Project X - Revision history

DavidB4-bot: HTTP --> HTTPS [#1], replaced: http://www.sciencedaily.com → https://www.sciencedaily.com, http://www.usatoday.com → https://www.usatoday.com

2018-09-26T19:19:43Z

HTTP --> HTTPS [#1], replaced: http://www.sciencedaily.com → https://www.sciencedaily.com, http://www.usatoday.com → https://www.usatoday.com

DavidB4-bot: clean up & uniformity

2016-07-12T06:28:39Z

clean up & uniformity

TerryH: /* Typology */

2016-01-09T18:43:19Z

Typology

TerryH: /* The triggering */

2014-12-19T01:17:49Z

The triggering

TerryH: /* Typology */

2014-03-22T21:19:02Z

Typology

TerryH: /* Typology */

2014-03-22T21:17:10Z

Typology

TerryH at 17:52, February 18, 2012

2012-02-18T17:52:33Z

TerryH: /* Typology */

2011-08-17T12:22:04Z

Typology

TerryH: /* The demonstration */

2011-08-17T12:11:31Z

The demonstration

TerryH: /* The triggering */

2011-08-14T02:06:39Z

The triggering

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 {{spoiler}}
 == Background ==
-Project X, also known as Project Xylophone, grew out of the earlier work by [[Robert Stadler]], PhD, who became Director of the [[State Science Institute]] in 2004, shortly before the beginning of John Galt's famous strike. Robert Stadler had done pioneering work in the physics of [[sound]], and particularly in [[ultrasonic]] sound, presumably while he was Chairman of the [[Physics]] Department at the [[Patrick Henry]] University (not to be confused with the real-life [[Patrick Henry College]]). The nature of Robert Stadler's work is never explained in the narrative, but recent real-life work in acoustical science has resulted in a device capable of delivering a coherent "beam" of ultrasonic sound.<ref name=Nottingham>University of Nottingham. "A Sonic Boom In The World Of Lasers." ''ScienceDaily'' 18 June 2009. 18 June 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617123652.htm>.</ref> Perhaps Dr. Stadler had developed such a device, called a ''saser'' (an obvious play on the word ''[[laser]]''), in the hope of using it to produce what would, in the time setting of the novel, have become the first-ever automatic digital [[computer]].
+Project X, also known as Project Xylophone, grew out of the earlier work by [[Robert Stadler]], PhD, who became Director of the [[State Science Institute]] in 2004, shortly before the beginning of John Galt's famous strike. Robert Stadler had done pioneering work in the physics of [[sound]], and particularly in [[ultrasonic]] sound, presumably while he was Chairman of the [[Physics]] Department at the [[Patrick Henry]] University (not to be confused with the real-life [[Patrick Henry College]]). The nature of Robert Stadler's work is never explained in the narrative, but recent real-life work in acoustical science has resulted in a device capable of delivering a coherent "beam" of ultrasonic sound.<ref name=Nottingham>University of Nottingham. "A Sonic Boom In The World Of Lasers." ''ScienceDaily'' 18 June 2009. 18 June 2009 <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617123652.htm>.</ref> Perhaps Dr. Stadler had developed such a device, called a ''saser'' (an obvious play on the word ''[[laser]]''), in the hope of using it to produce what would, in the time setting of the novel, have become the first-ever automatic digital [[computer]].
 When Dr. Stadler came to the State Science Institute as its Director, he continued his work on sound and essentially placed all of it in the [[public domain]]. (Note that the Copyright Act of 1973 provides that the work product of any government agency is in the public domain in the United States.)
@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 No real-life investigator has ever attempted to duplicate the Xylophone or to build anything like it. However, scientists at the [[University of Nottingham]] have built a device capable of producing a beam of coherent sound in the range of terahertz (trillions of vibrations per second).<ref name=Nottingham/> The project scientists call their device a "saser," a play on [[laser]], a device for producing coherent [[light]]. The Nottingham group hopes to use their device as an instrument of harmless imaging, for [[medicine|medical]] or security purposes (i.e., anti-[[terorrism|terrorist]] screening in public venues). They also talk hopefully of using their device to produce [[computer]]s with ''very'' high-speed internal clocks. But just as lasers have always been theoretically capable of burning or cutting if the light is powerful enough, the "saser" could deliver an ultrasonic beam capable of pulverizing an object, just as a dentist's sonicator pulverizes calcium deposits on teeth or dentures.
