Braking a wagon: present and past!

I found this image of an antique wagon online, and I’m posting it to show what “brake” meant on a wagon like this. It is the lever sticking up from the left front wheel in the illustration above, and it applied pressure to the wheel to slow it down.

Here is an incident from the modern part of the story, when Lars climbs onto an old wagan, releases the brake (not knowing what it is) and goes on a wild ride down the driveway:

As the wagon lurched down the steep, rutted drive, picking up speed with every passing second, I tried to get up the nerve to jump off, but the sight of the ground rushing by kept my hands riveted to the wagon seat. With rising panic, I fixed my eyes on the pike below and the bone-breaking drop-off I knew was beyond it. In my mind I could see myself flying through the air and hear the splintering of wood. Then, suddenly, just before the wagon hurtled across the road to plunge over the edge, somebody reached out and pulled hard on the lever. The wagon groaned to a stop.

Jensen, Dorothea. The Riddle of Penncroft Farm (Great Episodes) (pp. 28-29). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

And here is the “echo” incident from when Geordie’s runaway team is headed for the Brandywine battlefield:

"At the very moment I climbed to the seat and took up the reins, the valley behind me exploded with artillery fire. Terrified, Daisy and Buttercup reared in their traces. Up and up they went, pawing the smoke-filled air. Then they plunged back to the ground, landing at a dead run. For a few breathless moments I simply clung to the reins, pulling for all I was worth, but the horses were too panic-stricken to feel the bits sawing at their mouths. My arms ached from the effort, and I eased off to recover some strength for another try. Perhaps my horses bolting might be a blessing in disguise, I thought. It would surely get me away from the Brandywine much faster than their usual pace. Then I realized where we were headed: due east toward Birmingham Road, where the British and Americans were about to clash in battle. With strength born of fear, I reached for the brake, only to have the lever break off in my hand.

The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

Prisoners in Independence Hall: The Riddle of Penncroft Farm

 

Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

It's always reassuring to find information that reinforces what I wrote and published. The sign above shows that American prisoners (from the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown) were held in the upstairs of the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia (now called Independence Hall).

Here is what I put in my book, The Riddle of Penncroft Farm:

". . . as I came to the Pennsylvania State House. I peered up at the soaring tower to see the great bell that had been rung to summon folk to hear the Declaration of Independence. The tower was empty. Mystified, my eyes fell to the second-story windows that fronted the Long Gallery—site of elegant state dinners. But Congress had long since fled the city, and no elegant diners peered down from the Long Gallery today. Instead, I spied a crowd of gaunt, ragged men, eyes huge in their skeletal faces.

Horrified, I reined in Daisy and Buttercup. Women in sober Quaker clothes were carrying baskets toward the State House door. I called out to one. “Mistress, who are those men in the Long Gallery?” “The British are using it as a prison,” she answered sadly, “for wounded Continental soldiers captured at Brandywine and Germantown. The blockade made food scarce in the city, and the British expect the Americans to supply food for their own men held here. The American army can barely feed itself, let alone spare any for these poor starved creatures.” I bade her wait. “Here—take some apples for the prisoners,” I called to her, trying not to think how my father would thrash me should he learn what I had done. “And a barrel of perry as well.”

 The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

Update on Pioneer 10: First Exploratory Spacecraft Sent Out of Our Solar System

Update on Pioneer 10

She sighed. “That’s where your room is, Lars,” Dad said. “The far left window on the second floor—the one with the light on.” I glanced up. Someone was silhouetted in the window of what was to be my room. Whoever it was slowly raised one hand. It reminded me of the picture sent on the Pioneer 10 space probe to greet the rest of the universe. “Is that Aunt Cass waving at us?” I asked.

 —The Riddle of Penncroft Farm © 1989 by Dorothea Jensen

I wondered what was going on with  Pioneer 10 (if anything) these days. Below is what I found online from NASA. 

I’m sure that most readers of The Riddle of Penncroft Farm were born many years after the last signal came to earth from this first exploratory space craft. It was still big news when I first started writing that story in the early 1980s, however! 

PIONEER 10

Firsts:

First spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar space

First spacecraft to fly beyond Mars

First spacecraft to fly through the main asteroid belt

First spacecraft to fly past Jupiter

Crossed the orbit of Neptune to become the first human-made object to go beyond Neptune

First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power

Dates:

March 2, 1972: Launch

July 15, 1972: Spacecraft entered the asteroid belt

Dec. 4, 1973: Pioneer 10’s closest approach to Jupiter

 Feb. 1976: Pioneer crossed Saturn’s orbit

June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune

March 31, 1997: Routine contact with spacecraft terminated

Pioneers 10 and 11 both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the future.

Pioneers 10 and 11 both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the future.