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Technology & Science

Last edited: 31-10-2525, 06:08 PM
Page Table of Contents

Overview

It is generally safe to assume that anything up to 1940 exists. You may do research for anything beyond this page list. This list is not comprehensive, but highlighting the forms of technology thar will be used or seen regularly. It is also to bring attention to fictional technology that exists beyond history.

Technology & Science Available

These technologies and Science you may use regularly, or own without permission. They are canon not just to the era, but to the community foundation.

  • Rotary Phones /strong> The standard household telephone. You place your finger in the numbered dial and turn it for each digit. Often, you’re first connected to a real operator who helps place your call, especially for long distance. The operator is a real person, usually a woman, working at a switchboard.
  • Phone Booths Small enclosed boxes, often on street corners or in drugstores. You step inside, shut the door for quiet, drop a coin, and speak to the operator through the handset to be connected. The operator is a real person, usually a woman, working at a switchboard.
  • Radio A large wooden console or small tabletop set that brings in news, music, and dramas broadcast over the air. Families gather around it in the evenings, just as earlier generations gathered around the piano. Crystal radio sets could pick up stray signals; some claimed they carried “voices of the dead.” Such claims appeared in fringe magazines of the 1930s.
  • Ham Radios (2-way Radios) Privately built wireless sets used to talk with people across towns, states, or even countries. Operators use call signs and Morse code, their voices carried by the airwaves.
  • Cinema /strong> The neighborhood theater showing black-and-white films, some with sound, some still silent in smaller towns. People dress neatly, buy popcorn, and spend an evening in a dark hall watching the latest Hollywood stories.
  • Phonograph A record player with a turntable and a metal needle that rides the grooves of shellac discs. It’s hand-wound or electric, and plays music or speeches through a horn or built-in speaker. Sometimes used during séances to play back recorded voices believed to be from spirits. Early “electronic voice phenomena” experiments were in their infancy.
  • Refrigerator A new household marvel that keeps milk, meat, and vegetables cold using electricity instead of daily ice blocks. It hums softly and frees the homemaker from constant ice deliveries.
  • Typewriter A solid machine of keys and levers that prints letters directly onto paper with an ink ribbon. Office workers and writers rely on its crisp, immediate imprint.
  • Motorcar the motorcar had become a familiar sight, though still something of a privilege rather than a guarantee. Most ordinary motorists drove small saloons or two-seater runabouts made by firms such as Austin, Morris, Hillman, or Standard. These cars were compact, with narrow bodies, upright windscreens, and hand-cranked windows. Petrol engines were modest, gears were shifted by hand, and speeds rarely exceeded sixty miles an hour. Larger saloons and touring cars—Rolls-Royce, Daimler, or Humber—were reserved for the well-to-do or official use. Villagers and tradesmen relied on vans and small lorries for work, while the countryside still saw as many bicycles and horse carts as cars.
  • Propeller-Based Airplanes Metal aircraft powered by spinning propellers. They carry mail, passengers, and soldiers across countries, often flown by pilots in open cockpits just a decade ago but now enclosed and more comfortable. If not for company or governement use, they are privately owned. There are no commercial airlines.
  • Zeppelin Aircrafts Giant, gas-filled airships once used for luxury travel across the Atlantic. Elegant but dangerous. It is the primary, but expensive, flight option over the ocean for commercial travel. Though with a tendency to explode or crash and explode when things go wrong.
  • Forensic Science Police work that uses laboratory tests to solve crimes: examining fingerprints, bullets, and blood. Still developing, but detectives increasingly depend on science to find proof rather than hunches.

Emerging technologies & Science

The following are likely only to be found as porotypes in companies or very wealthy homes. They are not widely available, and are discouraged from being used without a character in a compelling position to have possession of it. However, they are always open as topics of discussion as emerging technology and science is huge and commonly interesting.

