Cory Doctorow at 11:00 am • 
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Ethan sez,
Me and my colleague, Alexandra Keller, gave up our day jobs as web geeks to write this game, and almost two years later we finally have it:
Sky Alchemist - a puzzle game about transforming impure matter into pure forms, using heaters, coolers, and breakers, phase-specific collectors, and a centrifuge. We tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible - the heat capacities, hardnesses, and so on are taken from real data wherever we could find it.
It's set in a rich world - a human society that has achieved "Victorian-level" technology, but with a twist - women are the dominant gender. We hope to expand more on this in future releases of the game.
He also notes that it's DRM-free.
Sky Alchemist
Buy it for £5.99 at Desura
Xeni Jardin at 4:16 pm • •
Jake Von Slatt tells Boing Boing, "I got an email this morning from Flaminio Bovino, a young Italian designer who though I might like this amazing blimp lamp he made. He was correct!"
Cory Doctorow at 4:02 pm • •
Etsy seller Steampunk101's GOLIATHON is a truly shitkicking steampunk Nerfgun mod, though that craftspersonship doesn't come cheap: $350!
What happens when you weaponize all the horsepower of a full-size steam locomotive? You get the Goliathon. One shot can level a building, down an airship, or turn a man inside out.
This is a modified Nerf Vulcan. It has many real metal elements added to it, including 4 gauges, copper piping, brass embellishments, and a solid metal valve wheel. It is roughly 2 1/2 feet long. It is a prop only and not intended to fire anything.
Steampunk Gun - THE GOLIATHON
(via CNet)
Xeni Jardin at 12:00 pm • •
Cycling Hipsters, if you were truly worth your ironic sideburns and artisanal grease stains, you'd abandon that fixie and mount one of these bad boys. The Smithsonian honors National Bike Month with a dive into the image archives for this photo, the forerunner of the modern bicycle: a draisine from around 1818. More about this "dandy horse," below.
Read the rest
Cory Doctorow at 1:00 pm • •
Julie L. Mellby posts on Princeton University Library's Graphic Arts Collection blog about the Victorian "Change Packet," a little paper envelope that Victorian shopkeepers used to present customers' change (as Abi points out on Making Light, this embodies some odd assumptions, like shopkeepers never shortchanging their customers, and customers not wanting to spend their change at the next shop). These are beautiful items, and have a fascinating history. From The Encyclopedia of Ephemera: a Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator, and Historian (Michael Twyman, Maurice Rickards):
“Among the refinements of middle-class Victorian shopping was the giving of change not directly from hand to hand but in paper packets. Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal in a review of London shops and shopping (15 October 1853), makes passing note of the custom. A customer seeking to buy a pair of kid gloves ‘is met at the door by a master of the ceremonies, who escorts him to the precise spot where what he seeks awaits him … He walks over rich carpets, in which his feet sink as though upon a meadow-sward; and he may contemplate his portrait at full length in half-a-dozen mirrors, while that pair of gentlemen’s kids at 2s 10 ½ d is being swaddled in tissue-paper, and that remnant of change in the vulgar metal of which coal-scuttles are made … is being decently interred in a sort of vellum sarcophagus ere it is presented to his acceptance’.”
“The envelope, known as a ‘change packet,’ measured some 60 mm (2 ½ in) square and was printed with the legend ‘The change, with thanks’, often in a decorative roundel or other device. Printing was generally in a single colour; sometimes the design appeared as a white, embossed image on a coloured background.”
“The packets were supplied to the shopkeeper either as a stock design in which there was no trade message, or printed specially to order with name, address, and designation presented as a form of miniature trade card. Additionally, the shopkeeper might be supplied with the packets at much reduced rates, if not free of charge, by the new breed of national advertisers who used the printing space on the packet for their own message. Typical of these were Huntley & Palmers, biscuit manufacturers, whose change packets were widely used. Their Royal Appointment design appears in two packet sizes and a variety of colours.”
Your change, with thanks
(via Making Light)
Cory Doctorow at 6:15 am • •
Mark Stafford's "Steam-Dinos" is a Lego fantasy with its own backstory:
“A spiffing way to go to war I decided as we powered through the veldt. Mr. Roberson’s patented Triterrortops steam powered terrible lizard replica was performing above the expectations it has been set by His Majesties Royal Calvalry Corp. My report to the Generals will be that the vehicle has proved more then adequate to combat the clone-vat monstrosities of the Zimbab bio-shamens.(sic)
Also: it really walks!
Steam-Dinos-Rule (via Super Punch)
Cory Doctorow at 8:56 am • •
Kyle sez, "My friend Jordan Stratford has launched his first Kickstarter (currently funded, yay!) but the idea is simply too lovely not to share. From Kickstarter:"
This is a pro-math, pro-science, pro-history and pro-literature adventure novel for and about girls, who use their education to solve problems. This is the made up story about two very real people -- Ada, the world's first computer programmer, and Mary, the world's first science fiction author. If Jane Austen wrote about zeppelins and brass goggles, this would be the book. Why "Wollstonecraft"? Mary names the detective agency after her mother, the famous feminist writer. If this is the kind of book you'd like to see, please support this project.
Wollstonecraft (Thanks, Kyle!)
Cory Doctorow at 10:00 am • •
A followup to yesterday's post about the Conformateur, a 19th century hat-fitting device acquired by Tricia Roush to aid in her millnery. Here is a post from La Bricoleuse, another proud Conformateur owner, whose gizmo needed some TLC to get into good running shape: specifically, it needed new parts that were output from a 3D printer.
