221-B Baker Street
- Thread starter Meanderer
- Start date
JimBob1952
Senior Member
Thanks Meanderer, all good stuff. I'll never forget my thrill at reading "The Sign of the Four" for the first time at the age of 13 or so. Sherlock is a truly immortal character.
Meanderer
Supreme Member
British Monarchs in the Sherlock Holmes Stories
"Queen Victoria is still "a certain gracious lady", as Watson calls her in "The Bruce-Partington Plans", but she loses an important historical distinction today. She is no longer the longest-reigning British monarch; Elizabeth II, who has been Queen since February 6, 1952, has now been on the throne for longer."
"Victoria reigned for 63 years 216 days (or 23,226 days, as Buckingham Palace prefers to calculate it), from June 1837 to January 1901. Sherlock Holmes "began his adventures in the very heart of the later Victorian era," as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in the introduction to The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlockians are among those who know something of the respect and affection she inspired. Holmes himself felt patriotic sentiments towards the Queen-Empress, with the "VR" for Victoria Regina that he inscribed on Mrs. Hudson's wall in bullet-pocks."
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"Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen"
"Queen Victoria is still "a certain gracious lady", as Watson calls her in "The Bruce-Partington Plans", but she loses an important historical distinction today. She is no longer the longest-reigning British monarch; Elizabeth II, who has been Queen since February 6, 1952, has now been on the throne for longer."
"Victoria reigned for 63 years 216 days (or 23,226 days, as Buckingham Palace prefers to calculate it), from June 1837 to January 1901. Sherlock Holmes "began his adventures in the very heart of the later Victorian era," as Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in the introduction to The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlockians are among those who know something of the respect and affection she inspired. Holmes himself felt patriotic sentiments towards the Queen-Empress, with the "VR" for Victoria Regina that he inscribed on Mrs. Hudson's wall in bullet-pocks."
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Constipation can be a bugger when you get older
Meanderer
Supreme Member
Charles Altamont Doyle – The Father of Arthur Conan Doyle
"Conan Doyle wrote in his biography, “My father’s life was full of the tragedy of unfulfilled powers and of underdeveloped gifts. He had his weaknesses, as all of us have ours, but he also had some very remarkable and outstanding virtues.”
(READ MORE)
"Conan Doyle wrote in his biography, “My father’s life was full of the tragedy of unfulfilled powers and of underdeveloped gifts. He had his weaknesses, as all of us have ours, but he also had some very remarkable and outstanding virtues.”
(READ MORE)
Meanderer
Supreme Member
Sherlock Holmes And The Alderney Street Mystery
"When we had all finished eating, Mrs. Hudson brought up a tray of coffee. Holmes invited our guests to relax on the couch, and we all paid the landlady friendly compliments as she cleared away the dishes."
"What's in the humidor?" Holmes asked of no one in particular. Then he opened it and handed it to Scott Robinson. Seeing this, I made a point of opening the windows before settling down in an armchair. Holmes waited until we all had cigars, then closed the humidor and put it away before settling into a chair of his own.
"It is just possible," he said, "that I have gauged the entire case incorrectly. It may be that I am wasting your time tonight, gentlemen. We shall find out soon enough. But in the meantime, do enjoy the coffee and cigars." (Read More)
"When we had all finished eating, Mrs. Hudson brought up a tray of coffee. Holmes invited our guests to relax on the couch, and we all paid the landlady friendly compliments as she cleared away the dishes."
"What's in the humidor?" Holmes asked of no one in particular. Then he opened it and handed it to Scott Robinson. Seeing this, I made a point of opening the windows before settling down in an armchair. Holmes waited until we all had cigars, then closed the humidor and put it away before settling into a chair of his own.
"It is just possible," he said, "that I have gauged the entire case incorrectly. It may be that I am wasting your time tonight, gentlemen. We shall find out soon enough. But in the meantime, do enjoy the coffee and cigars." (Read More)
Meanderer
Supreme Member
Mrs Hudsons Kitchen - Coffee In The Canon
An extract from Memoirs from Mrs Hudson's Kitchen;
“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks,” so said Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), a Scottish jurist, politician and historian. This maxim could easily be applied to Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, since both often preferred coffee over tea throughout the day and into the night. A breakfast pot served hot and strong was mandatory. In Dr. Watson’s account of A Study in Scarlet the first mention of coffee was made. "
"Dr. Watson 'rose somewhat earlier than usual' and I was so accustomed to his sleeping in that he was dismayed that “his place had not been laid nor my coffee prepared. With the unreasonable petulance of mankind [he] rang the bell and gave the curt intimation that [he] was ready.”
