Thunderstruck

by Erik Larson

Beaver Line

If all the above failed to ignite a good conversation, one could always talk about ghosts.

Within a few years of his joining the SPR, however, events challenged Lodge’s ability to maintain his scientific remove. In Boston William James began hearing from his own family about a certain “Mrs. Piper”—Lenore Piper—a medium who was gaining notoriety for possessing strange powers. Intending to expose her as a fraud, James arranged a sitting and found himself enthralled. He suggested that the society invite Mrs. Piper to England for a series of experiments.

Dollop?

optician. They did not stay long in St. Louis. The city lacked the boisterous glory of New York and had little to offer a woman intent on a life in the world’s embrace. No doubt at Cora’s urging, the couple moved back to New York.

They reported in French, “constantly ejaculating for the benefit of the others, whenever anything occurred,” as Lodge put it.

Lord Kelvin.

During one experiment, frustrated with the keying skills of an operator, Marconi asked via wireless if that was the best he could do. When the man replied that it was, Marconi fired back, “Well try using the other foot.”

He once had told Solari, “I am never emotional.” But now Solari watched as he smashed the receiver to pieces.

Soon, thanks to Maskelyne, Fleming would experience a vivid demonstration of the true vulnerability of wireless, one that would erode his status within the Marconi company, wound his friendship with the inventor, and shake the reputations of both.

So many ominous statements/foreshadowing

“She was not pretty,” Dew recalled, “but there was something quite attractive about her, and she was neatly and quietly dressed.”

Whatever it is

“was internationally considered a brilliant second-best.”

He fled for the Balkans, behaving, Degna said, “like the jilted suitor in a romantic Victorian novel.” He contracted malaria, which would plague him with intervals of fever and delirium for the rest of his life.

achingly handsome,

“He was one murderer who died like a gentleman.”

Marconi and Beatrice were supposed to be passengers on the Titanic, as guests of the White Star Line. Marconi canceled, however, and sailed a few days earlier on the Lusitania.

In 1923 he joined the Fascist Party and became a friend of Mussolini, though as time passed he became disenchanted with the increasing bellicosity of the Fascists and Nazis. He loathed Hitler.