Re: 100 years back in time
I think I would start writing short stories so I could get enough cred to be able to write books and have them published. They would all be pitched as fiction, and then I would, I guess, start making people nervous how events essentially identical to what I wrote about kept coming true.
Re: 100 years back in time
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sdsurfer
Get a job somewhere and scrape together whatever I could, then invest it all in Ford Motor Company and General Electric. Then I would take that phone to a patent office and register a patent.
... which would then expire in 1936.
Re: 100 years back in time
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mclark2145
I think I would start writing short stories so I could get enough cred to be able to write books and have them published. They would all be pitched as fiction, and then I would, I guess, start making people nervous how events essentially identical to what I wrote about kept coming true.
or, your books would have so many people thinking that way that it would change history like causing those events to not come true.
Re: 100 years back in time
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Skaperen
... which would then expire in 1936.
Yes but see "General Electric." That would then become G.E.'s problem . . . after selling them the patent. :-D CHA-CHING CHA-CHING! :-D
Re: 100 years back in time
I did some research about where I live now and where my ancestors were in 1920.
I'd pull the battery out of the phone. If I had a charger, that would simplify things. Without a charger, it would be harder since I don't know the 4-pin setup on the microUSB port for charging. If I knew I was going in advance, I'd take a photo or save the USB pin diagram to the device. While I'm at it, I'd grab a copy of wikipedia and put that on a 256G microSD card. Concentrating on math, science, engineering topics. With the ability to recharge the phone, it would become like an oracle, yes? The knowledge would be more important than the phone.
Both here and at direct ancestor locations are pretty rural. I'm too old to do labor, so I'd have to lie about my beliefs, find a church and help out there for food until finding some way to earn and get to a railroad, then to a city. Would likely take a year to save that much. I could walk to a city with 6000 people and rail station here in a few days. Doing that isn't possible for the location of my ancestors, but a rail station is only 80 miles away.
I'm trained as an engineer, but just a little too young to have used slide rules. Would need a course on that and probably would be most useful at a ship builder due to my aerospace engineering degree. Not much need for a rocket scientist in 1919 and aircraft engineering ... well, it wasn't paying well then.
Re: 100 years back in time
Electrical and communications engineering were the hot new fields... Places were being connected for the first time. Expansion was everywhere. The first wired networks were being crafted out of cable and determination. The fatality rate among that first generation of electrical linemen must have been fantastically high by our standards today.
Re: 100 years back in time
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jetsam
Electrical and communications engineering were the hot new fields... Places were being connected for the first time. Expansion was everywhere. The first wired networks were being crafted out of cable and determination. The fatality rate among that first generation of electrical linemen must have been fantastically high by our standards today.
and "Tesla" was a different name back then.
even today, the fatality rate of linemen (#1) remains higher than that of law enforcement officers (#2). a friend of mine (lived across the street from me when we were young kids) lost his 20 y/o son that way last year. electricity does not give you even the slightest chance to get out of the way.
and it's not the amperage that kills you, it's the sudden extreme heat.
Re: 100 years back in time
I have had a somewhat similar experience where I decided to up stakes and head for the USA with a motorcycle. For me this was not too dissimilar to a trip back 100 years in time. So, what should I take with me? I spread all my possessions out on the lounge room floor and systematically went through everything looking for "must have" and "want to have" items.
In the end the "must have" pile only contained my birth certificate, motorcycle rego papers, current driver's license, and four photos of 5 people who meant a great deal to me. The "want to have" pile was simply an Aussie flag, discharge papers from the military and a small metal container of personal jewelry.
Within 4 months of arriving in the USA I had my own mom and pop computer repair store and living well.
The only thing that will work for you if you go back 100 years is knowledge... everything else will get you killed, thrown in jail or ostracized.
Re: 100 years back in time
Find an honest job. Save money. Avoid my grandmother which would of been 18 yeas old. Celebrate the end of world war 1 the year before. Buy some real clothes. Invent a few things that would be new even in today's standards. That would put today 100 years advanced in technology.
Re: 100 years back in time
100 years ago I think where I am now was apple orchard. If no farmer was around, I'd guess I'd start by grabbing an apple. I'd also head west, as I'm not far from a pretty good place to see Melbourne in the distance...
My 'smartphone' - I find little use for that now, so I'd be tempted to throw it, but I may find a use for it so I'd probably keep (it may help prove I'm not insane when I use speech or other things that mean nothing today, but had different meanings back then, I'd also marvel at why it's fully-charged!!?) ...
My DP/IT/computing background is probably of no use, my other main qualification is in accounting which doesn't thrill me anymore (did it ever?). I'm now in the era of steam, so I'd probably start heading ~SW to where the electric tramway got pulled up many years before and follow it towards the rail line (south), then look for a library for a quick history refresher (what I have already is very macro/general/global in focus, I'd need to narrow down to more local).
I'd keep my eyes open for a blue (UK) police box ... maybe I can hitch-hike a ride back to my own time zone...