What is Uncle Quentin Working On?
Posted: 15 Feb 2017, 20:49
I don't know if that has been discussed here already, but I wonder what Uncle Quentin is studying. Is there some information in the books on this subject? I don't remember so.
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Five Have A Mystery To solve 1962:
‘Uncle Quentin will be glad to be rid of George even for a meal,’ said Dick. ‘He fell over her lacrosse stick yesterday, and wanted to know why she left her fishing net about! George didn’t know what he was talking about!’
‘Poor old Georgina,’ said his mother. ‘It’s a pity that both she and her father have exactly the same hot tempers. Her mother must find it difficult to keep the peace! Ah - here’s Anne back again. Did you get George on the phone, dear?’
‘Yes. She’s thrilled,’ said Anne. ‘She says it’s just as well we’re not going to spend the day with her, because Uncle Quentin has lost some papers he was working on, and he’s turning the house upside down. George said she will probably be mad as a hatter by the time she arrives this afternoon! Uncle Quentin even made Aunt Fanny turn out her knitting bag to see if the papers were there!’
‘Dear old Quentin,’ said her mother. ‘Such a truly brilliant scientist - remembers every book he’s ever read - every paper he’s ever written - and has the finest brain I know - and yet loses some valuable paper or other almost every week!’
‘He loses something else every day of the week too,’ said Dick, with a grin. ‘His temper! Poor old George - she’s always in some sort of trouble!’
Imagine a pitch like that on Dragon's Den.Could make a fortune for an investor - but I think we've mentioned Quentin wanted his work to be a gift to all mankind.Five Have Plenty Of Fun 1955 Informs us that:
'Father’s working on some great scheme with these two men,’ said George. ‘One of them is a genius, apparently, and has hit on an idea that’s too wonderful for words.’
‘What kind of modern idea is it?’ said Julian, lazily, holding out his finger-tips for Timmy to lick off smears of ice-cream. ‘Some space-ship to take us on day-trips to the moon - or some new bomb to set off - or...’
‘No, I think it’s something that will give us heat, light and power for almost nothing!’ said George. ‘I heard Father say that it’s the simplest and best idea anyone had ever worked out, and he’s awfully excited about it. He called it a “gift to mankind” and said he was proud to have anything to do with it.’
Really?Rob Houghton wrote: I think Enid was making most of it up
I've always thought so too. I remember I did wonder, when reading Five on Kirrin Island Again, if Quentin's mysterious energy source had something to do with nuclear power, but if he were trying to split atoms (let alone fuse them), he'd need a heck of a lot more than a tower on an island... I would have to conclude Enid was indeed making it up, deliberately keeping it mysterious in order to make it intriguing and exciting for young readers — and also, if she never revealed what Quentin's power source was or how it worked, that meant she could avoid getting letters from more scientifically knowledgeable adults or children telling her why that couldn't possibly work in real life...Rob Houghton wrote:I personally feel Uncle Quentin wouldn't mess with nuclear power! Maybe that's just because I think its dangerous and unnecessary! I always presume Quentin's research has more to do with natural methods of creating power. The tower on Kirrin Island is something to do with harnessing the power of the sea, I think...or maybe I have misinterpreted it.
I think Enid was making most of it up, with references to topical theories/inventions/atom bombs etc thrown in for good measure!
There was not much room in the tower. A spiral staircase, made of the same shiny stuff as the tower itself, wound up and up and up. There was a space at one side of it, into which projected curious hook-like objects made of what looked like steel. Wire ran from one to the other. "
Better not touch them," said Julian, looking curiously at them. " Goodness, this is like a tower out of a fairy-tale. Come on—I'm going up the stairs to the top." He began to climb the steep, spiral stairway. It made him quite giddy to go up and round, up and round so many, many times. The others followed him. Tiny, slit-like windows, set sideways not downwards, were let into the side of the tower here and there, and gave a little light to the stairway.
Julian looked through one, and had a wonderful view of the sea and the mainland. He went on up to the top. When he got there he found himself in a small round room, whose sides were of thick, gleaming glass. Wires ran right into the glass itself, and then pierced through it, the free ends waving and glittering in the strong wind that blew round the tower.
The glass top of the tower winked and blinked in the sun. It looked almost as if someone was signalling. But there was no one in the little glass room. As the children watched they heard a faint rumbling sound, and suddenly the top of the tower was ablaze with a curious glare. " Look ! That's what happened yesterday ! " said Julian, in excitement. " Your father's at work all right, George. I do wonder what he's doing!"
Then there came a throbbing sound, almost like the noise of an aeroplane, and once more the glass top of the tower shone and blazed, as the wires became full of some curious power.
And then George suddenly remembered something he had said to them all, the first time they had visited him on the island. What was it now ? " Oh yes ! He said he had to have water above and around him ! " said George. " Now I see what he meant ! His workroom is somewhere down here—so the sea-water is above him—and it's all round the tower, because it's built on a island ! " Water above, and water around—so that was why her father had chosen Kirrin Island for his experiment.
How had he found the secret passage under the sea, though ? " Why, even I didn't know of that," said George. " Hallo—what am I coming to ? " She stopped. The passage had suddenly widened out into an enormous dark cave, whose roof was unexpectedly high, lost in dark shadows.
George stared round. She saw queer things there that she didn't understand at all—wires, glass boxes, little machines that seemed to be at work without a sound, whose centres were alive with queer, gleaming, shivering light. Sudden sparks shot up now and again, and when that happened a funny smell crept round the cave. " How weird all this is ! " thought George. " However can Father understand all these machines and things ! I wonder where he is. I do hope those men haven't made him prisoner somewhere ! "
From this queer, Aladdin's cave another tunnel led. George switched on her torch again and went into it. It was much like the other one, but the roof was higher. She came to another cave, smaller this time, and crammed with wires of all kinds. There was a curious humming sound here, like thousands of bees in a hive. George half-expected to see some flying round. " It must be these wires making the noise," she said. There was nobody in the cave at all, but it led into another one, and George hoped that soon she would find Timmy and her father.
Possibly not, after the war it was possibly not interesting for him to work on a time machine to make this clue. .KEVP wrote:I've been wondering whether Uncle Quentin's discoveries somehow are connected to the fact that the Second World War does not seem to have taken place in the Famous Five Universe. Maybe Uncle Quentin discovered something so powerful that the Axis simply would not dare to challenge the British Empire.