A curious thing to post about, an obituary but I’d like to here.  The Telegraph has an article about the life of the recently passed Lt Col John Pine-Coffin, of the Kings African Rifles and Parachute Regiment.  And what a life it was, my personal favourite tale that is recounted:

“A series of staff appointments followed. In 1963 he was in Nassau when he was ordered to investigate a party of Cuban exiles that had infiltrated Andros Island, part of the Bahamas. His seaplane landed in thick mud and Pine-Coffin decided that his only chance of reaching dry land was to strip off.

On coming ashore, plastered in mud and wearing only a red beret and a pair of flippers, he was confronted by a party of armed Cubans. Mustering as much authority as he could in the circumstances, he informed the group that they were trespassing on British sovereign territory and were surrounded. The following morning, when the Royal Marines arrived to rescue him they were astonished to find him and his radio operator in a clearing standing guard over the Cubans and a pile of surrendered weapons. He was appointed OBE.”

As Nothing To Do With Arbroath stated, it’s like a tale from ripping yarns – real Steampunk adventurer/officer.  What a character he must have been.

Over at RustyClank blog (a blog devoted to Lego constructions, with a heavy Steampunk quota) they’ve got a download for a .pdf of an article written about Steampunk as a Lego construction genre. While it may not bring much new to regulars at Brass Goggles, it’s a good introduction to those who are new. It includes some advice for colour choices on bricks, and the likely Lego sets to get parts from.

BrickJournal Steampunk Article .pdf

One of the things we see in so much Steampunk, is the desire to travel and explore. These gentlemen adventurers discovered lost tribes, hidden ancient islands (with dinosaurs), went to the bottom of the sea – and all the way to the moon and beyond! But in this day and age, our exploration options are a little different – the world has been mapped and the chances of finding dinosaurs or lost tribes is a little slimmer than we’d like.

Still, I would like to have the chance to see a bit more of this amazing planet – and if I can do it in a style more elegant and Victorian-inspired, then all the better. So here’s the best option I’ve found so far – Voyage Jules Verne. While some of the holidays don’t strike me as too interesting, they have special interest tours led by a scientist who’ll go into the geology, biology and more of an area (sounds interesting to me – like journeying with your very own professor), and trips on the Orient-Express. Journeys down the spice routes on trains, and trips along the Nile on a restored steam paddle boat (above).

There’s lots more, but I’m not here to write them an advertisement. It pleases me that there are still holidays that are, well, a bit more old-fashioned. All they need to do now is talk to that German company that does airship tours, and they’ll be on to a winner…

So, I’ve been reading up about cogs and gears – partially so I can connect up my little engine to something, and partly because it’s just generally interesting to learn about. I’ve discovered the various kinds of gears, what they’re used for, what a gear ratio is, how a pendulum clock works, and then played with The Incredible Machine a little, so I could have a go of the gears and belts. For those who may not have encountered The Incredible Machine, it’s a puzzle game that seems greatly inspired by both the game Mousetrap, and Heath Robinson-like devices (or Rube Goldberg, if you’re from that side of the pond). I thought I’d add the links here for the various pages I’ve been to – in case you to would like to learn more about gears yourself. How Stuff Works: How Gears Work

How Stuff Works: How Gear Ratios Work

How Stuff Works: How Pendulum Clocks Work

The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions (demo download)

Oh, what a glorious webpage The Museum of Retro Technology is!

Pages about our old friend the Monowheel (monowheels through the years, up to current time monowheels, and a link to an American gentleman who will build you one custom for several thousand dollars), Steam Powered Bicycles, Ether Engines (no, really!), Diwheels, Analogue Mechanical Computers, Curious Clockwork, Insane Gearwheels, and so very much more.

Sir, if I were wearing a hat (and it wasn’t my big floppy one) I’d take it off to you. It’s a marvelous collection of the more interesting technology from the 1800’s onwards! Gentle reader – go there now! If only for the monowheels!

The terribly kind, and downright brilliant Mr I-Wei Huang (of Crabfu Steamworks) is well known for his amazing steam powered miniature contraptions. They, and their creator, have been winning awards for design and invention and are held up as fine examples of Steampunk creativity. Mr Huang was generous enough to answer some questions for Brass Goggles, regarding his machines and Steampunk.

