From: Mr. Zebulon Pike, Deadwood, Dakota Territory
To: Mrs. Hannelore West, Kingsport, Mass.
September 1879

Cherished Sister,

I have, of late, been negligent in my duty to keep you informed of my activities here on the frontier and, I admit with some reluctance, that I have been somewhat depressed of late. I am a scientist and even though I have been encountering nearly inexplicable wonders; ancient spirits that animate the corpses of the dead, conglomerate constructs of flesh and bone and, of course, Dr. Hellstromme's giant iron mechanical men, each new wonder has been met, not with scientific inquiry and experimentation but with explosives and copious amounts of gunfire.

Today, however, is a new day. I have slipped the shackles of conventional science and stepped into an entirely new world.

I have already related to you of our banishment from the Sioux Nations in spite of our aid in suppressing murderous demon-possessed monstrosities and our subsequent encounters with Hellstromme's automatons in the Montana Territory. How frustrated I had been for in each encounter the devices, instead of breaking down when sufficient damage was applied, would detonate, destroying themselves so completely as to offer no meaningful data as to their construction. But, through the summer I formulated a theory of antipodal magnotomic ionization which I hoped would prove capable of capturing one of these machines.

The past several weeks have been divided between fleeing Hellstromme's mercenaries and, lacking proper tools and materials, attempting to construct the weapon that would finally capture one of the succession of infernal machines he has sent against us. Finally returning to Deadwood and my laboratory, I was able to complete my device, and not a moment too soon.

Several days ago, fliers were circulated throughout the town not only offering significant sums of money for our capture and delivery to the hands of Dr. Darius Hellstromme but warning dire retribution on any who would harbor us. Several of Hellstromme's men were about the town, agitating the residents and even their execution, to use an indelicate but otherwise accurate term, by Messrs. Tobin, Pace, Bongiovi and Sombrero, failed to allay fears. Many of the townspeople took flight to nearby Lead, Central City or even as far as Bismark. Our neighbors in China Alley simply fled to the hills.

We had expected at least several days with which to prepare but the assault began the next morning. And assault it was. A score of gunmen and one of Hellstromme's mechanical men of war brazenly striding down the main street with rockets and gattling guns blazing. Mr. Tobin, with his unearthly ability to walk without harm through the most whithering fire, went out to engage them on their own terms while the rest of us held back, our vantage from the roof and attic of the House of Pancakes.

The advance seemed to me overly showy and ineffective and, looking behind, beyond the tents of China Alley and up the hill, came another automaton. It was smaller, perhaps the size of a bear, but it was taking a more stealthy approach. The approach was, however, revealed and I went downstairs to confront the machine in the back yard. I placed my secret weapon, a glass bottle atop a short rocket tube, on the end of the LeMat pistol you gave me.

I stepped out into the yard in an attempt to get a clear shot but the beast raised it's arm and launched a rocket of its own, forcing me to take cover again in the back hall. I stepped out again and, standing in full view, took my shot, closing my eyes for a moment to shield them from the backblast of my rocket's propulsion.

It was superlative! Unfolding before me as some slowed down kinetograph, opposing rockets passed in flight; his passing dramatically over my shoulder and mine smashing him squarely in the chest plate. The glass of the bottle shattered and the finely shredded iron filings inside spread into a glittering cloud, pushed apart by identical magnetic charges. Yet, in free air, such ionization cannot long endure. Polarity returned to the countless particulates and, finding a nearby ferrous mass, contracted as if under intelligent command.

At that moment, time seemed to snap back into focus and I needed to again dive for cover as the machine began firing it's gattling at me. I knew, however, that the millions of sharp iron fragments were relentlessly working their way into the delicate inner workings, fouling fine toothed gears and interrupting electric circuits. The machine smashed through the door and advanced on me in the hallway, slowed by the narrow confines and the metal tearing at its insides. I had a second projectile and instead of launching it with its rocket, I threw it at the automaton's head. Indoors, the reaction was even more swift and I could now hear the crying of dying mechanisms.

