Hi, I'm Kirk Schnorr and am working in France.
Regarding Stewart Johnson's comment on tech levels:
"Aren't the TLs a bit out
at lower levels? TL4 is c1850 whilst TL5 is c1930. Thus WWI was
officially fought at TL4 wasn't it? I tend to find it easier to
think of TLs in terms of weaponry and the first single-shot rifles
can into service c1860-1880. Certainly we Brits were using Martini-Henry
rifles in 1879 to fight Zulus with, and the Winchester probably
predates that?"
I agree with the points Stewart makes. Regarding tech advances between
1855-1920 in the non military fields there are many examples of a rapid
increase in technology. The emerging fields of microbiology and
immunology made possible the first rational medical treatments for
diseases of civilization i.e. cholera, syphilis, and the first vaccines
for things like rabies. The explosion of breakthroughs in chemistry led
to the ability to make nitrogen compounds from the air (instead of bird shit)
which in turn drove the agricultural (fertilizer) and weapons(smokeless
powder, dynamite, TNT) revolution. All the the advances between 1870-1914
allowed populations to increase, people to live longer and specialize in
these new technological fields but at the same time new fears emerged that
worsened and reached its peak in the nationalistic 30s.
I would consider the time between 1855 and 1930 and interim time
between tech levels 4 and 5. You have to draw the line somewhere. So
tech level 4 is coal and steam driven industrialization. Tech level 5 is
technology uninfluenced by atomic and subatomic physics that brought on
the atomic age.
Of course you cannot pigeon hole an entire civilization into a
"tech level". Part of the fun of going to a civilization is the surprize
twists you can have in the plot when the players encounter say germ
warfare in a tech level 4 society.