Prentice Mill

* See also Atlantic Express
* See also Expanded_Atlantic_Express_System
* See also Crash and Rapture Economics
* See also Mk1 and Mk2 ( my MMORPG Atlantic Express specification )
* See also Construction and Transportation_Systems
Prentice Mill - Builder and Operator of the Atlantic Express
Herewith : Corrections/clarifications to the game's backstory about him ...
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Likely, He was Rich in "The Surface" World before he came to Rapture. He is an archetype of the Railroad Builders/Operators of the previous Century. He likely had operated a transportation system in America thru WW2WW2 US Railroads were heavily controlled by the Government.
Prentice Mill invested alot of money to build the Atlantic Express train system in Rapture ( Ryan does not pay for doing anything extra, but needed a working transport system for City Construction ). Transit systems ( which a good part of the AE was ) rarely make fortunes. An effective Freight Transport Business across Rapture might be quite profitable, especially when alternatives would be significantly less efficient. Mill likely had invested his own Surface-made wealth to facilitate the building with that business in mind, making him the majority owner. Eventually, he sold it ( as per the Audio Diaries ) when the transportation systems in Rapture were shifting. 
He would still be one of the richest men in Rapture - despite the story implications he was Bankrupt, bringing his subsequent suicide. So, there would be a more complicated story for himPrentis Mill Story expanded - versus the simpleton cliche of a mogul bankrupted by a 'Crash' committing suicide..
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Clarification of Prentice Mill/AE History : 
1945 - Prentice Mill does the transportation project design for the environment of Ryan's planned Project -- a Monorail-type underwater train that would operate like a Subway does between fixed city stations. Equipment and track components would be pre-built on The Surface to be ready for the massive work of city Construction traffic. Huge amounts of Construction materials would be brought down from the Lighthouse Island terminus and distributed miles across the Rapture site. The primary AE servicing facility and Headquarters is built close to Hephaestus which was one of the first big construction projects, with a mainline to the Lighthouse surface transfer operations.
1946 - Prentice Mill's Atlantic Transportation Company starts building RR throughout Rapture, with first lines used to haul cement and aggregates for foundation construction. Machinery for the different Constructions Phases would be hauled about as Construction progressed - Delivered both to External locations and when read the Interiors. Maintenance facilities are built to service construction equipment. Supplies for the Construction manpower would be delivered. RR Traffic expands rapidly as local cement works become operational and local building component assembly is done in Port Rapture. Passenger traffic initiates moving Construction Workers and then new Immigrants. The AE system expands with the expanding City.
1947 - AE Lines expand outside City as various industrial sites are developed. Grand Central Station operating. Commercial centers form on South end of Rapture
1948 - AE Track system converted to Mk2 for remaining new system construction. Older existing tracks gradually converted/upgraded. The AE continues to break records for passengers transiting City.
1951-52 -- Atlantic Express in-city construction ends ( majority of workers cut loose - as was known to soon happen)
1952 
* Rapture City Building Construction mostly ends ( suburbs start to be built ).
* KinkaideContrary to some people's belief, Kincaide did NOT have "Kinetoscopes" named after him - The root word 'kinetic' was the origin of that. starts buying up and consolidating local Trolley systems and Bathysphere companies into the Metro system.
* Maintenance Junction 17 ( an unused/relegated Mk1 repair facility ) was redeveloped to be "Sinclair Station", with a new Residency building constructed - the "Sinclair Deluxe", built as a low rent district. It only has AE RR access ( possibly the reason the MK1 'Short Line' - the old "Amusement Line" ( we ride in BS2 ) - was still kept in operation for passenger traffic. Prentis Mill likely had arranged it in a deal with Sinclair. Surplus Mk1 system components were bought cheap so to keep it in operation ( and even make some minor expansions ).
~1953 
* First economic shakeup, 'Depression'
* Prentice Mill puts his CASH reserves into Rapture's banks ( at Ryan's request to try to stabilize the situation ), while there is a "Bank Run" happening in Rapture
* The Atlantic Express passenger line shuts down - unable to compete with Metro ( Trolleys and Bathyspheres ) , and has its bankruptcy.
* AE Freight Service is still running, in receivership and is reorganized ( as a critical city infrastructure, it maintains its income ).
* "Short Line" route one of few AE remnants still running passenger service ( connects places Bathyspheres and Metro never reached ).
