Twelfth Floor

Twelfth Floor

The Twelfth Floor of Ternky Tower is home to P.K. Quello. It contains three rooms.

Animated Scene From Official Website

• Alchemy Lab
• Picture Caption: "Things were in the process of changing to other things"
• Animation: Puffs of smoke from the machine, blenders blending.

Numbers

• The equation 6*π + y^2 = 61985/100 + (1197 * 15) appears on a chalkboard.

solution is y = 136.22, -136.22 (please read the talk page for this article before changing this number)

• The chemical compund C3H3O5N appears on a chalkboard
• Wikipedia describes Peroxyacetyl nitrate as a "lachrymatory agent," a "chemical compound that stimulates the corneal nerves in the eyes to cause tearing." This is in keeping with Quello's experiment turning tears into clouds.

The formula on the blackboard appears to be C3H3O5N This seems to be a molecule in smog, Peroxyacetyl nitrate

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/physical_science/chemistry/pan.html&edu=high

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peroxyacetyl+nitrate

However, there is a mistake (or perhaps a clue) in the way the formula is drawn: carbon cannot have five bonds to it, and yet there is a double bond between the leftmost carbon and the oxygen next to it.

This is not quite right. The diagrammed molecule is Peroxyacetyl nitrate, with some license in the way the bonds are drawn (see http://everything2.com/title/Peroxyacetyl+nitrate). The formula is something else (another C), part of the same family of PAN, with the more general name peroxyacyl nitrate. --- JRC

• Except for a leftover letter O, All of the letters of the C3H3O5N compound can be found within the phrase, "Things were in the process of changing to other things," found on the Gus Twintig website as a description of the situation on this floor. Subtracting the letters can lead to an anagram that may provide a hint about the puzzle. (The wordsmith.com website allows entry of a word, such as "hint", that the puzzle solver wishes to include in an anagram solution.)

• The framed picture in the foyer reads "He" - the symbol for helium in the periodic table.
• Helium has an atomic weight of 4.002. The picture of the "He" symbol is in green and blue. The teacups going into the machine and t-shirts coming out of the machine are also green and blue. There are four of them.

Recurring Themes

• Stolen Item From Another Floor: The Victrola from the Fifth Floor —the speaker can be seen between the IN chute and the fireplace.
• Missing Item Found On Another Floor: Quello is missing six bars of lead. Three silver bars marked "Pb" (the chemical symbol for lead) and two other bars are lying nearby on the Tenth Floor.
• Pink Doughnuts: Is the pink biproduct of (or ingredient in) Quello's alchemy machine the same pink frosting seen on the donuts throughout the book? If so, does this mean each donut is a clue that something has been turned into something else?
• Bicarb: The pink goo in the alchemy machine could be pepto bismol. (There is also a pink bottle on the shelf near the fireplace that looks like a pepto bismol bottle.) An anagram of pepto bismol is "Lo, Pepi's Tomb". Pepi was a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. The lore of the number 12 says that it had been stolen from the bowels of a pharaoh's tomb. In the text with Floor 2, Dodge asks an important question about saltine crackers. Both saltines and pepto bismol are digestive aids.
• Eyes: A bowl of eyes and a single eye are sitting on a kitchen counter.
• Shower head: appears to be an emergency shower, as found in a science class - includes EYE wash (matches eyeball clue?)
• Coil: There is a spring on a chair that hangs from the bedroom wall (high chair? sit up? chair lift?)
• Ladder: leaning against cabinet filled with drawers.
• Clocks: hourglass on mantle.
• Leak: small puddle on counter next to "tears into clouds" jar.
• "2B or not 2B" potential anagrams: bunsen burner, blackboard, eyeball bowl

Other Items of Interest

• The name P.K. Quello is presumably derived from Paulo Coelho, author of the book The Alchemist. In the text about the 13th floor, Ternky says that the first name of his 12th floor tenant is Paul.

