The Order: 1886 Compared to Actual History

In The Order:1886, developer Ready At Dawn bends history to include people and inventions that weren’t there and/or hadn’t been invented yet. Below are several examples of items (and one person) imported through time to be in The Order, as well as their actual truth in history. All sources included.

Nikola Tesla. Source: Wikipedia

Nikola Tesla: The brains behind The Order’s unique arsenal, as well as some of the game’s unique inventions, is none other than famed inventor, Nikola Tesla. But in 1884, two years before his appearance in the game, Tesla arrived in New York, where he lived and worked until his death on January 7, 1943 when he was 86 years old. (Source)

LF – 1. Source: Wikipedia

The Zeppelin: One of The Order’s most exciting missions takes place aboard a zeppelin airship called The Agamemnon. The first rigid airship, or zeppelin, was invented in 1899 by the German Ferdinand Adolph August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin, or Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin as his friends called him.

The “Luftschiff Zeppelin 1,” or LF – 1, as its friends called it, was 420 feet long and had a diameter of 38 ½ feet. The LF – 1 made its first flight on July 2, 1900 and was airborne for about 18 minutes, traveling a distance of around 3 ½ miles. This comes about 13 years after The Order’s Agamemnon was to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, from Portsmouth to New Jersey, in three days. (Source)

Fun Fact: The Royal Navy launched a battleship called the HMS Agamemnon on September 17, 1879. Seven years before Sir Galahad laid foot on the zeppelin Agamemnon, which the game cites as occurring on October 15, 1886. (Source)

The Maxim Gun. Source: Wikipedia

Fully Automatic Rifle: Amongst The Order’s large arsenal are several fully automatic rifles. The first fully functioning automatic rifle was presented by Hiram Maxim in 1884, two years before The Order takes place (Source). By 1890, the British, German, Swiss, and Italian armies, amongst others, had all bought “The Maxim Machine Gun,” and its first use in-battle was seen by the British during the Matabele War around 1893 (Source).

The only issue with Maxim’s gun in relation to the rifles found in The Order is its size. The gun is often shown with a stand to support it during use and is extremely large. It wasn’t until 1911 when American Isaac Newton Lewis introduced the “Lewis Automatic Rifle,” that we began to see more portable full auto rifles, much like the ones used in The Order (Source).

Thermite Reaction: The Thermite Gun is described in an article by Game Informer to work by first shooting pellets of aluminum iron oxide that release a glittery cloud into the air, then being shot with a high temperature flare, thus “creating a chemical reaction that turns the cloud into a burning mass of glittery metal paper” (Source). In reality, the German chemist Dr. Hans Goldschmidt accidentally developed the welding technique of mixing iron oxide and aluminum, otherwise known as a thermite reaction, while trying to find a way to purify metal ores.

Burning at 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3,000 degrees Celsius if you are Sir Galahad, Hans’ discovery was great for discovering a quick way of welding together railroad tracks. But unfortunately for The Order, its discovery came in 1893, seven years after the events of the game. For added fun for any future chemists reading, the equation for the reaction between iron oxide and aluminum is, Fe₂O₃ + 2 Al → 2 Fe + Al₂O₃. The more you know. (Source)