My thanks to Mr Dumler, who pointed out an entire gallery of insects and spiders that have been ‘improved’ with the application of tiny clockwork cogs and gears, springs and sprockets. There’s so very many on the page, each one a marvel of tiny facinating detail and borderline morbid curiosity that someone would combine the sparkling jewels of the natural world with the beauty of the watchmakers filigree and preserve them forever under a cold glass dome. Utterly beautiful and very, very Steampunk.

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Mr Hildebrandt was struck by how un-Steampunk his wardrobe seemed, and as we surely know, accessories are the first thing to make Steampunk!  (Such as goggles, of course).  So here we have the results of Mr Hildebrandt’s several hour madness – a belt buckle cobbled together and with moving interacting cogs apon it.  Rather nicely done!  Puts shame to the time I fritter away, when I could be making things like this.

A novel of speculative fiction, Fitzpatrick’s War (Daw Science Fiction) is an alternative future, military tale, in a world where there is no electricty, and Yukon Empire airships and steam are all powerful. Mr R Gonzales wrote to point this one out to me, and while I’m terribly grateful – it seems a little too heavy going and military based for me to pick it up myself. For those who like their fiction with more realistic weight behind it, though, I’m sure it would be a good read. With undercurrents of how history is written by the winners, and apparently humerous footnotes in abundance, it sounds diverse and curiously askew alterna-Steampunk.

Oooh, many many thanks for the new arrival of reader Mr Joe Roberts, and his deluge of new links – three of which involve portable (or personal) sundials! The one above is an antique 18th Century example, with engravings of flowers and vines – utterly lovely. The second link is to a page describing (and apparently willing to sell, were their order page not mysteriously down) their more recently made line of pocket, dual ring, sundials. There’s a few pictures there, and a users guide too. And finally, there’s a little page with the history of ring sundials, part of a much larger page (do not miss out on seeing the Astrarium picture!). They’re all beautiful things, and (weather permitting, in this bleak and dreary season) would be a deeply Steampunk means of ensuring your arrangements are on time. I mean – perfect accuracy is such a harsh and modern mistress. chuckles Now, I wonder how I can make my own…

So this will be a briefly relevant post – Mr Greco pointed out an Ebay auction for a museum quality meccano model of a steam powered excavator. From the description:

“This large Meccano super model was expertly built with Meccano vintage nickeled and brass parts (Prewar) using the 1929 Meccano Steam Engine and the 1929 Meccano Digger Bucket and Pulley Block (Double Sheave – First Design), even the cord is Meccano.”

Amazing to think that just over seventy years ago, such things were considered toys – and now we’d happily go and see them in a museum, or ogle them for their patina and parts. Admittedly, they were probably expensive toys, but it’s a far cry from the profusion of plastic and day bright colours in many toys today. laughs Good grief – I sound so old, and I’m most certainly not. I wish all the best to whomever should end up the proud owner – and I hope that they take good care of such a monsterous and ingenious old ‘toy’ contraption.

Mr Kraft, knowing I am quite the fan of goggles (indeed, to an extent, Steampunk is at least 40% goggles, to me), let me know about the pair he recently purchased for himself (for non-welding use) and even better – he’s started a Goggles Pool of photographs over at Flickr! I shall be adding a few of my photographs of goggles posthaste, and I look forward to seeing more there too. Already a few have started the goggle flood – it’s very encouaging to see. Well done, and thank you, Mr Kraft!

A little further afield than we usually go with our Steampunk, but Mr Andy_W sent in a link to this page from Greg Broadmore – and some of his work is lovely indeed. A warning to the careful, however; Mr Greg has done drawings of people without their accoutriments, and those at work, or for whom it is not appropriate, should not stray far in Mr Broadmore’s gallery. For one more in the same style (samurai and tanks) here is a link.

This just jumped out at me, from when I was reading Neatorama today – the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project page! They’ve got over five and a half thousand old cylinder recordings available to listen to online, educational titles, dancehall music, classical, comedy (from various countries) and a plethora of other categories. There’s the history of cylinder recordings to read about too – from the first tin foil ones in 1877 to the very last of their kind commercially produced in 1929 – not a bad run! I’m looking forward to listening to some of these – it somehow makes the Victorian/Steampunk era a lot closer to hear it.

“Extra! Extra!” Well, The Marquis Aquilla Heaton pointed out a pair of very Steampunk books – Airborn and Skybreaker. With a very very nice website to go along with it, it’s set in a marvelously Steampunk past-that-never-was where planes were never invented, and the main character is a cabin boy on the huge, Titanic-dwarfing Aurora luxury airship. Much to my shame, I saw this one on the shelf when I was looking for Larklight, but didn’t pick it up – I regret that now, but there’s so many books to read! This looks like it’s fought past several other in my queue to read, and occupies a high spot in my list. Beware the Flash site though – there’s sound, for those of you with speakers.

The owner of the Soldiers of the Queen site, Edward, very kindly pointed it out to me – and if ever there was a site for seeing what military dress was in the time of Victoria – this would be a perfectly excellent place to start! With primers on old photographic forms, and with a special liking for the activities and images surrounding the lesser soldiers and non-officers of that time, it’s a treasure trove of letters home, diary entries, magnificient uniforms and, I just have to say it – utterly stunning moustaches! Nowhere outside the international moustache competitions could you see upper-lip decorations like that today. Amazing.