Mysteries of Montreal

I've recently been on a trip to Long Island, NY, and came back with a few ideas to put together, maybe for a scenario. In the meantime, here's a wonderful picture that I came across of the first diving suit, tested in the Long Island sound. An older Chester E MacDuffee may be making an appearance as an NPC Pictured here is Chester E. Macduffee and his newly-patented creation, the diving suit.  It was made of aluminum alloy and weighed over 550 pounds, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to be strapped into when you’re thrown into the ocean.  The invention did help advance deep-sea diving when, in 1914, the suit reached new depths of 212 feet in the Long Island Sound.

Holmes statue in Edinburgh. I know this is outwith the normal bounds of my blog, but it is covered by the general mystery theme. There has been a new Sherlock Holmes Story discovered. I post the transcript here, as I'm pretty sure that the copyright on Holmes has long ago passed into the public domain. The story is less mystery, and more a peculiar little coversation between Holmes and Watson, clearly written to appeal to the guid-folks o' Selkirk. Anyway without too many spoilers, here is the full transcript of 'Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar'. The story of how it was found can be read here : 'We've had enough of old romancists and the men of travel, said the Editor, as he blue-pencilled his copy, and made arrangements for the great Saturday edition of the Bazaar Book. 'We want something up-to-date. Why not have a word from "Sherlock Holmes"?' Editors have only to speak and it is don

Montreal Standard, 12 January 1907, page 16. HATCHET HOBOS OF CHINATOWN REGARD NEW POLICEMAN AS A TRAITOR TO HIS RACE Montreal’s Chinatown accepts the installation of the new Chinese policeman as an official recognition of the dignity and importance of the district. It is as great a matter to crow over as if a Celestial had been elected alderman in the City Council. “Oh, yeth, we have policeman now. He” – with a swell of pride – “he carry revolver and baton, too!” Chinatown is having much to play with the new toy. Fan-tan has for the nonce lost a little of its absorbing interest. All sorts of tiny troubles are taken to the policeman for arbitration, and he is expected to be a library of miscellaneous information, while if some Chinamen are having a little wordy spar at 3 am, another Chinaman will bolt round, waken up the policeman, and gravely inform him that there is a stupendous case on hand, and that it would be wisdom to telephone for the patrol wagon and a detachment of

There are a great number of cinemas or movie theatres in Montreal, many of them dating from the golden age of cinema. Including the Ouimetoscope , the first Canadian theater dedicated exclusively to showing movies (opened in 1906), and which was situated right round the corner from my house (and is currently being transformed into a block of appartments). Showing local productions, including his own, news movies, French and translated American movies, the theater would remain open for eighteen years until, in 1922, Ouimet's financial difficulties forced him to sell the Ouimetoscope, which closed two years later. Another is the Rialto Theatre  ( official site ), built in 1924, and although it stopped being a cinema in 1990, the building is protected as a Candian Heritage Site. You can see a few pictures of the wonderful interiors here . It would be remiss of me, being a Call of Cthulhu Blogger, if, whilst on this subject, I did not mention the tragedy that was the ' L

The first "horseless-carriage" to be driven in the streets of Montreal was a Waltham Steam . It was driven by Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand, on the 21st of November, 1899. His passenger was the then Major of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine . The car was bought from Massachusetts in the United States for $600, and ran on 6 water reservoirs, with a range of a whopping 24 miles before having to be refilled. It could reach a high speed of 40 mph, but had to be stopped when there was a horse-drawn carriage in view, so as not to scare the horses. By 1903, Mr Dandurand had a total of 4 automobiles, but not everyone approved of such noisy vehicles, and he was often stopped for disrupting the peace.  Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand and his wife in his first car. ( source ) Mr Dandurand outside his house, with car and chauffeur (1915) ( source ) Links CBC Radio Link (in french). M. Ucal-Henri Dandurand (in french). Maison Durand (in french). Edit 25-11-2014 MTLblog has a

" Behind the raging horseshoe falls of Niagara there lies a secret like no other, a century old redbrick tunnel painstakingly laid. There is no recorded tally of its human cost but in 1906 it would be the biggest tunnel of its type in the world. The entry cost is a dangerous rappel through the bowels of a decrepit powerstation into this supervillain stronghold behind the crashing waterfall ." From here . The link goes to an urban exploration site where three guys braved this site. It's quite a read, and that's quite some feat of engineering for being built in 1906. Worth a read.