"When Mr. Holmes worked relentlessly on a case, coffee served as a stimulant to both thinking and action, particularly after he stopped using cocaine. For Dr. Watson, who often lingered at various appointed locales to wait for Mr. Holmes, coffee served as a necessary pick-me-up, as seen in “The Naval Treaty.” In this adventure a spirit lamp was employed by the station commissionaire to brew the necessary beverage. Many cases required night time activity and coffee was an ideal elixir. At 221B, I roasted and ground our own coffee." (Read More)
An extract from Memoirs from Mrs Hudson's Kitchen;
“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks,” so said Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), a Scottish jurist, politician and historian. This maxim could easily be applied to Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson, since both often preferred coffee over tea throughout the day and into the night. A breakfast pot served hot and strong was mandatory. In Dr. Watson’s account of A Study in Scarlet the first mention of coffee was made. "
"Dr. Watson 'rose somewhat earlier than usual' and I was so accustomed to his sleeping in that he was dismayed that “his place had not been laid nor my coffee prepared. With the unreasonable petulance of mankind [he] rang the bell and gave the curt intimation that [he] was ready.”
"When Mr. Holmes worked relentlessly on a case, coffee served as a stimulant to both thinking and action, particularly after he stopped using cocaine. For Dr. Watson, who often lingered at various appointed locales to wait for Mr. Holmes, coffee served as a necessary pick-me-up, as seen in “The Naval Treaty.” In this adventure a spirit lamp was employed by the station commissionaire to brew the necessary beverage. Many cases required night time activity and coffee was an ideal elixir. At 221B, I roasted and ground our own coffee." (Read More)
Meanderer
Supreme Member
SHERLOC
Mars 2020's SHERLOC Instrument: A close-up view of an engineering model of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), one the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
"The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals has a nickname: SHERLOC. Mounted on the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC uses cameras, spectrometers, and a laser to search for organics and minerals that have been altered by watery environments and may be signs of past microbial life."
"In addition to its black-and-white context camera, SHERLOC is assisted by WATSON, a color camera for taking close-up images of rock grains and surface textures."
Mars 2020's SHERLOC Instrument: A close-up view of an engineering model of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), one the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Full image and caption ›
"The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals has a nickname: SHERLOC. Mounted on the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC uses cameras, spectrometers, and a laser to search for organics and minerals that have been altered by watery environments and may be signs of past microbial life."
"In addition to its black-and-white context camera, SHERLOC is assisted by WATSON, a color camera for taking close-up images of rock grains and surface textures."
Meanderer
Supreme Member
The Detective Aboard NASA's Perseverance Rover
"When Beegle and his team spot an interesting rock, they'll scan a quarter-sized area of it with SHERLOC's laser to tease out the mineral composition and whether organic compounds are present. Then WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) will take close-up images of the sample. It can snap images of Perseverance, too, just as NASA's Curiosity rover uses the same camera — called the Mars Hand Lens Imager on that vehicle — for science and for taking selfies."
In this test image by SHERLOC, an instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, each color represents a different mineral detected on a rock's surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"But combined with SHERLOC, WATSON can do even more: The team can precisely map SHERLOC's findings over WATSON's images to help reveal how different mineral layers formed and overlap. They can also combine the mineral maps with data from other instruments — among them, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) on Perseverance's robotic arm — to see whether a rock could hold signs of fossilized microbial life."
"When Beegle and his team spot an interesting rock, they'll scan a quarter-sized area of it with SHERLOC's laser to tease out the mineral composition and whether organic compounds are present. Then WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) will take close-up images of the sample. It can snap images of Perseverance, too, just as NASA's Curiosity rover uses the same camera — called the Mars Hand Lens Imager on that vehicle — for science and for taking selfies."
In this test image by SHERLOC, an instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, each color represents a different mineral detected on a rock's surface.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"But combined with SHERLOC, WATSON can do even more: The team can precisely map SHERLOC's findings over WATSON's images to help reveal how different mineral layers formed and overlap. They can also combine the mineral maps with data from other instruments — among them, PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) on Perseverance's robotic arm — to see whether a rock could hold signs of fossilized microbial life."
Meanderer
Supreme Member
"Advice from the hero of my book, Sherlock Holmes"
"Asked to share advice from Sherlock Holmes, the hero of my book, “Sherlock Holmes and the Remaining Improbable,” I hesitate. He may have saved many lives and stymied many a cruel plot, but he’s not what’s known as a people person. I draw each of these pieces of advice directly from Holmes’ behavior in at least one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 60 plus original stories." Susanne M. Dutton
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