Published: April 25, 2007 07:42 am            

Getting into steampunk

Spring is here (actually, it seems like summer is almost here), and that means only one thing in Oklahoma: storms.

This is the time of year where you can be certain that your television viewing will be interrupted at least once per week by a TV Weather Guy, frowning to show he has a serious side. He’s not all sunshine and rainbows and little crayon portraits of a dog sent in by Amy, age 6. No sir, he’s a meteor-dad-gum-ologist, and he went to college to learn about storms, so now he’s going tell you about them.

Mind you, it is important to hear about dangerous storms; I don’t mind being told about how I need to seek shelter immediately, if that is in fact the case. What I hate is when they keep breaking in after the storms have dissipated to tell you that it’s still OK.

“Yes, Mitch, there’s no dangerous activity in our viewing area. But if there were, it might come from this direction, and everyone in these towns would be in danger of their lives ... although, of course, they’re not, because there’s no dangerous activity.”

Anyway, I’m not here to rant about meteorologists. I’m here to talk about a website — a website that has very, very little to do with the weather, but a great deal to do with alternative history, which is one of my favorite cool things.

The site in question is The Steampunk Workshop; you can find it at .

If you don’t read science fiction, then you may not be aware of steampunk; basically, it’s a literary genre set in a world where steam power is the primary industrial motive force (often the Victorian age), but one that includes things like computers (mechanical, steam-driven versions of Babbage’s Analytical Engine are common) and flying machines.

The Steampunk Labs are dedicated to creating devices that look as though they came from such an era.

The projects are very cool, involving things like turning Altoids tins into copper-plated etched boxes or making keyboards that look like the sort of thing that would be used to program the mighty Engine. Each project is clearly laid out and the instructions are easy to follow; in many cases, there is video of any complex steps to make the process more clear.

The photography is worth a mention as well because the pictures are very well done, being nice artistically as well as serving to clarify the instructions. (One of the tool-making — as opposed to steampunk — projects on the site is making a diffuser for a photo flash to get nicer lighting in your pictures.

There’s a decent (although short) links page where you can find other steampunk-themed sites.

It’s a good website. Several of the projects are potentially hazardous, so be careful if you want to try etching brass, for example.

On the other hand, the projects look really cool, and if you’re like me, then you’ll want to try them.

So go ahead. Make some cool things. Read some steampunk. It’s worth it.

Scott Wilson can be e-mailed via .

        

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