The time is the late 1800's -in this alternate reality, the center of the industrial and scientific revolution is England. The Babbage Analytical Engine has accelerated scientific discovery, hastening the commercialization of discoveries into the marketplace, and facilitating greater trade and prosperity. Widespread prosperity has led to a fading of class distinctions. Social reforms in England and its colonies in public education, child welfare, trade unionism, trade and tax policies have caused a newly established British middle class to flourish.

The progressive Liberal government has made huge investments in infrastructure not only in England, but also throughout the United Kingdom and its colonies. Universal suffrage, begun in New Zealand, has spread to most of the colonies (with the exception of India). As a result of women having the vote, progressive social policy has made secondary education of women a norm. As a result, Great Britain -- not America-- has become the focal point of the industrial and scientific revolutions. In other words, the social, economic, political, and physical factors that caused England to fall behind the United States do not exist. Queen Victoria is on the throne and England enjoys power, prestige, and wealth not seen since the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

The main variants between the world of James Swift and our own are as follows: In this alternate reality, Babbage actually built his Analytical Engine. They are called Babbs, not computers. (Incidentally, in our reality, computer was originally a title, like bookkeeper or accountant, for a person who did math. It was not the name of the machine.) In James Swift's reality, Ada Lovelace programmed and developed software for Babbs. In addition, Lovelace does develop a collaborative friendship with Michael Faraday. This leads to the development of an electric switched Analytical Engine, as opposed to a purely clockwork mechanical one. (In our reality, Faraday declined becoming the Countess of Lovelace's tutor, despite her frequent requests. Perhaps, given Ada's reputation, as some historians have suggested, it was out of concern for his marriage.)

In the reality of James Swift, Nikola Tesla dies before meeting George Westinghouse. Thus, alternating current is not commercially available, and remains a laboratory oddity. Since direct-current cannot be transmitted over long distances, Edison's original concept of small home and/or on-site generating equipment powered by wood, coal, or coal gas becomes the reality -- rather than the centralized power plants of our reality.

In the reality of James Swift, John D. Rockefeller, instead of missing the train which was to take him to a meeting with Cornelius Vanderbilt, catches the train and dies in the wreckage. Thus, Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust does not come into being. Gasoline was considered the unstable waste product of kerosene manufacture until Rockefeller in our reality found uses for it. As a result, the internal combustion engine is not commercialized, but remains a novelty.

So it follows that people consider oil as a fuel inferior to gas made from coal. They use oil for lubrication and as a primitive lighting fuel -- and nothing more. A very limited market exists for natural gas from the ground. It is simply harder to transport than coal - which truck, barge, and steamship can easily deliver. Coal is converted to coal gas within city borders by city gas plants. This was the practice in the 1800's in both realities. In our American reality, this was the case until the 1950s and in Great Britain until the late 1960s. It ended with the discovery and utilization of natural gas. In addition, coal gas was (and is today) a byproduct of the coking process used to make steel.

In James Swift's world, Henrich Hertz settled not in Bonn, but in Berlin. Therefore, he did not contract the viral disease from living in a converted hospital, which weakened and eventually killed him in 1880. Thus, Hertz continued his experiments in magnetic waves and in 1880, Hertz invented the radio (rather than Tesla and Marconi in our reality).

In both realities, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the early 1870s. Thomas Edison, working for Western Union, was unable to destroy Bell's patents.

Life imitates art. Since I began writing this series six years ago, a company, Aeroscraft, under a DARPA contract, has developed and test flown a rigid airship (not a blimp-but a rigid airship-think zeppelin) that uses the Dual Lift Chamber Technology I describe in these books. It is designed as a cargo carrier. You can see the test flight on YouTube. Ironically, the name of the airship is Dragon Dream. The significance of the name will become clear as you read this series.