  • Black & White Television A small screen showing moving pictures broadcast through the air, much like radio with pictures. Few homes have one yet, and the image is fuzzy, in shades of gray, but it feels like a glimpse of the future.
  • Electronic Computer (Military Only) – A massive machine filling an entire room, built with tubes and wires. It can perform complex calculations faster than people, used by the military for code and ballistics work. No screens as we know them—just blinking lights and printed readouts.
  • Radar (Military Only) – A new secret invention that uses invisible radio waves to detect objects far away—like ships or airplanes—before they’re seen. Its existence is known mostly in military and scientific circles.
  • Jet Engine (Military Only) – An experimental kind of airplane engine that pushes aircraft forward by blasting hot air instead of using propellers. Still in testing, but thought to make planes faster than ever before.
  • Antibiotics (Such as Penicillin) – A medical wonder that kills infection-causing germs. It’s new, hard to come by outside major hospitals, and often has to be shipped from city to city. Still not widely available to ordinary people.
  • Infrared Photography (Experimental) – Some parapsychologists attempted long-exposure or infrared photos to “reveal invisible beings.” Equipment was cumbersome and rare, usually scientific surplus.
  • Electromagnetic or Static Detectors (Primitive) – Early radio and electrical experimenters sometimes noticed “mysterious” interference and attributed it to spirits. Simple galvanometers or static-crackle radios were occasionally used in séances to “measure presence,” though there was no real science behind it.
  • Atomic Bomb (Military Government Only) – A top-secret government project. Scientists are studying how splitting atoms might release enormous energy. Only a handful of people in the world even suspect what it could mean—or how devastating it might become.
  • Plastic Household Items Not yet becoming widespread; most goods are metal, glass, wood, or fabric.
  • Synthetic Fabrics (like Nylon Stockings) – Nylon is brand new in 1939, used mostly for military research.
  • Air Conditioning (Residential) Only a few theaters or luxury buildings have it; homes rely on fans and open windows.

Technologies That Do Not Exist

The following technologies are not allowed, and will never be allowed. Even if you find research, it might be emerging in the era, our community AU, they are not available and will not be allowed to be invented by characters even if they are striving towards it.

  • CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) Security cameras that provide around the clock recording.
  • Cell Phones / Mobile Phones Do not exist in any form. All telephones are wired, stationary, and often routed through operators.
  • Non-Military Computers There are no personal or business computers. Only enormous military or research machines exist, using vacuum tubes and punch cards.
  • The Internet / Email No networking between computers or devices at all. Communication happens through letters, telegrams, radio, or telephone.
  • DNA Profiling / Genetic Testing DNA’s structure is not yet known. No forensic or medical use whatsoever.
  • Microwave Ovens Magnetron technology exists for radar, not for kitchens. Food is cooked on stoves or in ovens only.
  • Credit Cards / Electronic Payment Purchases are made with cash or check; store credit is handwritten in ledgers.
  • Digital Cameras Only film cameras exist; photographs require chemical development.
  • Transistors Not invented; all electronics use vacuum tubes, which are large and fragile.
  • Compact Cassette Tapes, or CDs Music is on shellac 78-rpm records only.
  • Commercial Air Travel too expensive; people travel by train, boat, bus, or car. Unless they have the money to use the Zeppelin Aircrafts or seek out private pilots.
  • Automatic Washing Machines / Dryers laundry is done by hand or with wringer washers.
  • Television Remote Controls Not yet invented; you must stand and turn the dial by hand.
  • Digital Clocks / LED Displays Clocks are mechanical or electric with hands, never digital.
  • Spaceflight / Satellites Entirely science fiction; rocketry is experimental and military.
  • EMF Meters Often used in modern ghost hunting, not yet invented.
  • Infrared Cameras or Thermal Imaging No portable versions until decades later.
  • Digital Audio Recorders or EVP Devices No magnetic tape or digital recorders invented yet
  • Night Vision / UV Cameras Not invented yet, Military prototypes existed later; far beyond any civilian or occult reach.
  • Laser Grids, Motion Sensors, Spirit Boxes with Scanning Radios Not inventd yet.