Jack the Ripper Tech

[BTCG]

Here are a few of my own antique bayonets, so people can get some idea of how varied they can be. The one sheathed is a sword bayonet from the appropriate period, some are earlier examples, some later. The sword bayonet can often be confused for an actual sword...can be similar length, same style scabbard, ...the only difference could be the mounting hardware so it can be attached to the rifle barrel.

Cheers

Very cool, Kramer.

[RivkahChaya]

Something must have been there that made them think "not-sword." My best guess is an odd-shaped bruise that looked like the place that attaches to the gun barrel. If it was a bayonet that was indistinguishable from a sword (or shorter dagger), then I don't think the ME would have narrowed it down to "bayonet." The report would have said "sword," "dagger," or "knife."

The only other explanation that come to mind runs in the conspiracy direction of the ME having a personal interest in implicating people in the military, but that sounds more like "idea for a novel reject pile."

[Paddy]

Bayonet.

I believe that the reason that it was thought a bayonet was used was because it broke her sternum and it was thought only a bayonet could do this....

I also found the following about Martha some years before. Its interesting and was in Lloyds weekly Advertiser Sunday Oct 1869 issue 1403.....

Pat.................

[sdreid]

Although it was primarily in the U.S., the current war was in full swing in 1888 however I think it was already becoming evident that AC was the best way to go. By 1892, no one could make a realistic case for DC, the war was over and the general worldwide standard was set.

[Prosector]

The Infantry Officer's dress sword of the period had a blade that was a little over half an inch wide at its widest point which was a foot from the tip. It was sharp on both edges but quite flexible and not really up to penetrating bone such as the sternum. The Cavalry sabre was much heavier, curved and sharp only along the outer, cutting edge but it was a cutting and slashing not a stabbing weapon so probably not the one used. The 1888 pattern British Army bayonet was a very sturdy, straight weapon with a heavy central rib and two cutting edges. All soldiers below the rank of sergeant had to carry it in its scabbard on their belts when in uniform out of barracks so there would have been a large number of them in the streets of Whitechapel that night. My money would be on that.

Prosector

[c.d.]

Even if it can be proven with absolute certainty that a military bayonet was the weapon that was used it does not necessarily follow that it was in fact a soldier that was wielding the weapon.

P.S. Nice to see you posting again, Prosector. I for one have always found your posts very educational and well thought out.

c.d.

[sdreid]

Although it was primarily in the U.S., the current war was in full swing in 1888 however I think it was already becoming evident that AC was the best way to go. By 1892, no one could make a realistic case for DC, the war was over and the general worldwide standard was set.

There were still variations rates though.

[sdreid]

Variations in cycle rates and voltages.

[Ginger]

There were still variations rates though.

Britain didn't have public AC service until 1891, when the London Electric Supply Company brought its Deptford generating plant online*. It provided single-phase 83Hz AC at 10kV to a large part of London (but still not the East End) that was stepped down to 2.5kV at the substations, and then to 50v or 100v for consumer service. Deptford is considered to be the first modern generating and distribution system.

The map at http://ogimages.bl.uk/images/026/026...%5BSVC2%5D.jpg shows the territories of various electric light companies in 1888. London Electric Supply (by far the largest) is in green. Note that no-one serves Whitechapel or the east in general.

Britain didn't really standardize on 50Hz until 1926, when the high voltage distribution system was standardized on three-phase 50Hz at 132kV, so as to allow distribution systems to be interconnected. By 1938, there was an integrated high-voltage grid across England, Wales and Scotland, which proved its worth shortly thereafter when the Nazis were unable to starve British industry of electricity, try as they might.

*It came online briefly for testing in 1889, but was shut down for a radical redesign.

[sdreid]

Thanks for all that additional information Ginger.

[sdreid]

I think the planet has pretty much narrowed it down to 50 or 60 hertz now.

[sdreid]

I'm guessing 50 because it more closely fits with the Metric principle and 60 because we here in North America like things that can be divided evenly in halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths...

[Ginger]

I had never realized, but apparently in 1888 a rudimentary form of cardiac defibrillation was apparently in use, along with nitroglycerine pills for heart disease.

The Melbourne Argus of March 5th, 1888, carried an article about the death of Frederick Federci, a popular opera singer, due to a heart attack while on stage.

"Dr. Willmott, on his arrival, saw at once the seriousness of Mr. Federici's condition, and having detected a slight beating of his heart, applied restoratives, principally the galvanic battery, at first mildly and then with increasing force, and whilst these were in progress the patient died.

[...]

Dr. Willmott had been attending Mr. Federici almost since his arrival in this colony for affection of the heart, and prescribed for him nitro-glycerine pills, which is the most potent treatment for that ailment."

[sdreid]

Thanks Ginger. I hadn't heard about that one before.

[sdreid]

People were fascinated by anything electrical back then, whether it worked or not.