TL6 (The Mechanized Age)

The early part of TL6 (The Mechanized Age) along with TL5 (The Industrial Revolution) belongs to the Age of Steam. This TL saw the turn of the 20th centuryCirca 1880s. Characters, p.26--in genre terms, TL6 contains the era and end of cowboys, the fall of the samurai, and the rise of Gothic, mechanical monsters that recall the sins of the Great War--and partly, World War II.
TL6 transitions to TL7 around the mid 1940s. The Mechanized Age, with all its bells and whistles, gave way to the Atomic Age, with its promises of space travel and microwave dinners.
==General Developments==
Note: these are a combination of the material in the Basic Set and GURPS High-Tech
*Signature technologies: Electrical calculators; telephone and radio
*Transportation: Airplanes; automobiles; continental railways; high-speed road system; primitive helicopter; ocean liners; submarines; zeppelin.
*Weapons and Armor: Smokeless powder; automatic weapons; tanks; combat aircraft
**Arms and Armor: Aircraft carrier, battleship, high explosives, poison gas,
*Power: Steam turbines; internal combustion; Electric motorThe basic set lists Direct current and alternating current as separate TLs while GURPS High-Tech doesn't; hydroelectricity; secondary battery
*Biotechnology/Medicine: Blood transfusion and blood typing for safe transfusions, electrocardiograph, inoculation, insulin, Antibiotics (like penicillin), refrigeration, sterilization, sulfa drugs; heredity; biochemistry
===Other Developments===
*Agriculture: Herbicides, mechanized harvester, pesticides
*Information Technology: Color photography, fingerprint records, motion pictures, radio, sound recording, telephone.
*Machinery: Electric light, radar, sonar, vacuum tube.
*Material Science: Aluminum, Bakelite, Bessemer steel, synthetic fibers.
==Magical Settings at this TL==
*Classic: Cliffhangers: Cliffhangers set in this TL, if they had magic at all, were extreme High Fantasy. 
*Classic: Deadlands - Weird West: alternate dark steampunk late 19th century
*Classic: Old West: At best magic is practiced by Native Americans tribes. Spiritualism is borderline nonexistent in this setting.
*Classic: Steampunk: This is where the idea of science as magic really takes hold and yet there is this 'hold two conflicting ideas as true' mentality with regards to the supernatural and science. Magic spells and native supernatural beliefs are dismissed as primitive superstition and yet there is a strong belief in Spiritualism and Faeries. There is near euphoria that science can eventually explain everything and solve current problems.
*GURPS WWII: Weird War II: Belief in magic saw a major resurgence during WWII especially with the Nazis.
==Related Material==
*Tech Level
*TL6 Equipment
*TL6 Weapons
*GURPS Bio-Tech
*Classic: Steamtech
*GURPS Steampunk 1: Settings and Style
*GURPS Steampunk 2: Steam and Shellfire
*GURPS Steampunk 3: Soldiers and Scientists
*GURPS WWII
==Additional Material==
* Asbestos and Human History
*The Surprising and Forgotten History of Helium
*TV: A Forgotten History
*The Most Important Invention of the 20th Century: Transistors the field-effect transistor was patented by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in Canada in 1925, in the United States in 1926 and 1928, and by German inventor Oskar Heil in 1934. A functional point-contact transistor was developed by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Labs in 1947 and by Herbert Mataré and Heinrich Welker of Compagnie des Freins et Signaux in 1948. In fact, two of the four patents related to 1947 transistor were rejected by the Patent Office because of the Lilienfeld patents. - Shurkin, Joel N. (2008) Broken Genius pg 116
==Notes==
==References==
*GURPS High-Tech
ja:TL6
Category:Technology
Category:Concepts