• Quello says he can change pigs into pants. On the ninth floor, there is a piggy bank and a pair of underpants (I believe?) on top of cabinets. There is a toy pig on the eighth floor and a pair of dirty underpants on the garbage pile. The resident on the 9th Floor wears aluminum pants. Smelting of metal, such as aluminum, begins with blocks called "pigs".
• The toilet is perched like a throne atop some piece of machinery that, in turn, feeds two food storage units. The clear (though gross) implication is that the alchemist is turning human feces and urine into chocolate cake and lemonade. In an interview published May 25, 2010, artist Scott Teplin said, "...I did get to know them [the characters in the book] really well. I have a scatological sense of humor, so I got to know their bathroom habits quite well. There are a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle bathroom jokes in most of the drawings." http://thefastertimes.com/indiebooks/2010/05/25/the-hunt-is-on-the-tft-interview-with-eli-horowitz-and-scott-teplin/

• "Carpet-Steps-Toilet" and "Steps-Curtain-Toilet" yield rich anagrams with potential clues for this floor.
• Depending which way you count, the open drawer near the ladder (which is filled with emeralds?) may be the 60th drawer.
• Two of the rare elements on the seventh row of the periodic table (Uns 117 and Uno 118) are labeled as a noble gas and as a halogen, which they are, but they are oddly placed on the table. They should appear in their colored columns. Uns is German for "us." Uno is Spanish for "one."
• Exit 74 on I-40 in Arkansas is the London exit. It is right next to Nuclear One, which is Arkansas' single nuclear power plant. The picture features a cooling tower and the formation of several clouds. (When a cooling tower is in operation it looks like a cloud machine). "Tears into clouds" is tough, but the site of the power plant is on the "Trail of Tears," which is the route taken by the Cherokee to Oklahoma. There is a marker for a Cherokee mission to the ESE of the exit.
• East of Exit 74 there is a candle store, and the illustration features melted candles.

State - Highway - Mile

A copy of The Clock Without a Face can be seen on the Fifth Floor. Residents Vera Mazel & Josie Grey are self-described puzzle people. When discussing the book, Vera asks for help saying that she had found the state and the mile, but can't find the highway. This has lead to the speculation that each buried number can be found by deducing a state, highway, and mile for each floor using clues found on each floor. The following section can be used for documenting any speculation as to which state, mile, and highway to which this floor may hint.

State

• A periodic table of the elements appears on the wall in the main room. The element argon (Ar) has been replaced with the letters "Mi" and is circles in red. This could signal Michigan, Arkansas or possibly Missouri.
• "Tea cups" are transformed into "T-shirts." The ratio is 3:1 (three green to one blue). This could indicate the number 31: California was the 31st state to join the union.
• There are four tea cups and four t-shirts in the illustration. There has been speculation that this could represent the 40th state: South Dakota.
• The four tea cups are moving for-ward. The machine incorporates the four t-shirts' for-m. This could represent forty-four, which would be Wyoming. There are also four times four test tubes on one wall (four times four = four T four?).
• Maryland: The three pictures in the foyer could read "Rock-He-Star" (one of the objects shown is the Sun - our star) or "Rocky" star. Sylvester Stallone grew up in Silver Spring, MD. The spring on the chair could also reference Silver Spring. The cake in the bell jar looks like a Smith Island layer cake which is the Official State Dessert of Maryland. The following link shows a picture of a Smith Island layer cake on a similar cake stand: http://www.originalsmithislandcakeco.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/f/i/file_4_27.jpg The belt might reference the Capital Beltway or the Baltimore Beltway. Maryland was the 7th state to join the Union. The wainscot in the Kitchen is seven tiles high. The curved section of the large wooden cabinet in the Laboratory contains seven drawers top-to-bottom. The shape of the floor tiles in the Kitchen and the Foyer may reference the yellow and black diamond shapes in the crossbar of the Maryland state flag. The mason jar on the Kitchen table plus the reference to Ron Dixon in the Cluesday post could refer to the Mason-Dixon Line.
• DC/Maryland Area: Per Cluesday information, if a wale is bigger than a red erring and if 'corduroy lines' refers to wales, the DC rapper Wale might be the intended hint. Wale is from northwest DC and moved to Maryland as a youngster. "Dig-Dug (Shake it)" is a song by Wale. The Northeast Groovers is a rap group from DC.

