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Traveller-digest           Tuesday, 30 July 1996       Volume 1996 : Number 299

(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. Re: Traveller: Terra 1965 (Td V96 #288)
         2. Re: The Many Faces of Canon
         3. Some Ideas (LONG) 
         4. Re: Some Ideas (LONG)
         5. Traveller Chronicle 10 Bonus/Preview
         6. Traveller 1965: Rockets
         7. Marc Miller Interview
         8. Re: T4 shipping
         9. Re: Traveller: Terra 1965 (Td V96 #288)
        10. Re: Industrial Chemicals and PCs

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 22:17:28 PST
Subject: Re: Traveller: Terra 1965 (Td V96 #288)

In mail you write:

> Leonard wrote:
>>It'd involve recycling Traveller's rule system into a homebrew setting; as
>>you put it, a TL-7 society reaching out into space... namely, that of earth
>>circa 1955-1975 or so!

That's someone *responding* to me, not me.

> Sounds great!  As a longtime fan of early Clarke and Heinlien, this is the
> perfect setting for a lot of their stuff (and I heartily recommend reading
> up on it when creating the setting).  Check out: Heinlien's _The Man Who
> Sold The Moon_ (and other stories from his "Future Histories" in _The Past
> Through Tomorrow_), _Have Spacesuit, Will Travel_, _Space Cadet_, _Rocket
> Ship Galileo_ (the very first SF I read), and take a look at Clarke's _A
> Fall of Moondust_ (there are a few others Clarke has written that are
> applicable, but the titles escape me).

The collection "Prelude to Space" has a *lot* of good stuff. "Island in
the Sky" is ok, and easier to find. Basicly, *any* Clarke copyrighted
before the mid 60s will have the right "flavor", as will much of the
stuff written later.

> Back in the 50's, not as much was known about the hazards of radiation.  To
> make the "Terra: 1965" setting workable, you'd have to assume that the
> radiation hazard from fission power was a lot lower in that "universe".

Not necessarily. The big difference is that back then they were
extrapolating the figures in one way, and using a standard of
"reasonably safe". Now we project the damage from low level exposure
slightly differently (though recent studies seem to indicate that the
*old* way is closer to reality!) and the standard attempts to be
"absolutely safe".

> To make the whole setting workable, you might want to do the following (as
> changes from "standard" FF&S): double the power output of fission power
> plants, and halve the minimum sizes.  This have the overall effect of making
> fission plants smaller, lighter, and cheaper (to reflect the lower shielding
> and radiation safety-requrements in the 'low-radiation' universe).

Most nuclear designs use shadow sheilding, rather than full shielding.
This mean that you use the same thickness of sheilding, but only in
areas between the crew and the reactor. Why sheild the *sides* of the
ship, if there's nothing you can do back there anyway?

> If you want "atomic rockets" to exist, allow some type of drive to exist at
> that TL.  Maybe a modified HEPlaR, changed so that it can be used with
> fission plants, use water instead of hydrogen as reaction mass (but keep the
> same volume, or even increase it).

Nope, you use hydrogen as reaction mass, because it gives the best
specific impulse, due to the lower molecular weight. Check out the
NERVA program. That produced a workable rocket motor using a graphite
core reactor and liquid hydrogen as fuel. And the design wasn't that
different from the 50s designs for such.

You do get a most interesting "afterburner" effect in the lower
atmosphere as the superheated hydrogen gas in the exhaust reacts with
the oxygen in the air. It doesn't provide any extra thrust, but it does
make for a spectacular flame.

With a little work, you could probably make a version that could handle
things like ammonia, water, and methane. Only problem is that the
nozzle shape would have to be a compromise, and thus it wouldn't be
near as efficient as a motor designed exclusively for any one of them.
But the flexibility would be useful in the outer system.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

------------------------------

From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpgate.read.tasc.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 11:11:34 -0400
Subject: Re: The Many Faces of Canon

Steve Charlton writes:

>A small list of interesting spellings of canon from the past few months:
>
>1. canon
>2. cannon
>3. coanon
>4. conon
>5. koan
>6. Bhoutros-Bhoutros

   Well Ghali....

7. kanon

   The correct English spelling is `canon` according to my unabridged
dictionary.  Yes, I used to spell like an artillery piece, but changed several
months ago when I found the correct spelling.