It reached out with it's hand and as it ground to a halt, I began to laugh. It was if I could see through it's think iron plates and witness the filings digging grooves into fine brass clockwork, fowling chains and pistons, killing it from the inside out. My comrades, having dispatched the other automaton and either killing or setting to flight its infantry support, heard my laughter from out in the street and rushed to my aid, mistaking it for tortured cries of pain. They later told me it disturbed them thoroughly.

I am sitting now in the House of Pancakes, making sure the automaton remains inert while the others obtain for me blocks, tackle and a cart to move it to where I can begin the process of dissection. If it had not destroyed my lab, I would . . .

My lab. . . The handbills. . . The wanted posters that Hellstromme's men distributed in Deadwood to foment panic in advance of their attacks. My face was not among them. . . The frontal assault. . . The stealthy flanking approach. . . When I took cover in here, the automaton launched its missiles at my workshop rather than at me. It pursued me inside rather than firing its gattling. . . It was me. . . It was me. . . Hellstromme is after me. . .

Absolutely magnificent!

I have. . . I have an arch-nemesis!

Z


 

A Vampire Steampunk Young Adult Romance from Questionable Content.

 

It began at Marcon when I picked up a pith helmet. It was an actual pith pith helmet from Blonde Swan and, having bought such a thing, I was committed to creating an appropriate costume around it. Thus began my search for all the other parts.

I could have simply gotten a safari jacket and been done with it, like so many of the Great White Hunter or Colonial Explorer costumes are, but I didn't want to do that for several reasons. First and foremost, because it is somewhat common, I didn't want to run with the crowd. Second, such a look would require that I have a dress shirt and tie under the jacket and walking around at a convention is hot enough already. I decided that I would modify the jacket to have the high collar of the British infantry tunics of the Boer wars.

Jacket and Tunic

When I got the jacket from Gentleman's Emporium, I worked out that I would tear the lower pockets off, replace the buttons and could use the material in the unused belt to remake the collar. The flaw in that was that I didn't know quite how I was going to do that. I had a rough idea but needed someone with experience to work out the details and do the actual sewing because I have no sewing talent whatsoever. I called my mom.

Over at my parent's house, we were able to work out how to turn the belt into a collar. We ripped out the back seam that ran down the center and one of the edging seams. The crease that remained would become the top of the collar and what had been the center edge was sewn along the inside of the collar.

It's pretty difficult to describe so let me throw it onto my scanner:

Collar detail illustration

This is looking at the underside of the collar on my right side. You can see that the original collar is still there, underneath the new collar to provide a little support. The edge you see at the top is now the bottom of the collar after it folds down and is the original edge of the belt. That extra bit of material you see overlapping the original collar at the left is originally the middle seam of the belt, where it was sewn into a tube and then flattened and edged to make it a belt. The holes of that ripped seam was lined up with the base seam of the original collar and the crease that was once the edge of the belt became the top of the collar where it folds over.

The front of the collar was cut and edged and some hooks needed to be added to hold it together. In the end it is much like the infantry tunic but somewhat exaggerated. Even with the original collar underneath to provide some support, the collar still has a tenancy to not stay up properly. There's not enough material to sew in a standard collar stay but my wife indicates that there is an iron-on material that will serve that purpose.

I replaced the buttons myself. Tying a square knot is apparently all the talent you need to successfully do that.

I needed a belt. I ordered a proper Sam Browne belt from Sportsman's Guide. Following their size table and description that indicated they were sized large to fit over clothing, I ordered a size large. It was far too small as I could barely get the belt around my waist to connect at the first buckle holes. I sent it back and ordered two sizes up. It turned out to be almost too large but it was much easier to punch a few more buckle holes in the leather to shrink it to fit.