Highway

• Given that the correct answer to the chalkboard equation is 136.22, Hwy 136 intersects with 22nd Street in Unionville, Missouri (the first two letters of Mi on the Periodic Table).
  
• The element He is displayed in the front hallway, its number is 2, and state highway 2 terminates in St. Ignace, Michigan.
• The transforming device show four tea cups turning into four tee shirts. Could "four-tee"/"four-tea" refer to Highway 40? There is an I-40 in Arkansas, with a rest area in the rough vicinity of MP 136.
• There are several groupings of four items where one item is different (three green teacups, one blue; three onions cut side up, one cut side down; three vents and one fan on the alchemy machine). Berrien Springs, MI is at the intersection of old and new Highways 31. The Chamber of Commerce motto for the community is, "The Heart of the Fruit Belt." However, this is not an Interstate, and there is no known rest area nearby.
• There are 23 test tubes (2 in the kitchen, 16 on a wall and 5 near the fireplace). Interstate 23 runs through Michigan.
• If the drawers in the cabinet reflect the number of elements on the Periodic Table, there are 80 drawers on the wall nearest the bedroom. This is inferred by subtracting the 38 visible drawers on the wall nearest the blackboard.
• The New York City mass transit system has a Q Yellow line serving Brooklyn and Coney Island. In places, this line is elevated instead of being a subway. The name "Quello" could be the "high" way clue and "Q Yellow" could be the solution.
• I-70 (Maryland) Dr. Quello's statement in the transcript of Twintig's Cluesday Interrogation, "The answer, or close to it, is written in white on black," draws attention to the chalkboard in the Laboratory. The arrow on the chalkboard is emphasized graphically and references the yellow arrows on the transformation machine. The object drawn to the left of the arrow on the chalkboad may refer to the conveyor belt at the 'in' side of the apparatus. Four teacups (four Ts or 40) enter the machine and four t-shirts (four Ts or 40) exit the machine. It's a kind of a route or 'road.' Through much of Maryland, Highway 40 parallels I-70, ocassionally merges with I-70 to form a single road and then separates from I-70 again. The transfomation machine could represent the portion of Highway 40 which becomes Interstate 70. The largest yellow arrow might indicate that the rest area which contains the buried numeral is located somewhere on Interstate 70 between the independent sections of Highway 40.

Mile

• Rt. 2 in Michigan is 304.98 miles long, so the number from the board (136.22) could be the mile number.
• 335 numbers between CHON. There is mile 335 in Michigan.
• There is a truckstop at mile marker 136 on I-94 in Michigan.
• Since Quello's lead bars are turning into gold, the numbers between 82 (Pb) and 79 (Au) could be in play here. There is a rest area at mile 81 on Interstate 23 in Michigan. However, it is not a two-sided rest area (N/S or E/W), which is a common denominator for most of the successful digs.
• The drawers on the side of the cabinet next to the blackboard are arranged in three sections. The first section has three columns, the second section has two columns, and the third section has three columns. There is a rest area at mile 323 on Interstate 80 in Wyoming.
• I-70 near Hagerstown, Maryland - Rest Area at MM 39. The red circle around the periodic table element "Mi" (Mile?) could be referencing the atomic weight of Argon which is 39.948. There are rest areas in both directions.

External Links

Hit Contests Forum -- Twelfth Floor

Tweleve Forum -- 12th Floor

Disobiki -- Ternky Tower Floors