Regards,

Harold



------------------------------

From: Charles Collin <charles@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 12:00:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Some Ideas (LONG) 

***SPOILER ALERT***
Eric, Jo, or anyone else who games with me should not read this message, 
it will ruin the next campaign for you. Skip over it!  The 
non-descriptive title is there on purpose so as not to 
give anything away!
*******************

Hi all.   

(Eric, I know you're reading this!  I said skip over it!  :-)

So I was staying at this hotel in St. Louis (The Adam's Mark, 
it sucks, avoid it at all costs) and had time to re-read Ringworld for the 
third or fourth time.  This inspired an idea for a slightly more 
modest ringworld concept with some new twists.  It is a sort of 
combination Ringworld and Wellworld.  

While I love Niven's books, there have always been a few things which
bothered me about the Ringworld.  One is the relative homogeneity of the
ring's environment.  Gravity and atmosphere are the same just about
everywhere (except on the "world maps" IIRC), lighting is the same, day
length is the same, and so on. So I thought:  why not make a combination
ringworld and wellworld, with all sorts of different planetary
environments included on the surface?  Here are some of my ideas on making
a more multi-environment ringworld, open to comment, correction and
criticism. 

Gravity:
	To make a ringworld with different gravity in different areas, you
simply spin the thing for .5 g rather than 1 g and increase/decrease the
pull with grav generators where needed.  .5 g is enough to hold down
molecular oxygen and nitrogen (according to AD2300, anyway) in the event
of a grav generator failure and would eliminate the dyson-sphere problem
of having people float up into the sun during a blackout :-).  This also
leads to a slower rate of spin for the ringworld and thus less stress on
its structure.  Niven's ringworld with a radius of 150 Mkm spun at about
770 miles/second to produce 1 g. Because the stresses involved are so
huge, Niven had to invent a fictional material (Scrith) as the foundation
of the ringworld.  I'm pretty sure the stresses would still be high enough
at .5 g to necessitate a "non-normal" building material, (any
engineering types want to work out a ball-park figure?) but at least it's 
less of a stretch.  Perhaps Coherent Bonded Super Dense would be enough?  
Would it help if you could make the ringworld thicker than Niven's 1 km 
figure?

Atmosphere:
	With variable gravity comes variable atmosphere.  You can have 
oxy/nitro in one place, amonnia in another, and so on.  The only 
difficulty is that atmospheres which won't hold together under .5 g are 
going to get shafted in the event of a lengthy grav generator failure.  
One might consider roofing these areas over with some sort of transparent 
material.  You'd also have to wall areas off from one another, of course.

Temperature, Lighting, Seasons and Day length:
	One way to modify these things is to have an inner ring (the
shadow ring?) that acts as a variable filter (ie., instead of Niven's
constant shadow squares).  To modify temperature for a given area of the
ringworld, increase or decrease the shadow ring's opacity over it.  If the
central star has a pretty powerful broadband emmision profile (A white
main sequence star?  A white dwarf with a really small ringworld around
it?), you could simulate many different star types by filtering out the
appropriate wavelengths.  You might want to make the ringworld with a
relatively small radius.  This would bring the surface closer to the sun,
allowing you to simulate a broader range of absolute lighting intensities
(by filtering to achieve lower values) and would make the ringworld a
slightly less ambitious engineering project (for the same amount of
material it could be thicker, it would spin slower, etc.).
	The variable filter shadow ring also allows different day lengths 
and a more gradual day/night shift.  One thing that bothers me about 
Niven's Ringworld is that it's always summer there and the sun is always at 
full noon intensity during the day.  This would raise the amount of UV 
reaching plants on the surface far above earth normal.  With the variable 
filter, you could gradually dim the sun for "sunset" and do the reverse 
for "sunrise".  The sun would still always be directly overhead, though.  
I see no way around this without moving the ring relative to the sun on a 
regular basis (a scary prospect).
	Seasons can be also be simulated by slightly dimming and
brightening the sun in appropriate cycles.
	One problem with the shadow ring concept is that a breakdown 
would spell disaster for many environments.  One thing you could do is 
have the shadow ring go to a default setting if no commands are being 
given to it and/or no power is reaching it.  The default setting would be 
optimized to give as many environments as possible as much time as 
possible to effect repairs.  So long as _someone_ on the ring has the 
tech to repair the shadow ring, everyone would be okay.
	Another option would be to roof over the ringworld and have the 
roof act in the same manner as the shadow ring.  This has the advantage 
of holding in atmosphere in the event of a grav generator failure.  Of 
course, you could have both the shadow ring and the roof idea, with one 
backing up the other.
	In terms of temperature modification, another option would be to 
have radiating fins on the outer surface of the ring under different 
areas.  A hot area would have no fins, thus retaining as much heat as 
possible, while a cold area would have large fins to get rid of excess 
heat.  One could even simulate seasons with variable geometry fins.
Niven used fins to make the oceans of his Ringworld cooler, IIRC.
	
