#the engineer's thumb

[pop-goes-the-weasel]

Sidney Paget: It is of utmost importance that I show Holmes tend to his client

(Link provided along with image)

[skyriderwednesday]

"...because I'm going to kill you once I'm finished with you, and I don't want anyone to come looking for you."

Also, weird phrasing. 'Human being'.

[amypihcs]

And from today's letter from Watson!

Well, Mary apparently exist again, but Watson's always there for a case!

Look at the Man, procuring his BF a case!

And then this is how we find our favourite consulting detective!

... Man... My man, Holmes. How much do you smoke, exactly, my dear? I pity the man's lungs.

But look how happy is he to have a case! And ti have Watson bringing him a case!

(plus i love the image of him just there sprawled reaidng the Times in his dressing gown, i can picture Brett!Holmes doing that)

And then... Then Watson's in his Watson place!

In HIS armchair opposite to Holmes!

-polyadenylase-

I love this case so far!

[teaspoonnebula]

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet: Holmes is contacted by a banker who has been entrusted with a beryl coronet as collateral for a loan. The banker found his son trying to bend the broken coronet. Holmes deduces that the coronet was actually broken by the banker's niece and the son's friend who sold the beryls. The son let his father think he had broken the coronet to cover for his cousin (the banker's niece).

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: Watson brings an engineer to Holmes. The engineer was offered a handsome payment for fixing a hydraulic press in the country. While fixing it, he realized that it was not being used for its stated purpose, at which point his employer attempted to kill him with the hydraulic press, then, having failed that, cut off his thumb with a cleaver. Holmes deduces that the employer was a forger using the press to mint half-crowns.

[mariana-oconnor]

The Engineer's Thumb pt 2

Our last entry was particularly gory and followed the lines of 'creepy person offers struggling worker job with pay they cannot afford to refuse and may secretly be a vampire cult leader'.

OK, so I added that last part, that's new, but the skeletal man offering our eponymous Engineer his job had a very undead aesthetic going on, so I'm keeping it.

I'm still not convinced that Mr Hatherley could have survived the trauma and blood loss he experienced long enough to get to Watson, but I was struck the other night, as I was going to bed, by the peculiar thought of what the other passengers on that train must have thought.

In Victorian times, they did still have compartments, so it's possible no one saw him. But in the modern day when you're all stacked in like sardines and he would have been on the commuter train... You're just sitting there, minding your own business, listening to a podcast and trying to ignore the very loud conversation from the two women behind you about how her cousin stole the family dog, entered it in a dog show and accidentally uncovered a drug smuggling ring, then ran off to Ibiza with her mistress -- but not trying too hard because honestly it's more interesting than the podcast, kind of. Anyway, you're minding your own business and you smell... blood.

And there's this guy sitting opposite you looking very pale and kind of sweaty and you've been avoiding making eye contact because he's sort of twitchy and you never make eye contact on British public transport, so instead you look at his hands and... is that a twig? And... a blood stained bandage and... is it just you or does his hand look a weird shape. You should stop staring. Maybe he's just tucking his thumb into his pal- no. No, he doesn't have a thumb. And that's blood and... and he's just sitting on the train with no thumb and fresh blood.

Would it be rude to ask?

It would probably be rude to ask. Like, he probably knows he's missing a thumb and you don't have any medical training and it's none of your business, is it? You should stop staring.

Yeah... honestly not the most disturbing thing I've come across on public transport, but it would be quite the morning.

On to today's email, though.

"Colonel Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve."

Either one of you is about as good at estimating distances as I am, or he's taking the long way round so Mr Hatherley can't find his way back.

"I was aware, more than once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me with great intensity."

This is giving very 'I want to steal your skin and wear you as a suit' energy, or is it just me.

"I tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we were, but they were made of frosted glass"

Was not aware that frosted glass windows were a thing at this point in time. I guess it makes sense as all you really need to do is scratch the surface of the glass a lot, but still. That's interesting.

It's also total overkill. You must come at night, we will take you down the windiest route possible to discombobulate you and we will have frosted windows so you cannot see out and no one can see you inside.

Frosted windows also don't provide any reflections on their frosted side. Not that Colonel Stark is a vampire, of course. I'm not even convinced he's a Colonel.

"We stepped, as it were, right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house."

If you look at it the right way, all these precautions are actually kind of reassuring. If you're planning to kill someone, you don't really care if they know where you're doing it. They probably intended to let Mr Hatherley go.

Always look on the bright side of shady nighttime business deals and potential kidnapping attempts.

"I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell from her hand."

And now we're getting some Greek Interpreter shit going on, which explains why I always get those two titles mixed up in my head.

"It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise everything was deadly still."