-The most recent use of sound as a weapon occurred in the [[Iraq]] theater, where soldiers often used Long Range Acoustical Devices, or LRADs, to direct an ear-splitting sound at an unruly crowd or an approaching attacker.<ref name=lrad>"Troops in Iraq Get High-tech Noisemaker," [[Associated Press]], March 3, 2004. <http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_noise_030304,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl></ref> About a year later, a cruise ship used an LRAD-like device to repel [[pirates]].<ref name=usatoday>Pain, John, "Cruise ship attacked by pirates used sonic weapon," ''USA Today'', November 7, 2005.<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm></ref> The most recent documented use of the LRAD occurred on [[United States]] soil, in September 2009. Specifically, the police of [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] used LRADs to disperse a crowd of demonstrators at the "Group of 20 Summit." That act has provoked great controversy, charges of excessive use of force, and comparisons to the [[Gestapo]] and [[stormtroopers]] of Nazi [[Germany]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name=King>King T, "[http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october012009/lrad_hell_tk_10-1-09.php# The Criminal Behavior of G-20 Police in Pittsburgh]," Salem-News.com, 1 October 2009. Accessed 6 October 2009.</ref>
+The most recent use of sound as a weapon occurred in the [[Iraq]] theater, where soldiers often used Long Range Acoustical Devices, or LRADs, to direct an ear-splitting sound at an unruly crowd or an approaching attacker.<ref name=lrad>"Troops in Iraq Get High-tech Noisemaker," [[Associated Press]], March 3, 2004. <http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_noise_030304,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl></ref> About a year later, a cruise ship used an LRAD-like device to repel [[pirates]].<ref name=usatoday>Pain, John, "Cruise ship attacked by pirates used sonic weapon," ''USA Today'', November 7, 2005.<https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm></ref> The most recent documented use of the LRAD occurred on [[United States]] soil, in September 2009. Specifically, the police of [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] used LRADs to disperse a crowd of demonstrators at the "Group of 20 Summit." That act has provoked great controversy, charges of excessive use of force, and comparisons to the [[Gestapo]] and [[stormtroopers]] of Nazi [[Germany]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name=King>King T, "[http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october012009/lrad_hell_tk_10-1-09.php# The Criminal Behavior of G-20 Police in Pittsburgh]," Salem-News.com, 1 October 2009. Accessed 6 October 2009.</ref>
 This is not the same as using sound to pulverize an object. The worst physical hazard that the LRAD could present to an overexposed subject is permanent hearing loss. The possible psychological harm to an exposed subject might be impossible to assess or predict.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 : ''This article describes the secret [[weapon of mass destruction]] invented and described in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]], ''[[Atlas Shrugged]].'' For other uses of the phrase, see [[Project X (disambiguation)]].''
-'''Project X''' (2018-20), in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was a project of the [[State Science Institute]], completed in the last year of the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]]. It was, quite simply, a [[weapon of mass destruction]] and was intended as an instrument of totalitarian control. Instead it became the trigger for the final collapse of the socialistic society that the [[United States of America]] had then become.
+'''Project X''' (2018–20), in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was a project of the [[State Science Institute]], completed in the last year of the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]]. It was, quite simply, a [[weapon of mass destruction]] and was intended as an instrument of totalitarian control. Instead it became the trigger for the final collapse of the socialistic society that the [[United States of America]] had then become.