	So basically that's the idea.  You have a ringworld with many 
thousands of different worlds simulated, a la Wellworld, and potentially 
many thousands of different races living on it.  You could even have 
some outer-world dwellers live on the outer surface of the ring (I'm 
thinking of Niven's Outsiders).  It would be a really mondo gaming 
environment.

	Well, that's it from me.  I welcome all feedback...
 
	Oh, and one more thing (How Columbo-esque!): could someone please
explain to me the spill mountains introduced in the Ringworld Engineers? 
I'm not sure I understood why they're necessary (something about the
Ringworld being unstable). 

Happy Travelling,
Charles.

<0>    "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." -Helen Keller 	 <0>
<0>     Charles Collin (charles@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca), 		 	 <0>
<0>     Psychology Department, McGill University.  		 	 <0> 
<0>     1205 Dr. Penfield, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1B1.  	 	 <0>
<0>     http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/labs/cvl/home.html 	 		 <0>



------------------------------

From: cyhiggin@usa.pipeline.com (Dragoness Eclectic)
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 17:46:27 GMT
Subject: Re: Some Ideas (LONG)

On Jul 30, 1996 12:00:21, 'Charles Collin <charles@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca>'
wrote: 
 
>	Oh, and one more thing (How Columbo-esque!): could someone please 
>explain to me the spill mountains introduced in the Ringworld Engineers?  
>I'm not sure I understood why they're necessary (something about the 
>Ringworld being unstable).  
 
The fusion ramjets mounted on the rim walls were necessary  
because the Ringworld is unstable; essentially, they're orbital  
adjustment thrusters for the Ringworld.  The problem developed  
because the City Builders dismounted so many of them for their  
STL ships... 
 
The spill mountains were part of the recirculation system for 
the oceans.  Sediment from the bottom of the big oceans was 
pumped back up to the rim walls and discharged, forming the 
spill mountains.  Otherwise, after a while, all the Ringworld 
terrain would have eroded into the oceans and stayed there... 
 
                       --Cynthia 
 
- -- 
p.s. I'm still alive. 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
Alt.gothic.CR Master-at-Arms ---NRA---- cyhiggin@usa.pipeline.com

------------------------------

From: "Harold D. Hale" <hdhale@smtpgate.read.tasc.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 15:22:35 -0400
Subject: Traveller Chronicle 10 Bonus/Preview

   Those of you who purchased Traveller Chronicle 10 may have had a
bit of trouble reading the sector map (at least without a magnifying
glass).  The problem was that the editor had to try to squeeze what was
originally suppose to be two page map on to one page.

   Those of you who have WWW access can now download a GIF
formatted copy of this map in all its original Cinemascope glory.  It is
located at:

     http://eeyore.lv-hrc.nevada.edu/~indy/traveller/solomani_rim.gif

   It *will* take a while to download, but once you've saved it to your
local computer, I think you'll find it was well worth the wait.

   Those of you who have not purchased Traveller Chronicle 10 can also
access this map as a bit of a preview.  If you like what you see, go buy
a copy of TC 10 (OK, *please* go buy a copy of TC 10).

Regards,

Harold



------------------------------

From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 96 13:53:45 -0600
Subject: Traveller 1965: Rockets

On 07/29/96 at 10:17 PM,  shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) said:

>Nope, you use hydrogen as reaction mass, because it gives the best specific
>impulse, due to the lower molecular weight. 

Sure, when you can afford it, when you can get it, when you can
handle it, when you can store it.  <g> I sort of think the
suggestion for water was to lower the cost..it certainly would lower the
thrust/weight ratio, in the real world.

>Check out the NERVA program.  That produced a workable rocket motor
>using a graphite core reactor and liquid hydrogen as fuel.  And the
>design wasn't that different from the 50s designs for such.

