Monday, November 29, 2010

Open Post: What Steampunk Technology Are You Curious About?

You might have noticed I've been missing my Monday and Tuesday posts here for several weeks now. This was due to a whole onslaught of work that came up at once (isn't that how it always is?), but I want you all to know that I fully plan to get back on the posting schedule as it were as quickly as possible.

To that end, I realized that there's already been quite a bit of technology and science posts that I've done in the past year and a half; so I was wondering if there were any areas of Victorian Era science or technology that my faithful readers would want to see me write about?

It doesn't have to be new material either. You can ask me to write about anything, even if I have a post in the back catalog that already deals with the topic.

The floor is yours ....

6 comments:

Jack Horner said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jack Horner said...

I am very interested in two aspects of Victorian technology/speculative technology.

1. I am curious regarding human powered technologies, I know lathes and sewing machines, but how far did it go?

2. I'm reading Verne right now. Electricity, not steam, is his power of the future. I would love to see the dream of electricity contrasted with the reality of the last 100 years.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Hmmm...how about something we may not think of, something unusual and cool?! In other words, surprise me. :-)

Clare K. R. Miller said...

How about paleontology?

Matthew Delman said...

Jack -- Good suggestions! Your second one will take some time to appear, but it's gone on my list for sure now.

The first one is also going to take some time to write well; but that'll happen as well.

Shannon -- I will do my best. :)

Clare -- Not something I would've considered, but I like the possibilities.

Jack Horner said...

Ok, one more if you're still accepting requests.

What was the actual computing power of Babbage's analytical engine? How many cogs would it require to equal something from the dawn of the PC era? If you were to engage a hoard of watchmakers, to what extent could you miniaturize it's workings?