What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

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Schmugglerjagd
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What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Schmugglerjagd »

I don't know if that has been discussed here already, but I wonder what Uncle Quentin is studying. Is there some information in the books on this subject? I don't remember so.
I'm from Germany and I can understand English much better than write or speak. Please feel free to correct me, if it's necessary.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by pete9012S »

In 1962's Five Have A Mystery To solve Uncle Quentin's main work still seems to be 'working on scientific papers'.
In the quote below,we find Anne's Mother,Mrs Kirrin sympathising with Uncle Quentin and the problems associated with being such a brilliant scientist:

Five Have A Mystery To solve 1962:

‘Uncle Quentin will be glad to be rid of George even for a meal,’ said Dick. ‘He fell over her lacrosse stick yesterday, and wanted to know why she left her fishing net about! George didn’t know what he was talking about!’
‘Poor old Georgina,’ said his mother. ‘It’s a pity that both she and her father have exactly the same hot tempers. Her mother must find it difficult to keep the peace! Ah - here’s Anne back again. Did you get George on the phone, dear?’
‘Yes. She’s thrilled,’ said Anne. ‘She says it’s just as well we’re not going to spend the day with her, because Uncle Quentin has lost some papers he was working on, and he’s turning the house upside down. George said she will probably be mad as a hatter by the time she arrives this afternoon! Uncle Quentin even made Aunt Fanny turn out her knitting bag to see if the papers were there!’
‘Dear old Quentin,’ said her mother. ‘Such a truly brilliant scientist - remembers every book he’s ever read - every paper he’s ever written - and has the finest brain I know - and yet loses some valuable paper or other almost every week!’
‘He loses something else every day of the week too,’ said Dick, with a grin. ‘His temper! Poor old George - she’s always in some sort of trouble!’
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

In some of the books, e.g. Five on Kirrin Island Again and Five Have Plenty of Fun, we're told that Uncle Quentin is working on finding a cheap, limitless source of energy. However, I'm sure he turns his "brilliant mind" to any area of science which interests him.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by db105 »

Yes. And in Smuggler's Top, he has worked a way to drain a marshy area. A true Renaissance Man, our Quentin.

We know that Julian's science teacher is so in awe of Quentin that he almost weeps each time his name comes up. The problem is that he seems to think that Julian, being the relative of such a brilliant man, should be equally brilliant himself.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by KEVP »

I've been wondering whether Uncle Quentin's discoveries somehow are connected to the fact that the Second World War does not seem to have taken place in the Famous Five Universe. Maybe Uncle Quentin discovered something so powerful that the Axis simply would not dare to challenge the British Empire.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Courtenay »

I've always suspected Enid didn't intend for her readers to think too much about what kind of scientist Quentin is, what he's working on or how it might fit into a real-world scenario. She seems to have created him as a fairly stereotypical "brilliant scientist" character: aloof, somewhat mysterious, often not quite connected to the world of ordinary people and day-to-day life, so driven by his work that he almost neglects his family much of the time. That helps to explain why George has had such an odd and lonely upbringing, never really befriending other children her age until she meets her cousins; it partly accounts for the Five spending almost all their holidays going out on adventures, so that Quentin can get on with his work without disruption; and it provides useful material for some of the plots, in which Quentin's and/or his colleagues' great secrets are in danger of being stolen. I would guess Enid deliberately left details of Quentin's work and qualifications very vague just so that he could fulfil all those functions without taking the plot off course into "scientific" ideas and jargon that weren't the point of the story and weren't her forte anyway.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by pete9012S »

Which book tells us that Quentin was working on a scientific project that involved The Sco Mass Wheel?

As Anita mentioned,Plenty Of Fun gives some detail of his scientific endeavours.
Five Have Plenty Of Fun 1955 Informs us that:

'Father’s working on some great scheme with these two men,’ said George. ‘One of them is a genius, apparently, and has hit on an idea that’s too wonderful for words.’

‘What kind of modern idea is it?’ said Julian, lazily, holding out his finger-tips for Timmy to lick off smears of ice-cream. ‘Some space-ship to take us on day-trips to the moon - or some new bomb to set off - or...’
‘No, I think it’s something that will give us heat, light and power for almost nothing!’ said George. ‘I heard Father say that it’s the simplest and best idea anyone had ever worked out, and he’s awfully excited about it. He called it a “gift to mankind” and said he was proud to have anything to do with it.’
Imagine a pitch like that on Dragon's Den.Could make a fortune for an investor - but I think we've mentioned Quentin wanted his work to be a gift to all mankind.