I seem to recall that there was another competing design that was never
built, codenamed DUMBO, that used a micro-hole layout in the core as..I
think..an energy exchanger.  The DUMBO design would have produced much higher
thrust to weight with less of radiation problem. Its problem was that nobody
had ever built anything like it, and NASA/DOD didn't want to risk it when
they *knew* NERVA would work.

>With a little work, you could probably make a version that could handle
>things like ammonia, water, and methane. Only problem is that the nozzle
>shape would have to be a compromise, and thus it wouldn't be near as
>efficient as a motor designed exclusively for any one of them. But the
>flexibility would be useful in the outer system.

I've wondered about that.  The nozzle doesn't *have* to be fixed, does it? 
Can't it be designed to conform to variable geometries? I'm fuzzy today, but
don't the MSE's already vary nozzle geometries during assent?

Eris
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------




------------------------------

From: "Craig S. Janssen" <daili@gate.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 15:24:03 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Marc Miller Interview

Interviewer Notes: 

  When I first heard that Marc Miller was getting back the rights to the
Traveller line from GDW, my first thought was great! My next thought was
maybe Mr. Miller will agree to an interview. Mr Miller was kind enough to
take time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions. I would like
to thank Mr. Miller again for his cooperation. 


Note to Listserv members:

  I know what some of you might have heard part if not all of the answers
presented here, but I thought it might be a good refresher course on
Traveller and some information on the upcoming Traveller 4 for the rest to
enjoy.


Hope you enjoy the interview,

Craig Janssen


- --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Q. You been away from the industry for quite sometime. Can you tell us
where you have been and what you have been doing? Or were you abducted by
Ancients ;-).

A. Between 1988 and 1991, I was executive vice president of Game
Designers' Workshop, Inc, which meant that I had day-to-day managerial
responsibility for the company, and I did not do large amounts of design.
I left GDW in 1991 and pursued a variety of activities: in the real world,
I sold insurance for four years, which I believe gave me valuable
experience and a grounding in non-game business operations. I work in
partnership with my wife Darlene in Heartland Publishing Services... that
company provides printing and publishing consulting services to game
companies (both established and start-up) in print and in marketing
activities. I designed several computer games and published a collectible
card game.

Q. What computer games did you design?

A. I worked on MegaTraveller, MegaTraveller II, and Twilight: 2000 (from
Paragon/Microprose) and on Challenge of the Five Realms (also Paragon/
Microprose). In each case, I was writing the basic story/scenario and then
looking over their shoulder as they programmed and implemented what I
provided. It's amazing how it changes in light of what is possible and under
time pressure.

Q. Can you tell us of your background in the gaming industry?

A. I started in gaming in 1967 in college when, as a political science
minor, I worked with political science role-playing and simulation games
at the University of Illinois. In 1972, after leaving the Army, I attended
Illinois State University, where I hooked up with Frank Chadwick, Rich
Banner, and Loren Wiseman in the establishment of SimRAD (Simulation
Research Analysis and Design), a project at the university dedicated to
producing educational simulations for classroom use. I produced a variety
of custom simulations (on politics, economics, and history) between 1972
and 1974. In 1973, the four of us also established Game Designers'
Workshop.

Q. Are you going to use ideas and rules based on Classic Traveller for
the new Traveller game? Or are you looking to overhaul the entire system?
Or start from scratch?

A. My statement on T4 has been that it will be based on Classic Traveller
in light of 20 years of role-playing experience. By that I mean, the rules
will be upgraded to include a task system, new character career types, and
other details. I have seen the final basic rules set (which is now at the
printers) which will release at GenCon (keep your fingers crossed).

Q. There have been all kinds of rumors on the direction that you will take
the new Traveller. Can you enlighten us on the direction and theme(s),
that you currently have in mind?

A. I think the proof will be in the game book at GenCon.

Q. There will be quite a few of us,that will not be at GenCon. Can you
elaborate?

A. We have reduced the broad number of character / career types a double
handfull. The new ones of note are: Agents, Scholars, and Entertainers. I
think entertainer has great potential... as a talented person, you are
travelling to the stars performing you speciality in order to survive, and
having adventures along the way.

The task system (in its latest incarnation tanks to Lester Smith) continues
our effort to make Traveller able to handle any situation.


Q. For the people not acquainted with Traveller product line, can you give
us some of the background of the game and changes it has seen?