* Prentice Mill moves to 'The Sinclair Deluxe' ( oddly still the richest person there from his liquidated assets ). Plays trains with his Short Line.
1959 
* Kashmir Incident precipitates another Bank Run. 'civil war' - Entire economy is impacted/disrupted.
* Prentice Mill killed himself in "Sinclair Deluxe" (assumed suicide)
* Metro system (including Bathyspheres) damaged and going broke. Bathyspheres are locked down.
* Sinclair Deluxe accumulates poor as 'civil war' rages. Squatters refuse to pay.
* Sinclair, a Ryan supporter, is driven out of "Sinclair Deluxe" in unstable times ( likely by Atlas minions ), and Sinclair Deluxe district is renamed "Paupers Drop"
1960 
* Ryan killed, Atlas Killed, Jack leaves, Chaos. Time of Factions
* Sofia Lamb emerges from Persephone seizing control of adjacent areas using 'the Family',
* Several Factions destroy AE lines/connections ( and other transportation links ) to isolate Lamb's social coercion and ambitions.
* The Short Line continues operating to connect its plaza clusters
1968 
* Sofia Lamb removed. Eleanor and Delta gone.
* 'The Family' in chaos/fragmentation.
* A few emergent 'Bosses' seize the 'Short Line' to run supply from farm district, and thus have control of the area.
1970 
* New Rapture is founded and starts rebuilding City infrastructure
* Atlantic Express Depot seized from 'the Rapture Family' remnants
* Rebuilding of transportation infrastructure under way.
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==AE Bankruptcy==
We are not really sure why Prentice Mill was bankrupted, when he put his Cash reserves money into the Banks during Rapture's first financial crisis. Would an obviously intelligent businessman make an unsecured loan to the banks ( especially when he was doing 'Ryan a Favor' ) ? Even after there was a 'Run on the Banks'Bank Run : https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bankrun.asp , the Banks would still hold the security/mortgages on the businesses they had loaned to ( Banks, unless they have significant government meddling, don't make unsecured loans ). There did not seem to be a 'Stock Market' for people to speculate their money on ( and investment shares are not as reactive/volatile as a Stock Market is ). Prentice Mill would thus own a good chunk of the Banks involved, or would eventually be transferred the security/mortgages the Banks kept when they went into bankruptcy and receivership. Prentice Mill could still get enough money back to still be amongst the richer people in Rapture, especially after the Economy recovered and the properties regained value.
The Atlantic Express passenger line had been out-competed, and was not likely to come back, even if Mill had the money to prop it up for a time. The AE's Freight System was not as exciting apparently, but did manage to keep operating after receivership and separation from the passenger business it had been subsidizing. But Prentice Mill did not own it any longer.
One of the few lines still running - the "Short Line", which crossed many of the southern districts of the City, only still operated because the Metro was never built to most of its stations. Even then, it was a light traffic line, running on the remnants of the old style Mk1 system tracks ( and facilities ).
Prentice Mill's Railroad was a success as a Freight hauler, but he never really understood that the City needed a versatile passenger transit system, rather than the AE being run like a Railroad ( just as NYC New York Central Railroad in the United States. could not operate with only a subway system ). Mill's Surface world equivalents AT THE TIME were facing the same eventualities, as the US Railroads started to rapidly go out of the Passenger business in the 1950s.
By the emergency time of the so-called 'civil war', the Atlantic Express trains were again being used for passengers, and Ryan was basically paying the expenses for his Security Forces to use the AE freight trains. By that time Prentice Mill was already dead.
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Economic Distress Long Before the Kashmir Incident : 
There apparently was an economic downturn of sorts in Rapture around 1953, which allegedly led to 'Hoovervilles' and squatters, and Sinclair 'exploiting' some poor destitute people ( by building a Hotel they could afford to live in ).