 Project X also was a [[Literary type#Allegorical types|type]] of the perversion of science by unscrupulous and power-hungry government authorities, and was also a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the use of taxpayer's money to fund scientific research.
@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 No real-life investigator has ever attempted to duplicate the Xylophone or to build anything like it. However, scientists at the [[University of Nottingham]] have built a device capable of producing a beam of coherent sound in the range of terahertz (trillions of vibrations per second).<ref name=Nottingham/> The project scientists call their device a "saser," a play on [[laser]], a device for producing coherent [[light]]. The Nottingham group hopes to use their device as an instrument of harmless imaging, for [[medicine|medical]] or security purposes (i.e., anti-[[terorrism|terrorist]] screening in public venues). They also talk hopefully of using their device to produce [[computer]]s with ''very'' high-speed internal clocks. But just as lasers have always been theoretically capable of burning or cutting if the light is powerful enough, the "saser" could deliver an ultrasonic beam capable of pulverizing an object, just as a dentist's sonicator pulverizes calcium deposits on teeth or dentures.
-The most recent use of sound as a weapon occurred in the [[Iraq]] theater, where soldiers often used Long Range Acoustical Devices, or LRADs, to direct an ear-splitting sound at an unruly crowd or an approaching attacker.<ref name=lrad>"Troops in Iraq Get High-tech Noisemaker," [[Associated Press]], March 3, 2004. <http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_noise_030304,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl></ref> About a year later, a cruise ship used an LRAD-like device to repel [[pirates]].<ref name=usatoday>Pain, John, "Cruise ship attacked by pirates used sonic weapon," ''USA Today'', November 7, 2005.<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm></ref> The most recent documented use of the LRAD occurred on [[United States]] soil, in September of 2009. Specifically, the police of [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] used LRADs to disperse a crowd of demonstrators at the "Group of 20 Summit." That act has provoked great controversy, charges of excessive use of force, and comparisons to the [[Gestapo]] and [[stormtroopers]] of Nazi [[Germany]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name=King>King T, "[http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october012009/lrad_hell_tk_10-1-09.php# The Criminal Behavior of G-20 Police in Pittsburgh]," Salem-News.com, 1 October 2009. Accessed 6 October 2009.</ref>
+The most recent use of sound as a weapon occurred in the [[Iraq]] theater, where soldiers often used Long Range Acoustical Devices, or LRADs, to direct an ear-splitting sound at an unruly crowd or an approaching attacker.<ref name=lrad>"Troops in Iraq Get High-tech Noisemaker," [[Associated Press]], March 3, 2004. <http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_noise_030304,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl></ref> About a year later, a cruise ship used an LRAD-like device to repel [[pirates]].<ref name=usatoday>Pain, John, "Cruise ship attacked by pirates used sonic weapon," ''USA Today'', November 7, 2005.<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-07-cruise-blast_x.htm></ref> The most recent documented use of the LRAD occurred on [[United States]] soil, in September 2009. Specifically, the police of [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] used LRADs to disperse a crowd of demonstrators at the "Group of 20 Summit." That act has provoked great controversy, charges of excessive use of force, and comparisons to the [[Gestapo]] and [[stormtroopers]] of Nazi [[Germany]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name=King>King T, "[http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october012009/lrad_hell_tk_10-1-09.php# The Criminal Behavior of G-20 Police in Pittsburgh]," Salem-News.com, 1 October 2009. Accessed 6 October 2009.</ref>
 This is not the same as using sound to pulverize an object. The worst physical hazard that the LRAD could present to an overexposed subject is permanent hearing loss. The possible psychological harm to an exposed subject might be impossible to assess or predict.