A. The original Traveller science-fiction game rules were published in
1977 as three 5.5 by 8.5 inch books in a distinctive black cover
highlighted with a characteristic red stripe. Book 1 detailed the creation
of characters and resolution of personal combat. Book 2 dealt with
starships (including interstellar travel, starship design and
construction, and starship combat). Book 3 included a system for
describing worlds and how to adventure on them.

   This original edition (now called Classic Traveller) was envisioned as
generic or universal game system in which any situation or adventure could be
player out. Each individual referee was expected to create and administer his
or her own adventures. Its innovative rules introduced the concept of skills
for characters and detailed random generation tables for characters, animals,
and worlds.

   The game was an immediate success, filling the as yet unfilled need for
science-fiction (and more sophisticated) equivalent to the fantasy oriented
Dungeons & Dragons. For more than a year, the three black books in a box were
the only items in game system. But player response during that period
demanded additional game support in the form of additional rules, and in an
expanded, more specific background against which to play.

   For expanded rules, Game Designers' Workshop began a tradition of
issuing additional Books numbered in series with the first three.
Mercenary (Book 4; by Frank Chadwick) appeared in 1978 and detailed
military characters and operations. High Guard (Book 5) appeared in 1979
and detailed naval characters and space combat. Scouts (Book 6) appeared
in 1983 and detailed interstellar scout characters and star system and
world generation. Merchant Prince (Book 7) appeared in 1985 and detailed
merchant characters and an expanded trade and commerce system. Robots
(Book 8; by Joe Fugate and Gary Thomas) appeared in 1986 and dealt with
robots and their place in the universe.

   For a more specific background, Game Designers' Workshop began a
concerted effort to publish materials which defined the interstellar
society of the future. In more than 60 additional volumes, extensive
details of the vast Third Imperium were revealed to followers of the
Traveller game system. This milieu of the Late Imperium became the
foundation of the Traveller universe.

   At the same time players and referees wanted to publish their own
materials, and a series of licensed materials were authorized. Judges
Guild, Digest Group, and Seeker produced numbers of materials. It is
interesting to note that FASA began its existence as a Traveller licensee.

MegaTraveller:

   In 1987, the Traveller game system was revised to consolidate the
materials of the past ten years and in the process, it became a more
detailed and somewhat more complex game system. To its credit and at its
core, it introduced a task system capable of resolving a wide range of
situations.
   
   MegaTraveller also introduced violent change in the Traveller universe
by advancing the background of the game one step into the future. The new
edition introduced the Rebellion Milieu, which chronicled the assassination
of the Emperor who ruled the Third Imperium and the deterioration of the
empire into a number of competing states embroiled in rebellion and civil
war. 

Traveller: The New Era:

In 1992, Game Designers' Workshop determined that all of its role-playing
game rules systems should be consolidated under what was called the house
rules system, which was essentially the rules set for Twilight: 2000. An
extensive re-write of the game system by Dave Nilsen produced Traveller:
The New Era, which again advanced the background one step into the future:
into the increasingly chaotic aftermath of the Rebellion called the Virus
Era. Although the game won the Origins Award for best role-playing game
and has devoted followers, it also introduced another level of complexity
to the system.


------------------------------

From: John Macpherson <john35@wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 17:19:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: T4 shipping

Bruce said: 
> Just out of curiousity, did *any* of T4 get any playtesting/proofreading/
> blindtesting by any people not directly involved in the project (other than the
> starship design work we all did?) Did someone playtest the personal
> combat system or character system or skill system, for example? If every
> aspect of it has the level of confusion and problems shown by the starship
> combat system, the very-good-but-under-proofread QSDS/SSDS, the subtle
> incompatibilities between starships and small craft (like this radiator stuff)...
> We may end up buy something whose problems rival first-edition Megatraveller, 
> with a long road ahead of us to make everything work...
> 
> Just my pessimistic Cr 0.02
> 
> Bruce Macintosh

