This day is Trinity Universe history

[aberrantangels]

Something of a turning point of the Inspiration Age.

1922
[Adventure!] The Hammersmith Incident. Dr Sir Calvin Hammersmith invites leading names in the scientific and political fields to witness the demonstration of his "Telluric Engine" at Atlas Cross, his London mansion. The Engine is theoretically capable of tapping "z-waves" (what later physicists will call "zero-point energy"), providing a limitless power source. On activation, however, the Engine explodes, killing nearly all present. Survivors, including Jackson Harley (Hammersmith's butler), Michael Donighal (a friend of attendee Maxwell Anderson Mercer) and Benjamin Franklin Dixon (Dr Hammersmith's lab assistant), find themselves "Inspired" by the release of telluric energy; Max Mercer is launched on his first trip through time.

I regard this moment as a reality quake in the sense princeofcairo used the term — a moment when history was shaken up, backwards as well as forward.

1923
[Adventure!] The Æon Society for Gentlemen holds its first official meeting.

He began with a short speech, describing the membership there assembled as "the best chance the world has of answering the question 'Why?'" He said Æon would be "dedicated to answering that question by exploring the mysteries of the world around us. We are out not to remake the world, but to understand it and to share our knowledge so that others may build their own futures."

1924
[Adventure!] Dr. Primoris reflects, in his journal, on the three types of super-science invention: advancements (extrapolations of conventional science), innovations (which mimic the effects of Inspired knacks), and those that serve only as crutches for their wielder's own Inspired powers.

The first two categories actually exist in terms of Adventure!'s game mechanics. (The third is just a roleplaying tool, to help the player differentiate eir character from other characters with the same Knacks.)

Nemo's automobile, in the League of Extraordinary Matte Paintings Gentlemen movie, is a good example of an advancement, or perhaps a bunch of advancements. In 1899, Our Ford was a decade away from giving us the Model T, but there were horseless carriages already on the roam. (In Kevin Anderson's novelization, Mina Murray makes the comparison directly.) The movie's official website remarked that the Nemomobile had features most real-world motorcars wouldn't get for decades. Thus, advancement.

Off the top of my head, I'm having trouble coming up with notable fictional examples of innovations, but maybe that's just because I'm tired. My brain is devising one in Adventure! terms, though — a "Hypnotronic Vocalizer" pendant that gives its wearer the equivalent of the psychic knack Command Voice. If the Hypnotronic Vocalizer would only work for its maker, and if e were unable to use Command Voice without it, it'd be a crutch.

Comments

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

The Shadow, or at least, a version of him (the movie, pulp novel and radio show versions were all subtly different) had an innovation. One ep of the radio show implies (IIRC) that the ability he had to cloud mens' minds was a piece of technology that would "someday be available to police everywhere."