wilner!

[14:35:11]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): We jump ahead just a bit for the next title.
[14:35:15]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1869-70: 'Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin' or 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: A Tour of the Underwater World' appeared first in a serial format in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the 'Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation', later published in a lavishly illustrated format.
[14:35:39]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Herr Hetzel was Verne's publisher and confidant through much of his career.
[14:36:02]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Submarines were a new technology in Verne's time, and although they had actually seen combat in the American Civil War, they were rare craft indeed with similar technical problems to those of Verne's space-capsule. To have most of an exciting adventure take place on a lavishly-equipped and luxuriously-furnished boat was a look into the future.
[14:36:29]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Once again, we have Verne's stalwart trio, literally thrown into the sea for their encounter: Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story; Canadian whaler and master harpoonist Ned Land; and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil. Their rescuer, host and antagonist is the mysterious Captain Nemo -- Latin for 'no man', as he has renounced his previous life for vengeance -- who seems lost into a great maelstrom by the last sight the protagonists have of him.
[14:36:59]  Solace Fairlady: French adventurers at last
[14:37:03]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Nemo and his world took inspiration from many real-world scientists and adventurers: Oceanographer Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury; Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a famous explorer who was lost while circumnavigating the globe; Dumont D'Urville, the explorer who found the remains of Lapérouse's ship; and Ferdinand Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal and the nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's expedition.
[14:37:40]  Solace Fairlady: and that is why he made them french:)
[14:38:12]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cable and the legendary submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also use diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious conditions inside the Nautilus.
[14:39:06]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): And, of course, the giant squid. Or octopus. It depends on the translator and the crew who build the puppet for the stage play.
[14:39:16]  Solace Fairlady: kraken
[14:39:19]  Ranulf Falconer chuckles
[14:39:24]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): (That seems to be everyone's favourite part.)
[14:39:45]  Jimmy Branagh: Kraken me up!
[14:39:51]  Edda (edan.borrelly) grins and nods
[14:39:53]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[14:39:59]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): More of Nemo's story is shared in 'L'Île mystérieuse', but his origin was purely the work of Verne's publisher. Nemo's original Polish origin and resentment of the Russian Empire was not politic for a French novel. Hetzel's urgings had Verne change Nemo to a Muslim prince of Mysore, done badly by the British East India Company and the devastation of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
[14:40:00]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson) stifles a giggle
[14:40:06]  Solace Fairlady: My favourite paret was young Mr Douglas
[14:40:15]  Solace Fairlady: *part
[14:40:34]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Bitte?
[14:40:59]  Solace Fairlady: the actor in one of the more famous screen adaptations:0
[14:41:03]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Aha.
[14:41:24]  Ranulf Falconer: "A young Kirk Douglas -- father of Michael."
[14:41:30]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The 20,000 leagues, incidentally, is the distance travelled, not the depth to which the Nautilus plunged - which would be physically impossible. It was suggestive of 'around the world', another of Verne's great travels.
[14:41:45]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Twice around, actually.
[14:41:53]  Caladon Rae (saeldurrae) nods to everyone "Pardon me, my presence is required at another space."
[14:42:03]  Solace Fairlady: safe travels m rae!
[14:42:14]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): For the sake of time, we will jump ahead to:
[14:42:16]  Jimmy Branagh waves
[14:42:27]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 1872: 'Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours', translated as 'Around the World in Eighty Days', greatly popular with adapters for the performing arts. Instead of a scientist, we have a proper and chronologically-exacting British gentleman, but we still have his manservant. There is no brawny fellow who starts out on the adventure with them this time.
[14:43:24]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): They are acquired, however, in short order, by Scotland Yard detective, Detective Fix, who has mistaken Fogg for a suspect he is pursuing.
[14:45:04]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): This is one of Verne's journeys with an actual itinerary: London to Suez, Suez to Bombay, on to Calcutta. From Calcutta to Hong Kong, hence to Yokohama, then all the way to San Francisco.
[14:45:37]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): One long trip to New York City would launch the party to London again, just in time to meet Fogg's demanding schedule.
[14:45:44]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, OldeSoul Resident!
[14:45:50]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Naturally, it all goes pear-shaped. How could it be an adventure if it did not?
[14:46:02]  Ranulf Falconer grins
[14:46:09]  Solace Fairlady: he must have been a babbager
[14:46:18]  Solace Fairlady: what could poddibly go wrong?
[14:46:20]  Edda (edan.borrelly) laughs quietly
[14:46:22]  Solace Fairlady: *ss
[14:46:32]  Jimmy Branagh nods
[14:47:04]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, andreajonesms Resident!
[14:47:21]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The train to Calcutta does not go all the way through, but in travelling to the next railhead, the two men rescue a young Indian widow from funeral sacrifice, 'sati' or 'suttee'.
[14:47:34]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Ranulf Falconer!
[14:47:37]  Edda (edan.borrelly): oh!
[14:47:55]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): They take her along with them to deliver her safely to a relative in Hong Kong... who has moved to Holland.
[14:48:05]  Edda (edan.borrelly) takes notes
[14:48:15]  Darlingmonster Ember: :D
[14:48:30]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Edan Borrelly!
[14:49:15]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): More problems ensue on getting to their trans-Pacific ship, then such obstructions on American soil as herds of buffalo, while Inspector Fix has decided it's best to arrest Fogg in London instead and becomes a helper in their journey.
[14:50:26]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): With all the delays, Fogg is sure he has lost a day of travel, but the International Date Line comes to his rescue and he is exactly 23 hours and 55 minutes early - and wins his wager.
[14:50:36]  Edda (edan.borrelly) claps!
[14:50:41]  Jimmy Branagh claps
[14:50:47]  Jimmy Branagh: Wotta guy!
[14:50:52]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): well done
[14:51:34]  Ranulf Falconer: "An exciting finish."
[14:51:38]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): As you can see, the combination of tension, comic relief, character conflict and ja, even a romance between Fogg and Aouda the widow actually appearing in the book, have made it one of the most adapted Verne properties ever.
[14:52:03]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Wildstar Beaumont!
[14:52:09]  Edda (edan.borrelly): I need to go back and read it again.
[14:52:20]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Ancasta Resident!
[14:52:20]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Now you can.
[14:52:25]  Edda (edan.borrelly) smiles