I sort of imagine he would still make the same gesture even if he didn't have the wealth of the gold ingots to fall back on from book one....
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Owl's Dene »

I have always got the impression that he is working on nuclear energy. He say's (or George might) that he is developing a scheme to make light and heat for all mankind. At some point he mentions a "gift to mankind" but people want to take his plans and use them for some nefarious purpose...to make bombs one must presume.
Hope I've remembered correctly, ring any bells with others?
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Rob Houghton »

I personally feel Uncle Quentin wouldn't mess with nuclear power! Maybe that's just because I think its dangerous and unnecessary! I always presume Quentin's research has more to do with natural methods of creating power. The tower on Kirrin Island is something to do with harnessing the power of the sea, I think...or maybe I have misinterpreted it. 8)

I think Enid was making most of it up, with references to topical theories/inventions/atom bombs etc thrown in for good measure!
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Moonraker »

Rob Houghton wrote: I think Enid was making most of it up
Really? :P
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Courtenay »

Rob Houghton wrote:I personally feel Uncle Quentin wouldn't mess with nuclear power! Maybe that's just because I think its dangerous and unnecessary! I always presume Quentin's research has more to do with natural methods of creating power. The tower on Kirrin Island is something to do with harnessing the power of the sea, I think...or maybe I have misinterpreted it. 8)

I think Enid was making most of it up, with references to topical theories/inventions/atom bombs etc thrown in for good measure!
I've always thought so too. I remember I did wonder, when reading Five on Kirrin Island Again, if Quentin's mysterious energy source had something to do with nuclear power, but if he were trying to split atoms (let alone fuse them), he'd need a heck of a lot more than a tower on an island... :shock: I would have to conclude Enid was indeed making it up, deliberately keeping it mysterious in order to make it intriguing and exciting for young readers — and also, if she never revealed what Quentin's power source was or how it worked, that meant she could avoid getting letters from more scientifically knowledgeable adults or children telling her why that couldn't possibly work in real life... :twisted: :wink:
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by joanne_chan »

Atoms were the wonders of that period so it may well be that Enid was more alluding to rather than saying outright but as suggested it's more a foil allowing the children to have memorable adventures that we enjoy reading of.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Wolfgang »

In "Five go adventuring again" he seems to be busy with chemistry.
In "Five on Kirrin Island again" he seems to make use of the tidal forces, he had to be surrounded by water.
We don't know what he's working on in "Five fall into adventure again", and we also don't learn what's he's working with Elbur in "Five have plenty of fun", only that it's linked with energy.
What he's doing in "Five on a secret trail" is quite strange - they don't explain what the blueprint is about.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by pete9012S »

Image

Some info from the sixth book about the scientific apparatus Uncle Quentin used in his work:
There was not much room in the tower. A spiral staircase, made of the same shiny stuff as the tower itself, wound up and up and up. There was a space at one side of it, into which projected curious hook-like objects made of what looked like steel. Wire ran from one to the other. "

Better not touch them," said Julian, looking curiously at them. " Goodness, this is like a tower out of a fairy-tale. Come on—I'm going up the stairs to the top." He began to climb the steep, spiral stairway. It made him quite giddy to go up and round, up and round so many, many times. The others followed him. Tiny, slit-like windows, set sideways not downwards, were let into the side of the tower here and there, and gave a little light to the stairway.

Julian looked through one, and had a wonderful view of the sea and the mainland. He went on up to the top. When he got there he found himself in a small round room, whose sides were of thick, gleaming glass. Wires ran right into the glass itself, and then pierced through it, the free ends waving and glittering in the strong wind that blew round the tower.
The glass top of the tower winked and blinked in the sun. It looked almost as if someone was signalling. But there was no one in the little glass room. As the children watched they heard a faint rumbling sound, and suddenly the top of the tower was ablaze with a curious glare. " Look ! That's what happened yesterday ! " said Julian, in excitement. " Your father's at work all right, George. I do wonder what he's doing!"

Then there came a throbbing sound, almost like the noise of an aeroplane, and once more the glass top of the tower shone and blazed, as the wires became full of some curious power.
And then George suddenly remembered something he had said to them all, the first time they had visited him on the island. What was it now ? " Oh yes ! He said he had to have water above and around him ! " said George. " Now I see what he meant ! His workroom is somewhere down here—so the sea-water is above him—and it's all round the tower, because it's built on a island ! " Water above, and water around—so that was why her father had chosen Kirrin Island for his experiment.

How had he found the secret passage under the sea, though ? " Why, even I didn't know of that," said George. " Hallo—what am I coming to ? " She stopped. The passage had suddenly widened out into an enormous dark cave, whose roof was unexpectedly high, lost in dark shadows.

George stared round. She saw queer things there that she didn't understand at all—wires, glass boxes, little machines that seemed to be at work without a sound, whose centres were alive with queer, gleaming, shivering light. Sudden sparks shot up now and again, and when that happened a funny smell crept round the cave. " How weird all this is ! " thought George. " However can Father understand all these machines and things !
I wonder where he is. I do hope those men haven't made him prisoner somewhere ! "

From this queer, Aladdin's cave another tunnel led. George switched on her torch again and went into it. It was much like the other one, but the roof was higher. She came to another cave, smaller this time, and crammed with wires of all kinds. There was a curious humming sound here, like thousands of bees in a hive. George half-expected to see some flying round. " It must be these wires making the noise," she said. There was nobody in the cave at all, but it led into another one, and George hoped that soon she would find Timmy and her father.
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Re: What is Uncle Quentin Working On?

Post by Soenke Rahn »

KEVP wrote:I've been wondering whether Uncle Quentin's discoveries somehow are connected to the fact that the Second World War does not seem to have taken place in the Famous Five Universe. Maybe Uncle Quentin discovered something so powerful that the Axis simply would not dare to challenge the British Empire.
Possibly not, after the war it was possibly not interesting for him to work on a time machine to make this clue. . ;-)

If I have it right in my mind in the first film he constructed the ship ? Viking or such name of it?
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