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 [[Ayn Rand]] did not believe that the government had any business funding scientific research, basic or applied. She used her Project X account partly as a plot device to explain the destruction of a key bridge, but primarily to express her fear that government-funded research will always lend itself to the construction of instruments of tyranny, and was therefore something to be strictly forbidden in a sound society.
-Indeed, [[John Galt]] weighs in on this very subject:{{cquote|[T]he damned and the guiltiest among you are the men who ''had'' the capacity to know, yet chose to blank out reality, the men who were willing to sell their intelligence into cynical servitude to force: the contemptible breed of those mystics of science who profess a devotion to some sort of "pure knowledge"&mdash;the purity consisting of their claim that such knowledge has no practical purpuse on this earth&mdash;who reserve their logic for inanimate matter, but believe that the subject of dealing with men requires and deserves no rationality, who scorn money and sell their souls in exchange for a laboratory supplied by loot. And since there is no such thing as "non-practical knowledge" or any sort of "disinterested" action, since they scorn the use of their science for the purpose and profit of life, they deliver their science to the service of death, to the only practical purpose it can ever have for looters: to inventing weapons of coercion and destruction. They, the intellects who seek escape from moral values, ''they'' are the damned on this earth, ''theirs'' is the guilt beyond forgiveness.}}
+Indeed, [[John Galt]] weighs in on this very subject:{{cquote|[T]he damned and the guiltiest among you are the men who ''had'' the capacity to know, yet chose to blank out reality, the men who were willing to sell their intelligence into cynical servitude to force: the contemptible breed of those mystics of science who profess a devotion to some sort of "pure knowledge"&mdash;the purity consisting of their claim that such knowledge has no practical purpose on this earth&mdash;who reserve their logic for inanimate matter, but believe that the subject of dealing with men requires and deserves no rationality, who scorn money and sell their souls in exchange for a laboratory supplied by loot. And since there is no such thing as "non-practical knowledge" or any sort of "disinterested" action, since they scorn the use of their science for the purpose and profit of life, they deliver their science to the service of death, to the only practical purpose it can ever have for looters: to inventing weapons of coercion and destruction. They, the intellects who seek escape from moral values, ''they'' are the damned on this earth, ''theirs'' is the guilt beyond forgiveness.}}
 Nor was Miss Rand the only author to express such a fear. The motion picture ''Atlantis'' includes a short dialogue in which a character who invented a wide-area space-heating device saw that device re-engineered to be a weapon, a result that he found not merely distasteful but despicable.