[14:52:26]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) points at the box of books
[14:52:51]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): This has inspired many non-fictional travel challenges at all stages of history since it was first printed.
[14:53:09]  Darlingmonster Ember smiles
[14:53:39]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): 80 days using public transport. 80 days as a television host. 80 days on a sailboat. It goes on.
[14:54:26]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Something else that goes on is Verne's bibliography. There are perhaps three dozen more titles, most in the Voyages extraordinaires series, published after '80 Days'.
[14:54:30]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Three dozen.
[14:54:59]  Jimmy Branagh: That'll keep ya busy
[14:55:04]  Darlingmonster Ember: nod
[14:55:05]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): There were at least a half dozen manuscripts finished, re-written or inspiring Verne's son, and published after Jules Verne's death.
[14:55:08]  Edda (edan.borrelly) nods
[14:55:53]  Andrea Jones (andreajonesms): must be off. bye all
[14:55:53]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Lastly, a novel he wrote predicting the 20th Century was published a century after it was written -- found in a safe-deposit box though emptied, it was held back by his publisher for being somewhat depressing.
[14:56:11]  Jimmy Branagh: Noight Miss
[14:56:13]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): He had some amazing parallels in that novel as well.
[14:56:17]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): this is new to me!
[14:56:21]  Solace Fairlady: safe travels Andrea!
[14:56:21]  Darlingmonster Ember: travel safe
[14:56:57]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): And we are nearly at the end of our hour. I hope you were all entertained, and that you enjoy your Verniana here before the stage.

[14:57:22]  Solace Fairlady: You are the best stand in, Herr baron!
[14:57:28]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Danke, Fraulein.
[14:57:29]  Solace Fairlady applauds
[14:57:30]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): thank you so much. Baron. That was most fascinating.
[14:57:30]  Jimmy Branagh applauds
[14:57:31]  Edda (edan.borrelly) applauds
[14:57:39]  Liz Wilner applauds
[14:57:40]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Are there any questions I can attempt to answer?
[14:57:43]  Jimmy Branagh: Thank you, Herr Baron!
[14:57:47]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson) claps quietly
[14:57:48]  Darlingmonster Ember applauds
[14:57:51]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, Jimmy Branagh!
[14:57:53]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) claps
[14:57:53]  Artful Hammerer: Excellent Stuff Baron, thank you
[14:57:55]  Ranulf Falconer applauds
[14:57:59]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Bitte sehr.
[14:58:09]  Ranulf Falconer: "This was exceptional."
[14:58:11]  Wildstar Beaumont: congrats Herr Baron, excellent talk!
[14:58:11]  Jimmy Branagh: The Baron alwhys gives a good talk
[14:58:16]  Solace Fairlady: that was a wonderful talk
[14:58:16]  Darlingmonster Ember: was a talent he was
[14:58:18]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, KillianBaileyJameson Resident!