Sounds like hell.

"She held up one shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. “‘I would go,’ said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to speak calmly; ‘I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good for you to do.’"

Well, I'd be out of there. Honestly, I'd probably be frozen in fright and too scared to try to leave, but I'd want to be out of there. This is about as obvious a red flag as you can get. And she tries 3 times to tell Mr Hatherley to go and he refuses. Trying very hard not to victim blame, but after a certain point of ignoring direct, clear warnings to your life, you have to take some responsibility.

“But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way."

...Victor... Victor, Victor. Are you saying that you stayed in the creepy house with the creepy cult-leader not-at-all-undead Colonel because you were feeling contrary?

"I thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing?"

You were feeling contrary and the sunk cost fallacy, got it.

"This woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac."

"She listened for an instant, threw up her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as she had come."

Girl, same!

"a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin"

omg, is there actually a type of beard called a chinchilla beard? Is it fluffy?

The only thing google is giving me is this exact quote and an urban dictionary link, which probably isn't relevant to a 19th century text unless ACD was a time traveller.

So basically he's got a chinchilla tail coming out of his chin? That's how I'm choosing to see it anyway.

“‘I had better put my hat on, I suppose.’ “‘Oh, no, it is in the house.’ “‘What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?’ “‘No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that."

"There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches."

And this is where he lost his thumb? Yeah, no way he's not infected. He's have flu-like symptoms within the hour. Nothing worse than flu-like symptoms. I'm surprised that he didn't get sepsis just from walking through the place. Perhaps the lady is a 'monomaniac' from all the mould spores she's been inhaling. That shit can't be healthy.

“‘We are now,’ said he, ‘actually within the hydraulic press, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal floor."'

Hello foreshadowing... postshadowing? Technically this is all a flashback and we know Victor loses his thumb, so I don't know what we call this? A not-so veiled threat?

I'm the opposite of claustrophobic, but there's no way I'm standing in that room.

Is someone going to turn this on intentionally, or is the real villain the OSHA violations we ignored along the way?

"It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth was the merest fabrication..."

“I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as that which he had told me. ‘I was admiring your fuller's-earth,’ said I; ‘I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.’"

Victor here is standing in the death chamber in front of the murder man saying 'kill me now, please'. Guy has the survival instincts of a giant panda, I swear.

‘Hullo!’ I yelled. ‘Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!’

I'm interested in whether Victor actually thought this would work. His survival instincts have clearly finally kicked in, but they are still sleepy. I get there's not much else he could do, but the man just locked him in the death chamber and flipped the squishing switch, I don't think 'Hullo' is really going to make much of an impact. But if it makes you feel better about this totally avoidable circumstance, Mr Hatherley, then sure. 'Hullo' away.

"Then it flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black shadow wavering down upon me?"

Well that's... a thought process. Totally horrifying. 10/10 for shudder inducing.

Mr Hatherley is clearly a very practical man, but at the same time lacks any common sense whatsoever.

"It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly rejected."

This woman is the most patient person ever, and she doesn't even have a name at this point - unless I missed it.

"I clambered out upon the sill, but I hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance."

Very heroic. Very dumb. Woman's got at least ten times the brains you have and she's survived this long. Admittedly her problem is entirely your fault, but she's risking her life to get you the fuck out. So...get the fuck out.

“‘Fritz! Fritz!’ she cried in English, ‘remember your promise after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be silent! Oh, he will be silent!’"

The German guy is called Fritz? How unexpected.

And apparently he's a serial person squisher, so that's a thing.

“‘You are mad, Elise!’ he shouted, struggling to break away from her. ‘You will be the ruin of us.'"

Elise, nice to properly meet you. You are the MVP of this story, although you are probably also involved in the criminal undertakings. Sorry Victor was such an idiot. You tried.

"I endeavoured to tie my handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the rose-bushes."

Oh, and his open, bleeding wound fell into the dirt. He is so infected. Victor Hatherley is a dead man walking. No way he survives this.

I've found a paper that states in the 1850s the mortality rate for medical amputations was 45%, with the main cause of death being sepsis. This story is a little later on, not a major limb and, honestly, probably cleaner than a medical amputation at the time (from what I know, Victorian era surgeons weren't big fans of cleaning their equipment or themselves between patients) but even if he doesn't die, that wound is not clean and there's been no cauterisation of the wound and surgeons were at least quick.

"But to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house nor garden were to be seen."

Ghost house! Spooky! I don't think I ever realised before how much ACD leant into the influence of Gothic literature in his works. But he's pulling out all the old favourites.

"I had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night."

And we have the answer of why the horse wasn't tired when he arrived at the station - because it had only come from next door - and why so much secrecy in preventing him from seeing where he was going - because he was only going next door.