LeMat and Holster

The Sam Browne-style shoulder strap would be necessary to hold up the gun and holster. I have a replica LeMat revolver and it is a bear of a gun, weighing in at over 3.5 pounds. All the holsters I found online for LeMats were cavalry-style holsters with flaps but since I wanted to show off the pistol, I would need to make my own. I commissioned a friend of mine to come over and help me out. In the end, it's a reasonable first attempt. I chose to use snaps to hold the belt loop on to make it easier to put on and take off the holster but the weight of the gun overwhelms the snaps at times. Also, the weight of the game pulls the gun away from the belt. To workaround both of these problems I took a thigh strap from another holster I had and wrapped it around the holster to cinch it up. It's not an ideal solution but the strap and buckle breaks up the lines of the holster in an aesthetically pleasing fashion so it will do.

A few other do-dads and accessories and it was complete.

Zebulon Vitruvius Pike! Gentleman Explorer!

The presentation leaves something to be desired as it's taken in front of a closet at a Halloween party. I hate small camera flashes as well. I should be in a jungle environment or, at the very least, outside. WindyCon is coming up in a few weeks an I'll probably be wearing this around on either that Friday or Sunday (or both).

Crossposted on Steampunk Fashion.

 

Steampunk display at the Waterfront Barnes and Noble

They have the Vandermeer Steampunk anthology (have it already), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (have 3 copies), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (have 2 copies), Leviathan (that I'll be getting when it comes out in paperback) and Boneshaker (that I almost bought right then but, sorry B&N, I'll probably be ordering on Amazon next week).

I don't know about the steampunkiness of the other selections on the shelf, but if it were me setting up the display, I probably would have thrown in First Men in the Moon (just because Wells needs to be represented) and the Steamboy DVD.

The steampunk genre seems to be growing quite vigorously. Huzzah!

I have a LeMat replica but needed a holster for this massive pistol. All the replica holsters I could find online were cavalry-style holsters with flaps. I didn't want something that hid the destinctive gun so I employed the experience of a friend of mine to make a crossdraw style holster.

LeMat Crossdraw Holster

It was fairly easy to produce the holster in an afternoon based on holsters I already have, specifically the Hickok Holster from Cabela's for my Griswold & Gunnison Model 1862. The resultant holster came with several problems, though. For one, the belt loop is held on at the bottom with snaps. I wanted snaps so that I could more easily transfer the holster from one belt to another. The problem is that the snaps aren't quite strong enough and come loose. The holster sort of flops forward a little as well.

The solution was to take the thigh strap from a WWII M1911 officer's holster and tie up the holster. It looks a little bit kludged together but, as that fits with the steampunk aesthetic, it will do.

The next problem is that the inside of the snaps rubs on the gun as it is drawn from the holster, leaving a little mark on the barrel. As this is not a real gun, I'm not very concerned, but I'll have to do something to address that.

To do it over, I would solve these problems. Having watched it being done, I am now fairly confident that, given the tools, I could do it myself. But Halloween is upon us and I have other projects to attend to before WindyCon so it will have to do for now.

My steampunk lightsaber requires a power source. Like the lightning foils in Girl Genius, I want to have something to hold in my off-hand that is providing the power to the Jacob's ladder-like electrodes. I could have tried building something from scratch but I suspect that I would be forced to rely on modern materials, mostly plastic plumbing fixtures. I didn't want it to look like I got it at Home Depot so I started looking for something a little more period.

When I was living with my grandfather, he had a number of space heaters that would have worked but we through them out a long time ago because they were older than I am and inherently dangerous. I've been dropping by a nearby flea market every few weeks or so keeping a weather eye out for something appropriate.

Coleman Catalytic Heater

This week, after getting a haircut, I again took a run through the outdoor aisles. There were a lot of space heaters but none were quite right. Then, I saw a Coleman heater. It's a bit heavy but once I gut it of its heating elements, I'm sure I can lighten it up and thus replace that weight with appropriate mechanical stuff.