@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 == The triggering ==
-On February 22, 2019, [[John Galt]] was arrested. The government held Galt in the [[penthouse]] of the Wayne-Falkland Hotel for about a week while they attempted to persuade him to take the post of "Economic Dictator" of the country. They then attempted to force Galt to participate in a [[radio]]-[[television]] simulcast program to announce a new "plan for peace and prosperity" with his name on it. Instead of cooperating, Galt showed the entire country that someone was aiming a gun at him, and then said, "Get...out of my way."
+On February 22, 2020, [[John Galt]] was arrested. The government held Galt in the [[penthouse]] of the Wayne-Falkland Hotel for about a week while they attempted to persuade him to take the post of "Economic Dictator" of the country. They then attempted to force Galt to participate in a [[radio]]-[[television]] simulcast program to announce a new "plan for peace and prosperity" with his name on it. Instead of cooperating, Galt showed the entire country that someone was aiming a gun at him, and then said, "Get...out of my way."
 Robert Stadler did not remain in New York to watch that program. Instead, after a humiliating scene with Galt (at Galt's demand), he drove directly to Harmony City, intending to seize control of the Xylophone and rule the area of its influence as his private feudal domain.

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 [[Ayn Rand]] did not believe that the government had any business funding scientific research, basic or applied. She used her Project X account partly as a plot device to explain the destruction of a key bridge, but primarily to express her fear that government-funded research will always lend itself to the construction of instruments of tyranny, and was therefore something to be strictly forbidden in a sound society.
-Indeed, [[John Galt]] weighs in on this very subject:{{cquote|[T]he damned and the guiltiest among you are the men who ''had'' the capacity to know, yet chose to blank out reality, the men who were willing to sell their intelligence into cynical servitude to force: the contemptible breed of those mystics of science who profess a devotion to some sort of "pure knowledge"&mdash;the purity consisting of their claim that such knowledge has no practical purpuse on this earth&mdash;who reserve their logic for inanimate matter, but believe that the subject of dealing with men requires and deserves no rationality, who scorn money and sell their souls in exchange for a laboratory supplied by loot. And since there is no such thing as "non-practical knowledge" or any sort of "disinterested" action, since they scorn the use of their science for the purpose and profit of life, they deliver their science to the service of death, to the only practical purpuse it can ever have for looters: to inventing weapons of coercion and desstruction. They, the intellects who seek escape from moral values, ''they'' are the damned on this earth, ''theirs'' is the guilt beyond forgiveness.}}
+Indeed, [[John Galt]] weighs in on this very subject:{{cquote|[T]he damned and the guiltiest among you are the men who ''had'' the capacity to know, yet chose to blank out reality, the men who were willing to sell their intelligence into cynical servitude to force: the contemptible breed of those mystics of science who profess a devotion to some sort of "pure knowledge"&mdash;the purity consisting of their claim that such knowledge has no practical purpuse on this earth&mdash;who reserve their logic for inanimate matter, but believe that the subject of dealing with men requires and deserves no rationality, who scorn money and sell their souls in exchange for a laboratory supplied by loot. And since there is no such thing as "non-practical knowledge" or any sort of "disinterested" action, since they scorn the use of their science for the purpose and profit of life, they deliver their science to the service of death, to the only practical purpose it can ever have for looters: to inventing weapons of coercion and destruction. They, the intellects who seek escape from moral values, ''they'' are the damned on this earth, ''theirs'' is the guilt beyond forgiveness.}}
 Nor was Miss Rand the only author to express such a fear. The motion picture ''Atlantis'' includes a short dialogue in which a character who invented a wide-area space-heating device saw that device re-engineered to be a weapon, a result that he found not merely distasteful but despicable.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 : ''This article describes the secret [[weapon of mass destruction]] invented and described in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]], ''[[Atlas Shrugged]].'' For other uses of the phrase, see [[Project X (disambiguation)]].''
-'''Project X''', in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was a project of the [[State Science Institute]], completed in the last year of the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]]. It was, quite simply, a [[weapon of mass destruction]] and was intended as an instrument of totalitarian control. Instead it became the trigger for the final collapse of the socialistic society that the [[United States of America]] had then become.