	I know that a lot of people were very excited when they heard 
that MM&co. planned on releasing T4 so soon after the demise of GDW, but 
I was not among them.  I think Traveller could have done with a period of 
reflection after the back-to-back commerical failures of MT & TNE.  I 
think that it would have been a wise investment to do some real market 
research and find out who buys RPGs and who among them might be persuaded 
to buy Traveller.  
	A lot of people have criticized TNE as being "T:2000 in space,"
but T:2000 appears to have been GDWs most successful product, so it is not
surprising that they thought that was their market.  For all that,
TNE was a very high quality product.  It combined an exciting and detailed
setting with the "sex appeal" of SAG raids, Vampires, Star Vikings, and so
on which might appeal to younger players. I personally liked the RC 
setting a great deal and thought it provided a nicely contained setting 
and atmosphere, particularly for new refs.  But TNE still was not enough 
to keep GDW afloat.
	A look at the history of GDW shows a whole series of great ideas, 
few of which were successful.  2300AD was an excellent setting and had 
some of the best hard SF background and aliens ever.  Space: 1889 was the 
most original RPG setting to come out in a decade and faced no 
competition in its niche.  Dark Conspiracy's only failing seems to have 
been that it was ahead of its time.  With the runaway popularity of the 
X-files, one can't help but wonder how such a game could possibly fail.
	And yet all these games _did_ fail.  Why?  More importantly, why
will T4 be any different?  As the above list shows, it is not enough to
have a good idea, the idea has to sell games.  By the fact that T4 is
being marketed as "Marc Miller's Traveller" and as a return to CT "updated
with 20 years of roleplaying experience," I get the impression that the
folks at Imperium Games are banking on all of us old die-hards to be the
market for yet another version of Traveller.  After all, who but a
die-hard would even know who Marc Miller is, let alone care if his name is
on the product?  I sincerely hope that the folks at Imperium Games have
this one figured out, because one way or another, there _won't_ be a T5. 

- --Muir

P.S.  This is not an attempt to ressurect the "TNE killed GDW, did not, 
did too," thread, I'm merely reflecting on the business side of our hobby.

------------------------------

From: William White <whitew@eden.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 96 17:23:26 EDT
Subject: Re: Traveller: Terra 1965 (Td V96 #288)

Shadow mentioned "nozzle shape" as a rocket motor design concern.  I was just
reading in the New York Times today about the new "aerospike" motor that's
been selected as the design for the next-generation launch vehicle prototype
the X-33.  As I understand it, the aerospike uses banks of small exhaust
ducts called something like combustors arranged along the base of an inverted
cone.  The exhaust is thus "contained" only on the side that contacts the
inverted cone.  Apparently, this design works better than a standard "bell"
nozzle, which when optimized for various altitudes and pressures don't work
as well at others.

I just mention this because I think it's interesting, and because I'm not
sure I understand it, exactly.  What are the design considerations that
affect how you build a bell nozzle, and what is this aerospike engine doing
that avoids these difficulties.  Can someone explain it so that a social
science grad student can understand it?  (note that I didn't _say_ idiot, but
maybe I didn't need to ;)).

Bill White

------------------------------

From: Steven Bonneville <bonnevil@itlabs.umn.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 16:58:21 -0500
Subject: Re: Industrial Chemicals and PCs

shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) wrote:

>Which brings up the fun of players accepting a shipment of industrial
>chemicals, or some such, without reading the fine print....
>
>For those of you who understand the notation, here's a clue....
>
>                             /\
>                            /  \
>                           /    \
>                          /   4  \
>                         /\      /\
>                        /  \    /  \
>                       /    \  /    \
>                      /   4  \/   4  \
>                      \      /\      /
>                       \    /  \    /
>                        \  /    \  /
>                         \/      \/
>                          \      /
>                           \    /
>                            \  /
>                             \/

Oh, man.  For those of you who are trying to puzzle this out, but have
probably already guessed:

The left diamond is blue.  The top diamond is red.  The right diamond is
yellow.  The bottom diamond is white.  These are found on buildings, doors,
and storage tanks to let fire-fighters, among others, know just what is 
in the area.  

As I recall, the diamonds signify health hazard, flammability hazard, and
reactivity hazard respectively.  In other words, "will exposure harm me",
"will it start on fire", and "might it react explosively".  Four indicates 
maximal hazard.  The white diamond is used for special warning symbols; 
radiation hazard, -W- "use no water", COR "corrosive", and so on.

This designates a deadly health hazard that has a very low flash point and
that's unstable enough that it might detonate if the moons are in the 
wrong phases. 

Characters who operate starships involved in trading should be able to read
this stuff -- heck, their LHyd tanks are probably marked with it or the
Imperial equivalent.  

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonnevil@cs.umn.edu>


------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #299
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