In the base, where the fuel would go, I'll place an electric motor and battery. This will drive a rotating generator in the upper part. I will add strobing lights to simulate electrical arcing. I'll need to replace the handle with something more substantial. Some gauges, meters or dials would be good. I should also add some Victorian feet to give it the proper period look.

In fact, now that I think of it, I wanted to go to Construction Junction to look for stuff. I haven't picked up my comics from Phantom yet this week so maybe I'll go out again now.


 

I went to the Pittsburgh Comicon in Monroeville on Saturday. My first objective was to farm out flyers for Confluence. I put several stacks at small tables at both the front a rear entrance and periodically through the day checked up on them. I needed to keep watch because someone at the front kept taking my stack and putting them in a box under the table. I would rearrange the table and find a space for them without throwing away anyone else’s promotional material so I don’t know my our flyers were getting treated so poorly.

My second objective was to meet with Henry and give him some leather and instructions for the creation of a holster. My replica LeMat is a big-ass pistol and you can’t just buy a holster for it. At least, not the kind of holster I want. I could probably attempt to do it myself, but wouldn’t want to screw it up. Better to hand it off to someone who knows what he’s doing to get it right the first time. Henry had wanted to come to the con but was a bit broke so, as partial payment for his working on the holster and as an incentive for him to come into town and get the stuff, I paid his admission. I showed up at the con at 10am but he didn’t show up until about noon. It wasn’t a big deal, it took me that long to work my way through the artists alley and dealer’s room the first time.

A lot of people paid attention to my steampunk get up. Yes, it is a pretty good costume but I also think a lot of attention I receive is because I am the only steampunk there. There is a LiveJournal group for the promotion of steampunk here in Pittsburgh but it doesn’t have a lot of members or a lot of activity. I would think that a con would be a prime opportunity for such an outing but I also guess that my perspective is colored by my sci-fi con going, comic book reading background. Someone who came into steampunk through an artistic or fashion background might not even think about comic conventions.

One little Japanese girl had her picture taken with me and then said, “I like your costume a lot.”

“Thank you.”

“Will you give it to me?”

“You’re cute. But, not that cute.”

I had a radio/podcast interview with some sort of Harry Potter group and had the opportunity to exclaim that I thought magic was “Poppycock!” I was interviewed by the Southern California Paranormal Research Society and was disappointed that I couldn’t turn the conversation to the same phrase. It was a bit odd, though. They asked me about whether I had ever had any paranormal experiences and I admitted that, yes, in college I had a few experiences that one might attribute to ghostly or supernatural causes but I was unwilling to go beyond “I don’t know” as an explanation. They asked what sort of proof I would require to accept the paranormal and I cited multiple, independent scientific confirmations and actual physical evidence. Eyewitness accounts do not qualify. Then he asked me about what sort of morals I had.

I was a bit baffled and asked what exactly he meant by the question. He didn’t explain but essentially asked the same question over. I said that I though I had good morals. And then he asked if I knew any steampunks with bad morals. I didn’t like where he was going with the questioning so I said that I though steampunks had the same morals, good and bad, that everyone else has. He persisted and I supposed that, yes, I might know steampunks with bad morals but it’s not something that has come up.

I really wish I had the opportunity to yell “Poppycock!”

I saw Stan Lee as he quickly walked by on his way from signing a gazillion autographs.

‘nuff said.

One dealer there, Specter Studios, was a costume dealer. I saw in the corner of their booth that they had foam props, baseball bats, sledge hammers, lead pipes. I asked one of the guys there if, by chance, they had cricket bats. Mark, the owner, was ebullient exclaiming to his partner that this is why he wanted them to make cricket bats. Yes, they had cricket bats, but none at the con. Their shop is in Sharpsburg and he told me that if I came by the store before the end of the month, they would give me their con discounted pricing. I said that they should do the whole costume, white shirt, tie, name tag. I turned to Mark’s clueless partner and said “You’ve got a little red on you.” He actually looked down at his shirt, which was entirely red, and didn’t get the joke. He needs to rent the “Shaun of the Dead” DVD.

