Babbage engines...

Heh!

I love Wondermark

Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Time ...

A lovely little short Steampunk adventure.




Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Fun!



Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your joints oiled.
KJ

Steam power in action.

This steam powered wooden box factory has been in use since 1897.

Wonderful video of the whole process.  Lots of belts and gears working together.



Enjoy

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Wonderful imagery!

I came upon this image quite by accident and thought I would share it.

A wonderfully atmospheric piece by Gilles Tran.

http://www.emptykingdom.com/featured/gilles-tran/

You can see many more images by this talented digital artist at http://www.emptykingdom.com/featured/gilles-tran/ and at his website Oyonale

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

At last!

While not technically Steampunk, I think this definitely qualifies as being both whimsical and magnificent!

Who hasn't wanted to pedal off into the skies on ones winged penny farthing wot?




The grace and sense of elegant design in action of this enormous yet fragile machine is a palpable demonstration of  the technical creative spirit of Steampunk.

In my humble opinion of course!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Airships for sale!

This catalog was produced by the Vickers company in Britain in 1920.

What is so interesting about this catalog is that it obviously assumes the existence of a commercial market for airships of all types from small scout and/or personal ones to large military, cargo, and passenger ones. 

This was definitely wishful thinking on the part of the Vickers company in light of sdubsequent history but it is still fascinating to peruse.

Who wouldn't want one of these little gems for a quick Sunday afternoon flight through the countryside.

Small Non-Rigid Airships

This Type of Small Airship did very successful service during the War as a Coastal Scout

These Airships are very suitable for Naval Scouting and Coast Patrol, and fitted with a Special Type of Car are suitable for Passenger Carrying on a small scale, and also for private or sporting use.

Designed Sizes:

                                                   No. 1         No. 2
Gross Gas Capacity ..    ..    Cubic Feet         70,000       100,000
                               Cubic Metres        1,960         2,800

Length ..    ..    ..    ..    Feet                  145           170
                               Metres                 44            52

Maximum diameter   ..    ..    Feet                   30            36
                               Metres                9.2            11

Maximum Speed      ..    ..    Miles per hour         48            55
                               Kilometres per hour    77          88.5

Cruising Speed     ..    ..    Miles per hour         40            45
                               Kilometres per hour    64          72.5

Length of Flight at Cruising   Miles                 200           300
 Speed, allowing 30% Reserve   Kilometres            322           483
 Fuel

No. of Passengers carried                              4             6

The Cars are of the Boat type, provided with comfortable Seating accommodation.  

-------

This section on Rigid Airships, thought soon to be available, is what dreams are made of. 
Imagine ordering one from a catalog!

------- 

Rigid Airships for Commercial Services

We advocate the use of Rigid Airships for all Aerial Services necessitating a non-stop run of more than 1,000 miles, and in view of the great developments pending in the use of Airships for Commercial Transport, we have prepared designs for Commercial Rigid Airships of 1,250,000 and 3,500,000 cubic feet capacity

(See Plates Nos. 2 and 3) Designed Sizes:

                                                 No. 1         No. 2
Gross Gas Capacity ..    ..    Cubic Feet      1,250,000     3,500,000
                               Cubic Metres       35,000        98,000

Length ..    ..    ..    ..    Feet                  535           800
                               Metres                163           244

Maximum diameter and width     Feet                   70           100
                               Metres               21.3          30.5

Maximum Speed      ..    ..    Miles per hour         65            75
                               Kilometres per hour   105           121

Cruising Speed     ..    ..    Miles per hour         55            60
                               Kilometres per hour  88.5          96.5

Suitable non-stop Distance     Miles               1,000         4,000
                               Kilometres          1,609         6,436

Weight of Passengers and       Tons                    6            15
 Freight carried for above     Kilogrammes         6,096        15,241
 distance

No. of Passengers accommodated                        50           100

These Passenger Airships would be provided with commodious Living and Sleeping Quarters for the Passengers, with all conveniences necessary to ensure the greatest possible comfort and pleasure of travel.

Provision would be made to enable the Airships to be moored out to Mooring Towers of Vickers' Patent Type.

COMPLETE DESIGNS AND SPECIFICATIONS SUBMITTED TO MEET
THE SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OF ANY PROPOSED SERVICE

This design for a first class passenger ship is interesting because the passenger accommodations were on the top of the hull!

The full size version of this image is HERE.
 
You can peruse the entire catalog online here:
The Vickers Airship Catalog

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

Brilliant!

Found this while writing my post on Pinterest boards.

A nice howto on making a stovepipe style top hat.  The full image can be found here but this is a just a taste to whet yer whistle!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

In more ways than one!

Pinterest is an amazing thing.

I use it to collect Steampunk costume photos the latest of which appear on the sidebar of this blog.

However as Boromir once said...

Like YouTube before it one can easily loose many an hour wandering the beautiful, interesting, funny and scary labyrinth that is Pinterest.

Each board is a collection of "pins" usually photos or images with links to the sources.

My Pinterest Board is mostly for Steampunk costumes, but there are many many boards that also include gadgets, artwork, jewelery, tattoos, buildings and other exotic bits of Steampunk wonderfulness.

There are also Pinterest boards dedicated to historical subjects like real Victorian clothing and artifacts, history, and period photos.

One of my favourite boards is Brenda{SteamCircus.com} which has over 10,000 pins organized into 73 subject groups.
 
Wandering around here one can easily get lost and spend a very pleasant hour or two.

Please check it out when you have some time to spend!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

The Airship

Now considered an obsolete and even archaic technology (ha!) was once considered one of the greatest technological advances.

Fred T Jane's book The British Battle Fleet, has the following interesting quote:

The possibilities of the dirigible, on the other hand, no man can foresee. the gasbag that can be brought to the ground by a single bullet hole in it, is a very different thing from the possibility of airships of the future which may be a mile or two long, divided into innumerable compartments, filled with non-explosive gas such as is sure to be discovered sooner rather than later. Two miles seems an extraordinary length today, but a ship ten miles long would only be something like the ration of the early dirigible to the future ones compared to the ratio of the Dreadnaughts bear to the first ships built by men.

On the water, bulk is limited by the depth and size of harbours, but in the vast regions of the air there are practically no limitations whatever, and there is practically nothing to limit size, save the building of land docks on open plains into which airships could descend for repair and so forth. Consequently those who hastily assume from a few accidents that the "lighter than air " craft has no future are probably making a great mistake; at any rate, so far as naval work is concerned.  certain definite uses are apparent even now to those who think and ignore commercial rivalries.
--Fred T. Jane, The British Battle Fleet, 1912

What I find most fascinating about this quote, coming as it does at the very end of that amazing history of the warships of the Royal Navy, is the broad simplicity and breathtaking scale of his vision. All through the book he describes the times when new developments were rejected by conservative naval authorities, and ridiculed by pundits and the public, yet ultimately taken up and developed further. And here, at the end, he makes the logical jump to include the airship as one of the next developments that might be in the same boat so to speak. That it ultimately did not become "the next big thing" makes it look a little odd to us, but that is hindsight.

Writing of the incredible technological changes and scale of the advances in naval technology that had occurred in the previous century, much of it during his lifetime, Jane was well aware of the dangers of making predictions. Yet here he does just that.

A man after my own heart I think.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