[14:58:26]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I will leave the gifts out for anyone who you might want to direct over here.
[14:58:39]  Edda (edan.borrelly) smiles
[14:58:48]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The Gräfin and I made special effort for your balloon.
[14:58:52]  Jimmy Branagh: An' thenks faw th' giftf!
[14:58:58]  Solace Fairlady: what was the link again to the site you mentioned, Baron?
[14:58:59]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): thank you for the gifts as well, Baron. Looking forward to opening them.
[14:59:15]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I must tell you, as I did not get to include a notecard - the commands are Float and Land, not start and stop or any such like that.
[14:59:24]  Darlingmonster Ember: Present are always accepted
[14:59:26]  Darlingmonster Ember: aha
[14:59:29]  Darlingmonster Ember: float/land
[14:59:30]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): The aether-site? One moment.
[14:59:32]  Darlingmonster Ember: got it
[14:59:48]  Saffia Widdershins is Offline
[14:59:50]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Zvi Har’El’s Jules Verne Collection at http://jv.gilead.org.il/
[15:00:04]  Solace Fairlady: Dankeschon:)
[15:00:07]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): It has been in existence for about 20 years now.
[15:00:13]  You decline St. Luke's Parish from A group member named RevGreeterbot Resident.
[15:00:33]  Solace Fairlady: a relative of the man of steel, with that name?
[15:00:53]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[15:00:58]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): You might have to ask.
[15:01:06]  Jimmy Branagh: The crazy uncle, never flew straight
[15:01:36]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Anyone else?
[15:01:37]  Darlingmonster Ember: made a fortune with elevated trains
[15:02:01]  Jimmy Branagh: ehhe
[15:02:17]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): All right then.
[15:02:32]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson) gathers her things to depart
[15:02:36]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Vielen dank for your attendance and tips. The Salon appreciates each one of you.


[15:02:48]  Liz Wilner: thank you, Baron...that was fascinating :)
[15:02:49]  Wildstar Beaumont: thank you her Baron
[15:02:51]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Next month we will have a presentation on...
[15:02:52]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): always a pleasure
[15:02:54]  Jimmy Branagh: Thenks again Herr Baron.  Great talk.
[15:02:55]  Uni Ninetails is Offline
[15:02:57]  Salon Speaker Tipjar: Thank you for supporting the Aether Salon, OldeSoul Resident!
[15:02:59]  Solace Fairlady: and we very much appreciate the salon and you, herr baron:)
[15:03:05]  OldeSoul Eldemar (oldesoul): Thanks Herr Baron
[15:03:07]  Darlingmonster Ember: ...?
[15:03:10]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Funerals!
[15:03:16]  Ranulf Falconer: hmmmmm
[15:03:23]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I had to check the calendar.
[15:03:24]  Darlingmonster Ember: oh I could learn a lot then!
[15:03:26]  Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[15:03:26]  Ranulf Falconer grins
[15:03:29]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): funerals? how fun!
[15:03:33]  Solace Fairlady: that sounds interesting!
[15:03:40]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Victorian way of death.
[15:03:42]  Liz Wilner: sounds...uplifting and cheery!  lol
[15:03:43]  Ranulf Falconer: "Fascinating."
[15:03:43]  Edda (edan.borrelly): Hmmm it could be!  I love wakes!
[15:03:45]  Jimmy Branagh: Who's the speaker?
[15:03:52]  Wildstar Beaumont: good night everyone
[15:03:59]  Edda (edan.borrelly): Goodnight!
[15:03:59]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Me :p
[15:04:01]  Jimmy Branagh: Noight Admiral
[15:04:01]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Presented by Frau Gräfin Wulfriðe Blitzen herself.
[15:04:01]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): Victorian death customs are so interesting
[15:04:03]  Solace Fairlady: and will it be delivered from beyond the grave?
[15:04:05]  Jimmy Branagh: AHhhhh
[15:04:06]  Darlingmonster Ember: :D
[15:04:07]  OldeSoul Eldemar (oldesoul) is Offline
[15:04:12]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Hopefully not!
[15:04:17]  Liz Wilner: I must dash...goodnight everyone :)
[15:04:18]  Solace Fairlady: indeed!
[15:04:27]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): I won't make it depressing, I'll add some fun facts to terrify your friends with
[15:04:28]  Solace Fairlady: safe travels Duchess liz, hugs:)
[15:04:29]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Gute Nacht, those going.
[15:04:31]  Jimmy Branagh: Noight awl!
[15:04:33]  C?????? K?????? (killianbaileyjameson): good evening, all! take care.
[15:04:40]  Edda (edan.borrelly): Goodnight :)
[15:04:44]  Ranulf Falconer grins, "Sounds... delicious?"
[15:04:53]  Jimmy Branagh bows to the Baron, waves and zaps
[15:04:53]  Artful Hammerer: Good night all, see you about
[15:04:58]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) waves
[15:05:00]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Night everyone!
[15:05:22]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): I must see to some tier.
[15:05:24]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) bows
[15:05:27]  Darlingmonster Ember curtsies
[15:05:28]  Solace Fairlady bobs a curtsey
[15:05:38]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) bows
[15:05:39]  Solace Fairlady: thank you all, be well:)
[15:05:42]  Solace Fairlady: hugs all round
[15:05:47]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): And you.
[15:05:47]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Take care, Ladies!
[15:06:06]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): You were, once again, a great assistance.
[15:06:19]  Russell A. Firecrest (adventureruss) took a snapshot.
[15:06:19]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): Danke.
[15:06:25]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) smiles
[15:06:27]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta): The bill will be in the mail
[15:06:35]  Wulfriðe Blitzen  (ancasta) grins
[15:06:41]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Ha! Not undeserved at all.
~fin