I’m definitely getting out there this week to get a cricket bat.

I drove out to Delmont this morning to Tandy Leather so I could buy a piece of leather to make a holster for my replica LeMat in preparation for WindyCon in November. I put up a bit of a struggle when I was checking out when the proprietress wanted my full name and address for their database and I would rather just pay cash and be done with it.

She asked about the holster and whether I was a Civil War reenactor and I explained that it was for a steampunk costume. She said that they had a class for holster making and asked to see the gun. I mentioned that it was the second one I had as the first had been stolen when my house was broken into. She mentioned that karma will balance things out, the third time that someone has invoked karma when I mentioned that I had been robbed.

"I prefer to believe we live in an uncaring universe. If karma will balance things out by punishing those have have done evil to me one must also accept that karma has punished me for some evil that I have done by having my stuff stolen in the first place. It is a very peculiar sort of denial that sees karma rewarding you when things go well but when things go bad it is merely random chance. To accept karma you must also accept that the universe is punishing you for something you don't even know you did wrong. No. Better to live in a universe that doesn't take an active hand in my joy or misery."

She and her coworker seemed to accept that and perhaps even consider that their impressions of the universe might not be true. I talked a little about random chance using the example of a flipped coin.

"If you flip a coin five times and each time it comes up heads, what are the odds of the next coin flip coming up heads? The odds of flipping 5 in a row is about 3% and throwing 6 in a row is half that but the universe does not link those events together. The odds of any one coin tone coming up heads is completely unrelated to what the coin toss had been previously. Still 50/50. Well, it's not actually 50/50 because coins are not perfect and one side weighing more than the other can affect the way that it lands. The way you flip the coin can bias the toss. But, those biases are so small you could flip a coin for an entire lifetime and not find a statistically significant difference."

The proprietress commented on the bias by saying that people can influence things, such as she knows that people pulling ping-pong balls can influence bingo games with their electric fields.

I doubted that. While I could imagine it being possible, given that I know how the body can hold a static charge and how that charge can effect plastics, I thought that, just like the coins, the effect would be so slight that it would not be recognizable under real-world conditions. It might not even be recognizable under rigorous scientific testing. It would remain, like the coin toss probability, a matter of theoretical mathematics. She countered that she knew it was true because she has a strong electric field. She had a florescent light where she once worked that would always stop buzzing when she would come in to the room.

"How do you know it didn't stop buzzing when you DIDN'T come into the room? You are seeing a pattern based on what amounts to a single observation. For example, where I park my car there is a street light that always seems to go out when I arrive. Based on that personal observation you might think that I was causing that to happen but one day I stayed in the car listening to something on the radio. The light went out. But then it started to warm up, got brighter and brighter and after a few minutes went out again. It did this several times while I sat there listening to the radio. I was not affecting the light in any way, I just happened to see a sequence of moments and my mind created a pattern where there was none. Belief in karma is exactly the same thing. An imagining of cause and effect in things that aren't actually related."

It was an interesting conversation. I very seldom have an opportunity to flex my skeptical muscles.

Afterwords, I drove on to the eastern end of the West Penn Trail to see the Q-Span bridge. In the morning I had read a discussion group posting asking if the bridge was open and I thought it was and, sice I was going to be out that way, I thought I would drop by to confirm that and see what it was like.

It's a nice bridge but there is far too much chain link fencing both on the bridge and the approaches. I have always thought that chain link looks like a cheap construction afterthought wherever it is used. Surely, they could come up with something more asthetically pleasing. Something that helps to show off and compliments the bridge.

