The Parallel Universe

These are the easiest-to-track years of Townsend Brown's life, thanks to the copious newspaper material that was not available when this was first transcribed. Matters grow progressively more complex after this. My additions are in blue text.

Townsend Brown, Noted Electrical Expert, delivers 1.7 mil cost estimate for the crash of the Shenandoah dirigible, the US Navy's "Fleet Airship No. 1."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_(ZR-1)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the ... 129371397/

Because it is Nate's labor of live timeline that gives some structure to this story, and because he has been so willing to contribute his very insightful writings to exploring this part and other parts of Townsend's life, I have posted the story that goes with these events, Townsend Brown Goes to Caltech, on his reddit forum.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TownsendBrown/ ... /khet9p2/.

Wow, thank you for adding these annotations! The timeline is just a little thing that I threw together in about one day sitting in a library skimming though Paul's first draft around 2009. So really it's Paul's (and Linda's) research that is the labour of love. At the time I had the hope that a Wiki was being set up to continue research after Paul's forum, for which the Timeline might be a beginning, but Forum Drama ensued and so that never came together. It was always my intention to have the Timeline be a living document that grew as we gathered all the pieces, so yay!

I am very thankful for your newspaper searches. This stuff is excellent. So in 1925 (at age 20) Townsend was making his own electrical tubes and filling them with helium himself!

Yes, I created the Reddit forum last year - so many Townsend Brown resources have had a habit of going suddenly offline that I wanted a backup place for connections in case something happened to Paul's site. But I haven't been back to check on it in many months, so this reminds me I should do that.

Regards, Nate

Yes, Nate, Townsend was getting helium for laboratory work, when it was expensive and hard to come by. Did Line Air of NYC sell it to anybody who could afford $400 a quart, in today's prices?

Starting the reddit forum was a very good idea. Formatting the timeline for it must have been a pain. This is a Great American Story, in danger of being lost to link rot, site decay, and the passage of time. Reddit has a chance of being around for a while, so as I complete the next segment of the story, post Cal Tech, until 1929, I will post it there as well.

Jan

Part 2 of his story as I see it through these newspaper reports, takes Townsend through 1924 and '25. It is posted on Nate's reddit thread.