As a member of TechShop RDU, i had originally planned to draft the part there using Autodesk Inventor, then use their Dimension rapid prototyper to print the feet. Unfortunately, the machine was damaged and down for the count until it could be repaired. I had my draft but no way to print it.
Enter Dara McGinn of Li Sashay, and RepRap, an open-source 3D printer concept which you can basically make yourself. Dara hosts a weekly Etsy meetup, and it was just my luck that last week she invited engineer and maker Luis Freeman to bring his RepRaps and demonstrate them for attendees. Exciting!
Luis was able to take my foot design and help me convert it to a format the RepRap could process and produce. We used a plastic called PLA (polylactic acid) to print our 3D shapes.
The printing of the foot involved a learning curve. The shape of the first attempt involved some instability in the design and resulted in a weird "poop" of plastic at the top peg. The second attempt, we misjudged the correct height of the foot and it was too tall. It also developed stability problems in the peg, because the small surface area did not provide enough time between levels of printing for the PLA material to solidify. The peg looked like a Slinky when you stand it on end but then poke the side with a finger, so it's askew. On the third try, Luis realized that if we were to print two simultaneously, the issue with the peg stability would be resolved in the time it took to shift position from one peg to another.
1844 meets 2012: Conformateur repair with a 3D printer (Thanks, Beanolini!)
Cory Doctorow at 12:06 pm • •
Tricia Roush is justifiably excited by her acquisition of an 1821 Conformateur in excellent shape. Conformateurs are Victorian devices used to measure the irregularities in the heads of milliner's customers, to ensure a better fit from the eventual hat. Roush explains the device's working in detail, with generous photos of the extraordinary device in action.
While the conformateur is on the head, after the fingers are pressed in so that they are conforming to the head shape, a piece of paper is placed into a frame on the top of the machine. Little pins stick out of the top of the machine, each one attached to one of the fingers, so that the pins now reflect the head shape as well, but in miniature. The frame swings down on a hinge to press the paper into the pins, perforating the paper. In this photo, you can see that the inside of the frame is lined in cork, and there are little holes in the cork where the pins have pressed.
The perforations in the paper make a pattern that's a recording of the person's head shape. The hat maker then cuts the pattern out with scissors along the perforations to store for future use. Here are some examples of the paper patterns. Because it's a shrunken version of the person's head shape, any bumps and asymmetry in the head shape (we all have them) are exaggerated in the pattern, as you can see here.
Oh Joy! My Conformateur (via JWZ)
Cory Doctorow at 9:00 am • •
Art Donovan writes, "I've created a current collection of illuminated designs that take cues from just about every global, antique influence I can find. My latest work, 'The Most Excellent Rumi Redux' stretches my sources just about as far as I've gone yet."
We've featured a lot of Art's excellent work before.
Mr. Donovan’s newest design, “Rumi Redux”, uses influences from the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi. The imagery (and Arabic calligraphy) is inspired by the famous 12th century Persian scientist, al Jazari. The crown art is entirely hand painted in gouache and gold leaf with translucent dyes used for the back-lit elements.
The back-lit, glowing “Eye” is inspired by an early 19th century painting from an English masonic lodge. The comet is reproduced accurately from the 16th century German, “Wunderzeichenbuch” (The Book of Miracles). The Persian elephant is reproduced from an early illuminated text and the crescent moon is 2" thick, frosted convex lens- which is then back-lit and rear painted in deep red to evoke earth shine. The solid mahogany base is painted in pale matte gray with hand made brass and silk tassels.
"The Most Excellent Rumi Redux" (Thanks, Art!)
Cory Doctorow at 6:10 am • •
This steampunk, papercraft wonderment comes from Phillip Valdez, who notes, "I do paper sculpture and have a soft spot for steampunk. All creations are made from Archival paper with book binding glue and acrylic paints."
Be the first in your city to own a mechanical wonder “The Iron Horse”.
(Thanks, Phillip!)
Cory Doctorow at 8:08 am • •
Batman-and-bananas from DeviantArt created a fantastic springheeled set of cosplay boots as part of a steampunk version of Chell from Portal 2.
These started as two pairs of shoes, one cheap pair of black pleather boots and an old pair of canvas shoes. The heel 'spring' is actually plastic tubing as I could screw this straight into the heel to secure it firmly (plus a lot more sensible to walk in).
Steampunk Portal Boots
(via Craft)
Cory Doctorow at 7:39 pm • •
Gramturismo sez, "A maker in Scotland has created an elaborate, steampunk style hand cranked corkscrew." It's quite an amazing gadget -- talk about thoroughly solving a problem!
Rob Higgs
(Thanks, gramturismo!)
Cory Doctorow at 2:12 pm • •
Doktor A, a sculptor and painter, produced this steampunked version of Thing from the Addams Family for an Addams-themed exhibition at the Wootini Gallery in Carrboro, NC.
Thing….
(via Neatorama)
Cory Doctorow at 2:59 pm • •
On Wired, Matt Simon profiles Clayton Bailey, who makes spectacular rayguns out of junk and scrap, and who is possessed of a truly magnificent mustache.
Next you’ll notice the many steampunkish ray guns — from dueling pistols to rifles to turrets — that Bailey has constructed from materials he found at flea markets and scrap yards around the San Francisco Bay Area. Instead of shooting lasers, they utilize either lungpower or pump-action air pressure to launch peas, corks or bits of potato a third of the way down a football field.
They’re gorgeous and entirely nonlethal, unless you’re targeting someone with an especially bad allergy to peas, corks or potatoes.
Scrap Yards Yield Raw Material for Artist’s Amazing Ray Guns
(Image: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com)