"The same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him."

You literally know that's a fake name. His name is Fritz. Of course the porter hasn't heard of Colonel Fakename McPseudonym. He probably has a totally different identity he uses locally.

"There was one about three miles off." “It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the police."

3 miles is too far, but he can totally wait for a train and sit on it, then walk when he's in London. I mean, Victor, you have no thumb, that's pretty good evidence that you need assistance, I'm sure someone would fetch a police officer for you. I'm surprised they haven't already. How many city folk do they get turning up at stupid o'clock in the morning covered in blood and clearly very confused?

You know... I heard that as I was typing it and you're right. That probably is just an average Tuesday. Victorian equivalent of a stag do. Is it really a party if someone doesn't lose a thumb?

"I put the case into your hands and shall do exactly what you advise.”

I personally advise an immediate course of broad spectrum antibiotics, but given that they won't be discovered until the next century, I guess you're shit out of luck. Dip the whole hand in brandy and hope for the best.

Brandy! It cures everything! Unless you die!

I still don't know what Fritz and the chinchilla are up to. Seems like maybe it isn't a land-selling scam after all. But apparently he has been murdering random people, so that's concerning. The problem comes down to the fact I don't really know what hydraulic presses would be used for? Making coins? Is this a forgery business? That lines up with the 'crust of metallic deposit' Victor found in it.

So I'm going to go with that for now, coin forgery. Though why they are German, I don't know. Maybe just because it would add to the Gothic horror vibes if they had accents. Maybe they're working specifically to destabilise the British economy. Or maybe it's not related at all.

[ofbakerst]

look what I just found tucked into this 1975 facsimile edition of the 1892 adventures

[stephensmithuk]

The Engineer's Thumb

This is our penultimate story from Adventures, with just "The Beryl Coronet" to go.

Holmes doesn't really do much here. He makes one deduction and by the time he gets to the scene, the criminals have fled and don't even get in a shipwreck.

It wouldn't be something Watson would deal with, but injuries and deaths among railway workers were very common at this time; plenty of potential for it in a busy station like Paddington. Public pressure eventually forced action on safety, but not until 1913.

"3d" was a common abbreviation for 3rd.

"Agony column" at the time referred to a section of a paper containing personal advertisements, such as requests for help in finding a missing person. It only later became something where people sort relationship advice.

While there is an Eyford in Gloucestershire, there is none in the former county of Berkshire, which ceased to exist as an adminstrative body in 1998, being replaced by six unitary authorities. Twyford has been suggested as the real location but does not match the later description.

Reading is a large town about 40 miles from London; it can today be reached by train from Paddington in under half an hour, or by a slower ride on the Elizabeth Line. It contains a Victorian replica of the Bayeux Tapestry in the local museum.

Among the uses of fuller's earth was in the film industry to simulate dust and grime, especially in explosions as it's considered safer to cover the actors with. However, concerns about toxicity have led to artificial alternatives like FX Dirt entering the market.

Reading had two stations in remarkably close proximity to each other. The Great Western Railway one linked to Paddington and a terminus built by the South Eastern Railway to the southeast, intended for through services to the Channel ports and services to London Waterloo, which were electrified under Southern Railway ownership on 1 January 1939. Reading Southern as it became known in 1949 was closed to passengers in 1965 with all services diverted into the now-Reading General, which just became Reading in 1974. The old Southern station was demolished, becomng the car park and part of Reading's 1989-built concourse sits on the old western end of it.

India-rubber is another name for latex i.e. the stuff that comes from trees. Synthetic rubber was not created until 1909 and mass production did not begin until the Second World War, when the Japanese seizing the key rubber-producing areas made it a strategic necessity.

Coin counterfeiting continues to this day - the change in Britain to a bi-metallic one pound in 2017 was because over 3% of them in circulation were fake.

Victorian fire engines were much smaller than today's ones, due to limits on the available horsepower. That is because horses pulled them.

[i-dont-talk-for-days-on-end]

I was doing the dishes and suddenly thought: Wow, haha, I think I dreamed about Sherlock Holmes, and it was a really weird case!

Then I realised: I simply remembered the plot of the Engineer's Thumb.

[no-side-us]

Letters From Watson Liveblog - May 17

The Engineer's Thumb, Part 1 of 3

The Naval Treaty would also count here, but although we read it before this story it was actually published a year later. I guess if I wanted to create a Watsonian reason for the discrepancy, maybe because Phelps asked for Holmes' help, Watson considered himself less the introducer and more a facilitator of the case.

Now this is a nice change from the last mention of Watson's life after leaving Baker Street in The Stockbroker's Clerk:

I imagine The Stockbroker's Clerk case was the impetus for Holmes and Watson seeing each other more often as is seemingly the norm in this story and the cases right before this one.