1. What Steampunk influences do you hold closest to your heart? Can you remember when you first ‘discovered’ the genre?

I actually discovered Steampunk after making several of these Steampunk machines. As my website took off, people started bloging and covering these machines, and one term that came up over and over was Steampunk. I quickly surfed up Steampunk, and as a result realized that it was a term for something that I’ve long loved, and did not know there was an actual term for it.

One of my biggest influences in art and animation (I’m a concept artist and animator by trade) is Hayao Miyazaki, and his studio: Studio Ghibli. Many of his work and movies, such as Nausicaa, and Castle in the Sky, and Howl’s Moving Castle, has that Steampunk flavor that I love.

2. Do you have a fictional Steampunk character that you admire or identify with most? If so, why?

Well, I am not so much attached to Steampunk characters, as the world that Steampunk implies. However, I can’t tell you how many people have told me that I am a living Dr Loveless… in which I am not sure how tp feel about or react to Contrary to popular belief (Engadget post about Crabfu) I have no plans of taking over the world with steam powered robots…. yet

3. “Form follows function” is obviously a driving force in your steam powered work, how much if at all, do you compromise the function of a creation to achieve the form you seek?

Oh… Well that is a true statement – form follows function, however, I am an artist first, engineer/hacker second. So looks is VERY important to me, and I didn’t mean to understate the importance of design. I often design out bits and pieces in my head or on paper, but once in the hacking / creating mode, I try to keep as much aesthetics as I imagined in my head to the project. It is always the case though, that I have change my original design once in practice. But as I change and try different things to improve the mechanics, I always consider all possible ways of making it work…. there’s always more than one way to make something work… and the best form and line is picked from the choices – if performance is the same. In the end, if the whole thing isn’t working well enough visually, I then try painting, attaching and mounting things in different places to balance out the design, and often the outcome turns out better than I can ever imagined from scratch… perfect example is the Steam Trilobite (above left), which won Gold Medal at RoboGames 2006 for Best of Show. When I finished the mechanics and got everything working as well as possible, I still didn’t like the porportions, the clutch in the back stuck out way too far, and the boiler sat too far back, so it looked very off balanced, even though it worked well. So I took some aluminum sheets and made a head and tail and turned a stupid looking tank, into a compacted looking trilobite. That was not my original design, but the outcome turned out to be better than I could ever designed out in my head.

4. Do you have plans for your creations? Do you intend to go bigger or more complex? Or is more power your aim?

I am currently working with Joe Klann on a Steam Spider. We have been in prototype phase, creating a complex r/c controlled steam powered spider. However, due to overwhelming number of people asking if I sell these things, Joe and I decided to start over with the Steam Spider, in mind to keep it as simple as possible, as to be able to produce them as kits for sale. We are now working on a simple Steam Spider kit, that is designed for a popular low cost steam engine. We are never short of ideas of how to use steam to power complex robots…. but starting simple, and building on more and more complex kits, as well as add ons, is our goal. If all goes well, we will end up producing kits for a steam powered spider with functionality that is more complex than r/c steambot that I’ve done to date…. thanks to Joe’s engineering background

5. Do you have any advice for someone seeking to follow in your footsteps in creating mobile miniature steam devices?

Yes, saftey first. I’d recommend that you get a low end steam engine first, and read up and learn how to run them. With steam, you are dealing with fire, heat, and pressure, so caution must be taken when operating a steam engine, even at the small scale. I also recommend that you tackle on a small project first, and not try to do a complex r/c steam machine as your first project (which pretty much what I attempted, and my first dozen projects were failures). Tackle on simple first, just a wheeled steam machine that rolls forward, then slowly build up from there. The expeirence you learn from simple mechanics and steam engines, then becomes envaluable experience in the long run. Just remember, gearing, gearing, gearing…. no torque, high RPM’s, that’s all that these toy and model steam engines can do.

So there we go – some excellent news from Mr Huang on upcoming DIY Steam Spider kits for the budding Steampunk mechanic in us all. As a final helping hand, Mr Huang very kindly sent me a link to a Flikr image annotated with descriptions of the major parts of one of his devices, from chimneys to guages, it’s quite enlightening.

The parts of an award winning Steampunk Trilobite.

Many thanks, To Mr I-Wei Huang, Crabfu Steamworks!