Piston Valve Press

09/17/2024

Steampunk History:
1859 – Emperor Norton I: Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco, proclaiming himself "Emperor Norton I of these United States"... and... "Protector of Mexico."

08/06/2024

Today in steampunk history:
1890 - Electric chair first used to kill convicted murderer William Kemmler at Auburn State Prison, New York. Edison designed the chair as part of his smear campaign against Tesla & Westinghouse. He wanted to show the dangers of AC (vs his own DC being safer). Edison even tried to name it the Tesla Chair, but the name didn't stick.

11/21/2023

Steampunk inventions on this day:
1877 - Phonograph was invented; he announced it as a "talking machine." (Thomas Edison personally did very few good things. This is one of the exceptions). While other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound. His phonograph originally recorded sound onto a tinfoil sheet wrapped around a rotating cylinder.

11/11/2023

Steampunk history: 1880 - Australian bushranger ( outlaw, gang leader, and convicted police murderer) Ned Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Gaol. Ned was also called the "Iron Outlaw" because of the armor he fashioned for himself. An excellent shot with both pistol and rifle, he quickly entered folklore where he remains.

10/24/2023

1901 - 1st barrel ride down Niagara Falls. 63 year old school teacher, Annie Edson Taylor was the trend setter. She did the stunt to gain fame and fortune. After initial photos, she gained neither.

10/24/2023

Today in steampunk history: 1836 - Strike-Matches (phosphorous friction safety match) were patented by Alonzo D. Phillips. Now go read up on the disease that caused jaw bones to rot away and glow in the dark known as "phossy jaw."

10/09/2023

1855 - The steam calliope was patented by Joshua Stoddard (bee keeper and part time inventor).

10/06/2023

Steampunk history: 1866 - First train robbery, performed by the Reno Brothers gang who boarded the Ohio & Mississippi train shortly after it left Seymour, Indiana (there was a train robbery the year prior but it is lumped in with Civil War guerrillas and not a "peace time" robbery).

09/17/2023

Today is a momentous day for steampunk history:
1859 – Emperor Norton I: Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco, proclaiming himself "Emperor Norton I of these United States"... and... "Protector of Mexico."

08/19/2023

08/19/2023

Today in steampunk history:
1839 - Louis Daguerre announced the invention of the daguerreotype photographic process, the first process to allow an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture.

And he took the first selfies.

08/05/2023

Today in steampunk history:
1858 - First transatlantic telegraph cable completed. USA merchant Cyrus West Field spearheaded this effort, with the aid of USA and British naval ships, this was the fifth attempt. The cable was nearly 2,000 miles across the Atlantic ocean, at a depth of more than two miles. August 16, President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria exchanged formal introductory and complimentary messages.

07/02/2023

Steampunk history today:
1900 - First zeppelin flight: LZ1 flew from Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen in southern Germany.

06/14/2023

Today in steampunk history:
1822 - Charles Babbage presented his paper "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables" was presented to the Royal Astronomical Society, and thus the idea of the Babbage Difference Engine was introduced to the world.

06/04/2023

Today in steampunk history:
1903 - A demonstration of the Marconi radio communications system at the Royal Institution, London, was hacked by Nevil Maskelyne.
Physicist John Ambrose Fleming was lecturing to give the public their first demonstration of wireless communication. Italian radio "pioneer" Guglielmo Marconi was at his clifftop radio station in Poldhu, Cornwall, 300 miles away, preparing to send a Morse code signal. Though the audience was unaware of it, the assistant tending the receiving apparatus found it was already tapping out the word “Rats,” repeatedly. Then it mocked, “There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily...” and more. An adversary, music hall magician Neville Maskelyne was interrupting using a transmitter in a nearby hall, to make the point of security flaws in radio messaging while Marconi was trying to use it as a secure point-to-point communication (proving he was using others' knowledge and didn't understand what he was doing).

This took place two years after Guglielmo Marconi received a reissued patent (Re. 11,913) for "Wireless Telegraphy" and before Marconi's patents were revoked because he was using 17 of Tesla's patents.

Nevil Maskelyne is seen here.

05/06/2023

Steampunk History:
Today in 1889 – The Eiffel Tower officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris. It was initially hated by the French, called ugly and a "truly tragic street lamp."