With Dracula Daily going on right now, seeing this young man with the pale complexion and bloodstained handkerchief, I can't help but see a possible vampire victim in the same vein (heh) as Jonathan Harker, especially with how polite and apologetic he is despite having been through such a severe situation.

Mary cameo! Once more she is not named, but it's enough for me to at least put her in the tags.

Mr. Hatherley was just a young man, an orphan no less, starting out in his new career after having recently lost his father. There are more Jonathan parallels here than I expected.

He then meets an older, foreign man who, despite having such emaciated features, is still quite youthful in manner! He's called Colonel Lysander Stark! That even sounds like a pastiche on Count Vlad Dracula, with the honorific and everything.

So someone recommended young Hatherley to the Colonel, with the information that Hatherley was talented, an orphan, a bachelor, living alone, and also capable of keeping a secret. It'd have to be someone quite familiar with Hatherley, perhaps someone who's worked with him, or maybe even over him, like a former boss!

The parallel I'm talking about is to Mr. Hawkins and his letter to the Count, in case I made it too vague:

He is a young man, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition. He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my service. He shall be ready to attend on you when you will during his stay, and shall take your instructions in all matters.

The Count never did this, but I can also very much see the Count doing this. As we know, he does like to dart around quickly when he thinks nobody is looking.

I feel like this line speaks for itself in how easily applicable it could be to the Count, or any number of vampiric scenarios.

The Colonel wants Hatherley to work in the middle of the night, which would result in Hatherley having to stay the night.

And Hatherley can't refuse because he needs the money and has his career to think about.

The Engineer's Thumb was published in 1892 by the way, five years before Dracula, so this is all likely a coincidence or just some common motifs of the era. Won't stop me from seeing the parallels though.

A passage from when Jonathan Harker first meets the Count:

The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice—more like the hand of a dead than a living man.

Just one chestnut horse? No quartet of coal-black splendid beasts? I guess not every vampire has the resources to complete the aesthetic.

And I am going to assume the Colonel is a vampire, even if the next two letters contradict it. But based on this letter so far, I think I'll just get more evidence if anything.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

[tachvintlogic]

‘We are now,’ said he, ‘actually within the hydraulic press, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal floor.’

Dude, you mean to tell me you built a hydraulic press big enough for multiple people to fit inside without your neighbors noticing? And you're worried that being visited by one guy will cause enough suspicion to ruin your operation? I call bullshit.

[dathen]

WHY does “Colonel Lysander Stark” sound so familiar to me. Yes I read this story when I was little, but I didn’t enjoy it (too squicked by injury descriptions) and I am NOT that good at noticing or remembering names. Why does it feel like I’ve come across this name plenty of times elsewhere.

[skyriderwednesday]

Sherlock 'Scrapbook' Holmes to the rescue!

Oh dear, poor Jeremiah Hayling, squished in a hydraulic press...

[amypihcs]

Ah Bradstreet, my man. You know Holmes, don't you?

Well, if you think he can't say you're all wrong even if yoh named all of the cardinal points, you don't know him enough.

This exchange is PURE GOLD

[teaspoonnebula]

The Engineer's Thumb Part 1 Thoughts

I had returned to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us.

I like that this specifies Holmes sometimes consents to a social call on the Watsons. We found out in the Reigate Squires how averse he is to having to deal with all the social rules which come into play when wives are involved.

“Not at all. Drink this.” I dashed some brandy into the water, and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.

Brandy really is Watson's cure-all, isn't it?

I should be surprised if they believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so vague that it is a question whether justice will be done.”

Just imagining Watson starting to vibrate with excitement the longer this little speech goes on.

I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my wife,

"Mary, I'm just going over to see Holmes because the most extraordinar-"

"Yes yes dear, go and have fun."

[worst-sherlockholmes-story]

vote for the WORSE story!

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs: Holmes is contacted by a man named Nathan Garrideb who wishes for Holmes' help finding another Garrideb. An American Garrideb has told Nathan that an eccentric millionaire Garrideb has directed his fortune to be divided equally amongst three men with the same last name as he. Holmes deduces that the American Garrideb's story is an elaborate ruse to get Nathan out of his rooms so that he may steal the forging supplies left by the previous tenant.

The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb: Watson brings an engineer to Holmes. The engineer was offered a handsome payment for fixing a hydraulic press in the country. While fixing it, he realized that it was not being used for its stated purpose, at which point his employer attempted to kill him with the hydraulic press, then, having failed that, cut off his thumb with a cleaver. Holmes deduces that the employer was a forger using the press to mint half-crowns.