THE VALCOURS;

PREFACE:

I could have selected the “Comments” page to begin to post the following thread of mine as a work of fiction;  or I could have selected the “Mysteries of the Multiverse” page to type out this alternative-history fictional work, that will be heavily flavored with science-fiction/steampunk concepts. But I chose this topic page, flipping the proverbial (three sided?)  coin.

To try keep the work from getting boring, I’ll use the Reader’s Digest structure  as much as possible to keep my work to a few thousand words at most, divided up into different posts as condensed chapters.

And since my work in everyday life  will keep me from adding posts into this compilation in immediate succession, I ask that you bear with me for the coming days/weeks until it’s done. It will cover events from 1821 to the year 1876 in fictional dramatic form, with fictional narrative explaining some need-to-know information from the years before 1821, with an overlapping narrative at the end to explain things that would (fictionally/hypothetically) have occurred in the years and decades after 1876 up to and into the first decade of the 20th century.

Because the primary characters in this work, while fictional, are French, I wish I could easily access the font to  put the Gallic accent punctuation on those words and names that are of French derivation, but it shouldn’t hinder you in your reading of the following work.

 

But you will need to know the modern meaning of some archaic chemical terms, so I will type out a list below; archaic words and their (archaic alternates) on the left-side;  their modern equivalent on the right.

aether = a supposed medium for light to traverse outer-space, according to Victorian era physicists.

carbonic acid (fixed air) = carbon dioxide.

chalk  =  calcium carbonate.

lime (quicklime) = calcium oxide.

lye = potassium hydroxide solution.

elastic fluid =  atmospheric air.

nitrous acid = nitric acid (HNO3).

muriatic acid = hydrochloric acid.

vitriolic acid = sulfuric acid.

alkaline air = ammonia.

sulphurous gas = sulphur dioxide (SO2)

oil of glonoin (pyroglycerine) = nitroglycerin.

benzine (benzol) = benzene.

spirits = distilled alcohol.

soda = sodium carbonate.

laughing gas = nitrous oxide.

nitre = potassium oxide.