+'''Project X''' (2018-20), in [[Ayn Rand]]'s [[novel]] ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', was a project of the [[State Science Institute]], completed in the last year of the [[strike]] of the men of the mind called by [[John Galt]]. It was, quite simply, a [[weapon of mass destruction]] and was intended as an instrument of totalitarian control. Instead it became the trigger for the final collapse of the socialistic society that the [[United States of America]] had then become.
 Project X also was a [[Literary type#Allegorical types|type]] of the perversion of science by unscrupulous and power-hungry government authorities, and was also a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the use of taxpayer's money to fund scientific research.
@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 {{spoiler}}
 == Background ==
-Project X, also known as Project Xylophone, grew out of the earlier work by [[Robert Stadler]], PhD, who became Director of the [[State Science Institute]] shortly before the beginning of John Galt's famous strike. (The probable year of the strike call was 1945, as shown [[Atlas Shrugged#Time setting|here]].) Robert Stadler had done pioneering work in the physics of [[sound]], and particularly in [[ultrasonic]] sound, presumably while he was Chairman of the [[Physics]] Department at the [[Patrick Henry]] University (not to be confused with the real-life [[Patrick Henry College]]). The nature of Robert Stadler's work is never explained in the narrative, but recent real-life work in acoustical science has resulted in a device capable of delivering a coherent "beam" of ultrasonic sound.<ref name=Nottingham>University of Nottingham. "A Sonic Boom In The World Of Lasers." ''ScienceDaily'' 18 June 2009. 18 June 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617123652.htm>.</ref> Perhaps Dr. Stadler had developed such a device, called a ''saser'' (an obvious play on the word ''[[laser]]''), in the hope of using it to produce what would, in the time setting of the novel, have become the first-ever automatic digital [[computer]].
+Project X, also known as Project Xylophone, grew out of the earlier work by [[Robert Stadler]], PhD, who became Director of the [[State Science Institute]] in 2004, shortly before the beginning of John Galt's famous strike. Robert Stadler had done pioneering work in the physics of [[sound]], and particularly in [[ultrasonic]] sound, presumably while he was Chairman of the [[Physics]] Department at the [[Patrick Henry]] University (not to be confused with the real-life [[Patrick Henry College]]). The nature of Robert Stadler's work is never explained in the narrative, but recent real-life work in acoustical science has resulted in a device capable of delivering a coherent "beam" of ultrasonic sound.<ref name=Nottingham>University of Nottingham. "A Sonic Boom In The World Of Lasers." ''ScienceDaily'' 18 June 2009. 18 June 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090617123652.htm>.</ref> Perhaps Dr. Stadler had developed such a device, called a ''saser'' (an obvious play on the word ''[[laser]]''), in the hope of using it to produce what would, in the time setting of the novel, have become the first-ever automatic digital [[computer]].
 When Dr. Stadler came to the State Science Institute as its Director, he continued his work on sound and essentially placed all of it in the [[public domain]]. (Note that the Copyright Act of 1973 provides that the work product of any government agency is in the public domain in the United States.)
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 * [[Rock Island]], [[Illinois]]
-The center of this region lies in or near the town of Dunkerton, Iowa, slightly north of east of Waterloo, Iowa. [[Mr. Thompson]] gave the name Harmony City to the project campus and the lands surrounding it.
+The center of this region lies in or near the town of Dunkertown, Iowa, slightly north of east of Waterloo, Iowa. [[Mr. Thompson]] gave the name Harmony City to the project campus and the lands surrounding it.
-In the last year of the strike (probably 1957), the Xylophone was completed. That the instrument had no greater range than a hundred miles was due entirely to the refusal by [[Henry Rearden]] to fulfil a peremptory order for Rearden Metal to use to build the Xylophone. The builders presumably had to use ordinary [[steel]], supplied by the Associated Steel Company, owned by Orren Boyle. This fact might also have caused a crucial delay in the building of the project, because Associated Steel was notoriously unreliable in the fulfillment of its orders.
+In the last year of the strike (2019), the Xylophone was completed. That the instrument had no greater range than a hundred miles was due entirely to the refusal by [[Henry Rearden]] to fulfill a peremptory order for Rearden Metal to use to build the Xylophone. The builders presumably had to use ordinary [[steel]], supplied by the Associated Steel Company, owned by Orren Boyle. This fact might also have caused a crucial delay in the building of the project, because Associated Steel was notoriously unreliable in the fulfillment of its orders.
 == The demonstration ==
-In July of the last year of the strike, the State Science Institute held a public demonstration of the instrument that they now named the Thompson Harmonizer (named for the character identified only as [[Mr. Thompson]], the last [[President of the United States]] in the novel). In that demonstration, a tethered goat, a wooden shack, and a mocked-up railroad trestle were all flattened within seconds.
