Metered Robot

Cute robot, with a voltage meter as his chest. At CB2 (only $20)

Electrical Insulators turned lighting

Great light, made from repurposed antique telegraph and electrical insulators. At Napa Style.

Edison Electric Light.

Robert Williams sent me a link to this sign that has been making the rounds... Roadside Blog has it in a couple of sizes to download.

I see it framed and displayed next to a push-button light switch (although a turn-key switch would be even better...)

Originally from NextNature.

City of Ember

City of Ember is a movie coming out in October based on a young adult book set in a post apocalyptic world where the only remaining people on earth live underground with light and power provided by a generator. The generator is failing....



I haven't read the book, although I just ordered it, but the movie preview shows some very promising sets centered around an aging industrial electrical environment... one might even be able to call it steampunk.


The trailer:

These photos (and more) at IGN.

Can you curl electricity?

A piece of roccoco cast iron? Curls cut from a dark haired Rapunzel? Medusa's snakes? No, it's an outlet multiplier.


You can unfurl the locks to extend the power to where ever you want.


Made by Artecnica, it doesn't seem to be on sale anywhere yet -- but wait 6 months and I think it would be available at a number of places online.

Thanks to Tangelia for pointing this out on DesignSponge.

The Treasure Trove at RadioGuy

Radio-guy Steve Erenberg is the real thing. Before I even knew what steampunk was, I had stumbled across his website and spent hours pouring over his wild and wonderful collection. Although I mentioned him recently in the post on scissor lamps, I thought he and his collection deserved a post all to themselves.

What does this collection entail? "Oddball and scary scientific stuff, globes, industrial masks and helmets, motors, contraptions, classroom demonstration models, tools, nautical, medical, lighting, early advertising, electrostatic devices, telephones, telegraphs, planeteria, patent and design models, steam engines, microscopes, salesman samples, anatomical, x-ray tubes, artist mannequins, microphones, and early radio equipment." Whew -- a little bit of everything, all of it different and wonderful.

Here's three of my favorites, but you should definitely visit his entire site and waste an enjoyable hour of your day exploring it.

A static electricity generator (could it be from the 1700s, as the filename implies?)
A granite and brass reostat.

And a microscope lamp:



Housewise, most of these are great collections, accessories, etc., if you could find similar things through eBay or antiques dealers. The lighting section, however, is full of great ideas for functional antique industrial lights for your home.

p.s. The masks and mortician models in the museum section are not to be missed if you have a taste for the slightly macabre.

On Heaters and Radiators

Here's some heat related goodness to warm you up this winter.

Reader Joe Kesselman sent me a link to a Turkish company, Carisa, who is making hot water radiators in some very unique shapes. Unfortunately, all are chromed stainless steel and not warm steampunk metals, but they do have some clever designs.

The pipe organ style is the cleverest:
In only slightly related news, reader Paul Hulbert sent me this device from the South Western Electricity Historical Society in Bristol, UK.



My first guess was that it was a 1960s mod of a Victorian device, but it turns out I was wrong -- the extremely modern looking innards are just as Victorian as it's outtards.

This type of heater was available around the turn of the (19th!) century. This Apollo "Dowsing Sausage" Fire dates from approximately 1910. My friend and former colleague John Heath of the SWEHS explains that:

The electric filament lamp was considered inefficient because far more energy was converted into heat than produced light.

H. J. Dowsing, in 1896, designed a "heating lamp" with a frosted glass envelope. It had a 250 watt carbon filament which gave off no light except a warm red glow.

These were the first practical electric radiant heaters.

The Cannon bulb fire in 1904 had four of the "Dowsing Sausages" set against a polished reflector and controlled by brass switches.

The Apollo fire in the museum is similar.

Anyone visited the SWEHS in Bristol? It sounds like a lovely place!

Thank you Paul and Joe (and John!) for sharing these with us.

Dialogues between filament and bulb

Artist and glassblower Dylan Kehde Roelofs emailed me about his new collection of hand blown incandescent sculpture (also known as "light bulbs"). Rockets, insects, upside down bulbs, moon walkers -- the collection takes inspiration from a number of natural and industrial forms, while still maintaining a distinctive incandescent light bulb look.



The first question I had -- and all of you, too, I suspect -- is "what do you do when they burn out?" Dylan anticipated this and first takes us to task for focusing on a mundane practicality: The emphasis of these art objects is on their sculptural form and lighting quality, not quantity., before saying that you should be able to get somewhere between 100 and 1000 days out of them: This being said, the filament temperature is slightly lower than that of bulbs rated for 25,000 hours, and about the same as other famously long-lived bulbs. The filament thickness is at least 10 times that of a standard 2000 hour bulb. The initial inrush of current from being switched on, and vibration are the worst enemies of these sculptural filaments, since the rate of evaporation is several orders of magnitude lower that a standard bulb. Test bulbs approaching 2500 hours of age are not even beginning to show signs of darkening from this evaporation.



How does he make them? These are lampworked at an oxy-propane (hot!) torch from raw pyrex tubing stock. I do all of the filament winding and glass-to-metal seals on the tungsten (with uranium glass! Oh boy!) myself, as well as the vacuum processing.

I wondered where he got the sockets (or did he make those, too?!). Dylan says
I got the little sockets after begging to every lighting company in the book. Those sympathetic to the cause of Mad Science are occasionally willing to send 'samples'.

It's taken Dylan years to acquire the knowledge to build these. He is a Mad Scientist by career, a daguerreotypist, and, unlike the rest of us (who merely want to be), he actually is an alchemist -- he makes 16th century glass distillation equipment and uses it!

Thanks for sharing these with us, Dylan, and for answering my inquiries. I'm looking forward to what you do next!

Pushing my buttons

Ben got me a great birthday present: A push-button light switch from Rejuvenation. It makes a delightful "clack" noise when you push the mother of pearl inlaid button.

Now for a switch plate to cover it. Luckily for me Rejuvenation was out of their simple brass switchplates, so I've ordered the Victorian brass one from House of Antique Hardware. They have the best selection of push-button switch plates I've been able to find online. Their Art Deco switch plate was also very tempting, but I'm slating the new light switch for a hallway where I'm going with an over the top Victorian feel, and this switch and switch plate will bring a nice turn of the century "electricity worship" feel to the space.

Styling ... PowerStrip?

This PowerSquid powerstrip from ThinkGeek reminds me of the dreads many who adopt the SteamPunk Aesthetic in personal style.

0% Steam
90% Punk