One the way back (on a completely unrelated note) I saw a number of billboards. The first compared "Foreign Oil" and "Pennsylvania Coal". "You decide", it said. So, where do we get our power from? 55% of it already comes from coal. 36% comes from the 5 nuclear power plants we have. 5% comes from natural gas and 1% from hydro-electric sources. That leaves about 3% to come from other sources which may include some oil and maybe even foreign oil. If Pennsylvania decided to not use any foreign oil for power generation, no one would notice the difference.

The next billboard said simply "The Big Lie: man made global warming."


'nuff said.

Lastly, there was the billboard that said "Obama Care. Big cuts in Medicare." I don't remember what the third line of the sign said exactly but it alluded to the "death panels" canard.

Ahhh, Westmoreland County.

 

At Marcon earlier this year, I bought a pith helmet. Of course, having done so I was now somewhat obligated to build a proper outfit around it. I already have a nice pair of boots. I ordered a Sam Browne belt on which to hang various steampunky tools, gadgets and weapons. I needed a jacket.

Safari Jacket and British Infantry (Boer War) Tunic

What I would like to have is the British Infantry jacket from the late Victorian period. You've probably seen them in the movie "Zulu" but, the later period had them in khaki rather than red. Ordering a replica of one of those would run nearly $200. So, to not spend that much money, I ordered a more traditional safari jacket. It's a slightly darker color and I'll need to change out the buttons, but it is quite serviceable to my purposes.

But I don't like the collar.

Having the open collar means that I would need to wear a shirt and tie underneath it. Cons are hot enough without wearing two shirts. Besides, I like the high military collar as a matter of aesthetics. The problem is, how to do the conversion.

Thankfully, Gentleman's Emporium was kind enough to send me a cloth belt that I'm not going to wear. That will supply me with the material to reconstruct the collar. The official collar is actually fairly low. Mine will be higher. Not the actual tunic but this is steampunk, not reenactment.

The belts seems a bit high. It would be relatively easy to remove the lower pockets so that the belt could be lower but I wonder if the holes where the threads used to be would show. Otherwise, I'd have to mod the belt a bit so that it will sit higher. I cut the belt loops off of the jacket and, if I am careful, I think it will work. I'll have to ask adelheid_p about it since she knows more about sewing than I do and will probably doing the actual construction of the collar.

I've got other steampunk projects in the queue in preparation to traveling to Windy Con in Chicago in November. The first is a Howdah Pistol based on a modded toy shotgun. I cut the stock off and repainted it and it looked pretty good. The 10 inch barrel seemed a bit long so I've just cut that in half. It's something I should have done in the first place, before painting, but the hammered-finish paint I'm using for the barrel covers up flaws pretty well so that should work out. I'll need a holster for it.

I've replaced the LeMat pistol replica that was stolen and will need to have a holster for it as well. It's to big to just buy one without paying $45, and all the LeMat holsters online have flaps on them. I want to show it off and so need an open holster. They aren't too difficult to design but I don't have the materials. I do know someone who will loan me what I need. I'd be willing to pay him to make it for me.

I bought a 1900 bellows camera that I would like to mod by putting a digital camera inside. That way, I can be looking all steampunky while taking pictures at the con.

I want to make an off-hand generator for my Tesla Foil. My grandfather had an old space heater that would have been a good base into which to build a generator-looking machine but we threw that out when we moved because it was a deathtrap. I've been periodically hitting a local flea market looking for something appropriate. I'd like to start with something more period and mod it rather than trying to build something from scratch. That way, it doesn't look like I went to Home Depot for all my parts. Not very steampunky.

I want to redo my walking cane. I want it to have something that looks like a generator. I want something that looks like a steam engine. I want moving parts and flashing lights. I bought a broken toy train and now have the parts for the steam engine. I continue to look for other pieces.

Ultimately, I'd like to build a steampunk version of the Ghostbusters Proton Pack.

I still want to build a Victorian era space suit.

And a brain in a jar.

I won't have half of this done before WindyCon but I definitely want to have the jacket and holsters ready. The Tesla Foil generator is also possibly within my envelope. Maybe even the camera.

I have a little over two months.