It was unfortunate that a reader that goes by the name Johnny was a little overenthusiastic with his last link suggestion, only realising moments after he clicked the submit button that the subject had already been posted about. No great tradgedy, of course, as the more links the better, but the honourable Johnny wouldn’t let it stand at that, and hunted down this very handsome image of another very old motorcycle – either a very slightly different model from the one posted below, or just a much more detailed photograph. This one seems almost hewn from brass, the wood is so light!

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Sometimes, Make finds the most marvelous things. Take the above motorcycle from 1885, what a deeply quirky wood and leather thing – it wouldn’t look a jot out of place in a tale of giant airships carving up the clouds and rockets to the moon. The fact that it actually exists, puts a big grin on my face again tonight. If you look to the actual page that tells about these lovely machines, you’ll see motorcycles from the above 1885 to a 1930′s one, and a lot of very beautiful turn of the century ones. But the above must be my favourite – broom broom!

It always pleases me when I find that visitors to the site have their own Steampunk projects on the go – so I was very pleased to see that Beaty, a recent visitor, is currently working on a Sketchup model of a Steampunk moonbase! Last I saw, he’d managed to get one of the Wellsian Solar Collectors in – complete with brass and teak and mysterious dials. Looks lovely, and I can’t wait to see it finished. Good luck with it. (Or should I say “Go’an yer’sel!”)

While I didn’t really get on too well with “The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne” (it could just have been I didn’t like the pilot episode) I did love the concept. Well, it seems that TwoEvilMonks have quite a collection of information about the no-doubt far too short series – including what looks like the pitch and episode prescies for it! But of particular interest to me, is the whole page with models that they intended to use in the series – the image above is one. Find the rest here!

Just a quick one – I spotted a little web comic called Æther Tales in one of my travels across the depths of the internet – looked like it had quite a lot of promise but seemed to peter out quite quickly and is now stationary. Still, interesting that they used different fonts to represent different languages – shame about the jepegging. Maybe it will rise from the ashes again. It looked to have featured demons, magic guilds, machines, and rather fetching suits.

Well, it’s coming up on the time for costumes and all manner of silliness, so I thought it would be a good time to post up Ray Beethoven, Steampunk-age world explorer! Created in 2002 by John Beckwith, and polished up and brought out to win prizes in 2003 for a *con, Ray Beethoven is a really fantastic character and costume. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ray may have been a character for a Sons of Aether game, but I may well be getting the costumes confused (he’s made quite a few!). Anyway – fantastic costume, beautifully made and I can only hope it will inspire a few more Victorian-Steampunk Inventors this year! (Another Mr Snyder link – thanks.)

Stephen Berkman, of Zohar Studios, creates some wonderfully quirky ‘photo’graphs and objects of interactive art. There’s a collection of ambrotypes such as the one above and a great many of them reek of Steampunk-ness. I find myself thinking – “What if?” What if Verne’s travellers had brought back a prehisoric man from the depths of the earth, and seen what ‘modern’ education could make of him? Would he, perhaps, excel in sciences (as in the image above) – be awarded a medal for valour in some battle – and finally leave behind a greiving wife and child?

As for the art objects, most of them seem to be based off camera obscura – of particular amusement to me is the camera obscura built into a headless giant lady shape – where you go under the voluminous skirts of the fake lady to view the image! How terribly naughty.

I have to say that the ambrotypes are my favourite – from scientists with aliens, to scenes of instant sadness at a strange funeral – each one is a frame of a story that my mind plays with like a toy. Great stuff. Thanks Craiger for reminding me!

I can’t really talk about retro and steampunk computers without mentioning the Electriclerk. Inspired by Brazil (I really, really have to watch that one day) and created as a prop for a game of live action Cthulhu. Under there is a Macintosh SE, ripped to bits and exposed to the air – and still working. That’s a flip down fresnel lens, and the keys were taken from an old typewriter.

The Electriclerk has been around a while, and if you go to the page you’ll find more pictures, and information on it. While you’re there, do check out the other beautiful Cthulhu prop they made – the Transdimensional Helmet. The mechanics behind it (several tapes with different ‘experiences’ on them) is delightful – and I’m sure I’d give my second last cog to play in a live action game run by these people.

You may recal I did a post some time ago about the stunningly quirky and beautiful Eole, steam powered plane from 1890. Well, now you can make your very own, paper version at 1/72 scale! Pdf parts and instructions near the bottom of this page. Lovely! [edit: And I should have said - thanks to Crabfu for the link!]

Isn’t it stunning? This laptop conversion by MonkeyFarm (I think?) crosses a typewriter with a morse key and a Mac(?) laptop. The bell is the enter key, the scrollball is visible just behind the morsekey (the morsekey actually bends around it) and the cup things near the back are apparently the speakers.

Why all the uncertainty? Well, alas the page is not in English, and my Japanese is so bad as to be non-existant – and Google translation was more humerous than enlightening. It’s a shame, because it’s a gobsmacking piece of custom work, and it reminds me of that Cthulu Computer that I may have to do a post about soon too. Oh, and if you’re wondering, the screen folds under the bottom, I believe. More pictures on the site, and a thanks to Mr M. Snyder for the link! (In fact, thanks for all of the links, despite the doublers!)