Archive for April, 2007

The Institute and Museum of the History of Science

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

Reader Desanera has opened my eyes to a magnificience source of information about things that bring science and beauty together. The Institute and Museum of the History of Science is a wealth of information, both visual and textual, on some of the steps forward (and occasionally sideways) on the path of science. There’s [...]

The Sundial, Compass, Gunpowder Flask

Sunday, April 29th, 2007

While generally this would be significantly too early for Steampunk (16th Century Germany) it’s such a marvellous combination of craftsmanship, brass and ingenuity that it sits perfectly alongside some of the more Victorian devices we’ve seen.  It’s a gunpowder flask, with brass and bone inlays, with a compass built into the centre and it can [...]

The Villanizer - Steampunk Guitar

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

As I said - a very good weekend for Steampunk contraptions - the above is the Villanizer Steampunk Guitar, created by Thunder Eagle Guitars.  With pipes and guages and beautiful gears - amazingly she sounds as good as she looks!  The creator modified a Rhodes Jackson V, copper plating some pickups, re-facing the guage, and [...]

Datamancers ‘Von Slatt’ style Steampunk Keyboard

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

It’s a wonderful weekend for Steampunk constructions, it seems.  The above may give you a sense of deja vu - it is a ‘Von Slatt’ style keyboard, made by his aquiantance Datamancer as a comission for a customer.  Someone had sought out Von Slatt for a keyboard, but Mr Von Slatt was unable to take [...]

Raku Ray-Guns by West Magoon

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

Ray Guns - impossibly marvelous and depending on how strict you are with your Steampunk, they either just catch the latter end of it, or are soundly stationed in the ‘pulp’ end of the spectrum.  The ones above are wonderfully finished - they’re made using raku firing techniques for ceramics, and they’re known as Raku [...]

The Bug - The Hildebrandt Steampunk Mouse

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

What is it, you ask?  Why it’s a device for controlling the position of a pointer on the Telecalculograph, of course.  A mouse, as we fashionable young things might call it.  The ‘ball’ area is for resting your hand apon, and the ‘antennae’ are for clicking on, I believe.  It is The Bug, by Mr [...]

Steampunk Airship Pilots - ConceptArt Thread

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

A little while ago, the eminently talented people over at ConceptArt set the topic of their regular forum challenge for character concept art as “Steampunk Airship Pilot“, and what varied and interesting results there were.  The above is a crop of my favourite, done by forum member Venasque, but there are captains to suit every [...]

Hildebrands Chocolate - 1900’s predictions for 2000.

Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

Utterly perfect - Paleo-Future has a simply amazing post of a collection of promotional chocolate cards made in Germany by the cocoa company Hildebrand.  Created in the 1900’s, they predict life as they imagine it in the year 2000 - and there’s wonderful scenes both all too familiar and dissapointingly absent from our lives today.  [...]

Shugborough Hall - 1805 Living Estate

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

What fun I had on Saturday!  I visited Shugborough Hall, a working estate, themed to be a window into life in the year (rather early for Steampunk) 1805.  While there are no doubt a great many historic estates, I liked this one most of all because they have themed staff working away on the estate, [...]

Delightful Steam Tricycle for Two

Friday, April 20th, 2007

Mr Walpole pointed out this page of beautiful (but frustratingly small) pictures of an early automobile.  Now, the page claims that it was the first automobile in 1887, and based on the developing bicycle industry, but Wikipedia has very convincing arguements to the contrary - what is quite apparent though is that it’s a delightful [...]