Prentice Mill -- Allegedly financially 'wiped out' when asked by Ryan to put money into 'the Banks' A rich influencial man being asked to put in money to prop up 'the Banks' - This is similar to actions by JP Morgan during the '29 Crash. to stimulate the economy, but the Banks went bust ( leaving him supposedly broke and destined for Paupers Drop ... ) Was he stupid enough to put 'every dime' he had into that, and NOT keep enough to live comfortably ??? ( Remember this was only a few decades after what happened to banks during the 1929 Crash and Great DepressionThe Roosevelt Depression after the Crash ( made worse after Hoover was gone - later when unemployment tripled ) when the 'socialist experiments' taxed and spent the money which previously historically had brought the USA out of the history-recurring Depression cycles. The Unemployment continued to increase. The Great Depression actually did not end until WW2 started ( with its massive increase in instituted government deficit spending measures and a foreign market to sell to ) - and Til that time the 'New Deal' and 'Second New Deal' measures being unable to bring the Depression's end., and only an imbecile would have forgotten the lessons learned then. ) Wouldn't that leave Prentice Mill OWNING the Banks, OR their mortgage holdings ( allowing him to foreclose and get at least some of his fortune back ??? )
At his end, Prentice Mill resided in Paupers Drop ? Or rather the best rooms in the Sinclair Deluxe Hotel ??? He may have fallen from being one of Rapture's Kingpins, but he would still have been the 'big man' in Paupers Drop.
This Rapture 'Depression' period (1953 - 1954) obviously didn't last, as things corrected themselves. ((( Many Players who didn't pay attention in History Class, might not realize that Boom & Bust cycles were common in America long before the 'Great Depression', and usually "worked themselves out" MUCH quicker because they were not extended by faulty and ineffective government intervention. )))
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MMORPG - The Haunted Prentice Mill Mansion :
Located outside 'Millville' ( a small city cluster North of Welcome Center which was the First Dedicated AE Station ). Lost when he mortgaged it in an attempt to get some 'working capital'.
Home of the 'late' Prentice Mill, builder of the Atlantic Express, who eventually (allegedly) committed suicide after his vision for Rapture's transportation system was hijacked by someone else.
With all the ADAM-induced 'ghosts' we saw in BS1 is this really anything special ??? Some people claim more than apparitions have happened in these 'Hauntings'. The usual strange noises, bleeding walls and sudden cold spots ( nothing unusual in Rapture ), and the large train model system in the attic seems to turn itself on in the middle of the night.
The para-normal center of Rapture ( well, the tourists brochures say so ... séance on weekends, all the usual tourist clap-trap ... ). Later Splicers might have all kinds of strange delusions about this 'remembered' place.
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The MMORPG's choreography tools allow all kinds of 'production values' to be included in various 'experiences', which the Players can witness there. A fertile source of plot related material - Prentice Mill being one of the key founders of Rapture - sufficient for a whole set of episodes. Rafts of MMORPG Missions can be built upon the Railroad theme.
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Prentice Mill Memorial (Paupers Drop) - The Man Who Built The Railroad That Built Rapture  :
If he had lived in Paupers Drop ( likely at the Sinclair Deluxe -- before it got rundown by 'the Family's' who HAD after Sinclair left had run the place ), Prentice Mill still could have been the richest person there.  Was he really 'poor' ?? The loans of his cash reserves were unlikely to be unsecured ( Prentice Mill would hold mortgages and such that could be sold later - after that 'recession' was over - that is sometime around 1953 ).
It is possible Mill may have funded some of the Paupers Drop area's redevelopment ( in conjunction with Sinclair ) of that 'Under the Tracks' ( slum/work-camp/Hooverville-like ) location, to get what we saw the remains of in BS2 - Art Deco city building recreations and businesses ( afterwards being 'run down' into the ruins/refugee camp seen in BS2 ). 
It may have been more that : HIS Atlantic Express passenger system had been sidestepped/obsoleted by the more flexible consolidated Metro Trolley system, and to a much less extent by the Bathyspheres ( which most people couldn't afford to use on a daily basis - THOSE Bathyspheres were NOT the equivalent of automobiles ).   The AE train line we use in BS2 was still there many years later ( so Mill could have "played trains" with that remaining minor branch line ), but his 'Great Project' was basically gone from his control ( Even though the AE system still probably would operate as Rapture's major Freight transport - similar to the way American Railroads ditched their passenger business as unprofitable around the same time ). 
Did Prentice Mill commit suicide ?   Perhaps he did, or perhaps he didn't.  It doesn't actually say in the game.  Or was the ad hoc shrine just some regard from ex-employeesThat Prentice Mill Shrine in Paupers Drop is seen in 1968 in BS2 (1952 to 1968 is about 14 years later after Mills 'bankruptcy and supposed ruination. -- Current (or whenever) local residents ( possibly in contention with Sofia Lamb's collectivist agenda ) for his Individual's Vison in the building of the 'Railroad that Built Rapture', and for employing them. 
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