+On June 29, 2019, the State Science Institute held a public demonstration of the instrument that they now named the Thompson Harmonizer (named for the character identified only as [[Mr. Thompson]], the Head of State). In that demonstration, a tethered goat, a wooden shack, and a mocked-up railroad trestle were all flattened within seconds.
 Robert Stadler attended the demonstration, and, as incredible as this might seem, had no idea even of what Project X was, much less the destruction of which it was capable, prior to the actual demonstration. After it was done, Dr. Stadler asked Dr. Ferris, "Who invented that ghastly thing?" Ferris, unperturbed, credited Stadler himself, and reminded Stadler that his own work on sonic physics was at the heart of the design of the Xylophone.
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 == The triggering ==
-On February 22, 1958, [[John Galt]] was arrested. The government held Galt in the [[penthouse]] of the Wayne-Falkland Hotel for about a week while they attempted to persuade him to take the post of "Economic Dictator" of the country. They then attempted to force Galt to participate in a [[radio]]-[[television]] simulcast program to announce a new "plan for peace and prosperity" with his name on it. Instead of cooperating, Galt showed the entire country that someone was aiming a gun at him, and then said, "Get...out of my way."
+On February 22, 2019, [[John Galt]] was arrested. The government held Galt in the [[penthouse]] of the Wayne-Falkland Hotel for about a week while they attempted to persuade him to take the post of "Economic Dictator" of the country. They then attempted to force Galt to participate in a [[radio]]-[[television]] simulcast program to announce a new "plan for peace and prosperity" with his name on it. Instead of cooperating, Galt showed the entire country that someone was aiming a gun at him, and then said, "Get...out of my way."
 Robert Stadler did not remain in New York to watch that program. Instead, after a humiliating scene with Galt (at Galt's demand), he drove directly to Harmony City, intending to seize control of the Xylophone and rule the area of its influence as his private feudal domain.
@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 But when he arrived, he found the Project site already occupied by a gang of thugs, led by [[Cuffy Meigs]], who was probably the most militant, and the most corrupt, of all the [[Washington, DC]] insiders. Meigs boasted that he, as the leader of the "Friends of the People," was now in charge, and that he and his men could care for the Xylophone without help. Stadler, incredulous, struggled with Meigs, on the level of physical violence, for control of the Xylophone. In the process, Meigs pulled one of its levers.
-This one lever pull triggered the Xylophone at full gain. The result was the utter destruction of the Project site and the flattening of every house and every building within the Xylophone's range. The most crucial object that was destroyed was the [[Taggart Bridge]], a [[railroad]] bridge over the [[Mississippi River]]. The western half of the bridge, and the first six cars of a freight train that was crossing it at the time, all disappeared.
+This one lever pull triggered the Xylophone at full gain. The result was the utter destruction of the Project site and the flattening of every house and every building within the Xylophone's range. The most crucial object that was destroyed was the [[Taggart Bridge]], a [[railroad]] bridge over the [[Mississippi River]]. The western half of the bridge, and the first six cars of a passenger train that was crossing it at the time, all disappeared.
 The narrative states that Robert Stadler died slowly and in agony on the Project site, and was the last man to die.

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:11, August 17, 2011
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	Then, before Stadler could protest further, Ferris handed him a prepared speech to deliver. This speech began with this absurd claim:{{cquote\|I am proud that my years of work in the service of science have brought me the honor of placing into the hands of our great leader, Mr. Thompson, a new instrument with an incalculable potential for a civilizing and liberating influence upon the mind of man.}}		Then, before Stadler could protest further, Ferris handed him a prepared speech to deliver. This speech began with this absurd claim:{{cquote\|I am proud that my years of work in the service of science have brought me the honor of placing into the hands of our great leader, Mr. Thompson, a new instrument with an incalculable potential for a civilizing and liberating influence upon the mind of man.}}
		+
		+	Floyd Ferris told Stadler, on that occasion, that the government planned to build more Thompson Harmonizers within Megalopolis USA and within 100 miles of every large city, to keep the people in line. But the economy literally could not support the building of ''any'' other Xylophone. So the one Xylophone in Dunkertown, Iowa, now known as Harmony City, would remain the only one. And in less than a year and a month, a struggle for control would destroy it and the entire region under its influence.

	== The triggering ==		== The triggering ==