Steampunk your home!

21 Cool Tips To Steampunk Your Home

The steampunk style is not one of the most well known in terms of interior design. Maybe that’s because many of us don’t even know which are the basic details that define this concept. When I say steampunk, I remember about the Victorian era, with all the inventions back then, but the meaning of this word would be incomplete without the industrial details.

In essence, this trend is a mixture between elegant Victorian interior accessories and the strength of industrial elements. Maybe you remember about Joben Bistro, that beautiful pub from Romania. It’s an inspiration for us.

So, give your home a steampunk look with these awesome décor ideas and items!


1. Use muted neutral colors

Brown, sepia, cream, black, dark red and dark green, these are the most common colors used to describe this style. Choose one of them according to the room, or combine them if you want. Also, metallic colors should work.

2. Don’t be afraid to use refurbished furniture


It’s a fact that old furniture adds a special charm to any home. If you want to create a steampunk interior design don’t even think about buying new furniture, unless it’s specific to Victorian age.

3. Add an industrial touch with exposed bricks




Another idea will be to induce an industrial feeling by showcasing exposed bricks walls. If the structure of the building doesn’t allow you to do that, use wallpaper.

4. Decorate with old maps




Create awesome wall murals using old maps, or just frame some of them and hang them on your walls. Another idea is to decorate the lampshades with maps. The older, the better! You’ll love the result!

5. Buy a terrestrial globe (in case you don’t have one already)


Make sure it’s old and very used. It would be one of the most popular items in the house, and kids would love to spin it over and over again.

6. Expose leather items or furniture




Leather sofa and chairs are definitely a must for steampunk admirers. It’s one of the most important materials used to define this trend. Not only comfortable, but also elegant, this material increases the luxury level of your home.

7. Classy hats will bring elegance and style


Top-hats or bowler hats can be used to impress your guests. Because they are symbols of the Victorian era, they will easily become a part of your steampunk decor.

8. Victorian sewing tables


A Victorian sewing table always has a history and that’s why it will easily become a new source of inspiration for your visitors. If you don’ t have such a beautiful item in your home, try the antique stores.

9. Decorate your walls with gear wall clocks




Gears are important items of the steampunk culture, so don’t forget about them. Let your imagination run wild! A gear wall clock will certainly make a statement, but you can also use them to create and display industrial art pieces.

10. Use an old steamer trunk as a living room table




Sometimes you must improvise in order to obtain the desired result. If you don’t have a proper table for this kind of interior design, use a steamer trunk or any other suitcase to fill the empty space.

11. Use exposed framed herbariums


Sometimes we do our best to properly decorate the rooms of our house, but we forget about the entrance. Your hallway would never look more beautiful and sophisticated without those framed herbariums.

12. Decorate with sepia pictures




Create an antique effect by using sepia photos to decorate your walls. It’s your choice whether you use old pictures with your family, or with other places around the world.

13. Add some details by exposing technical and anatomical drawings




These kinds of sketches are highly representative for this trend. If you happen to have something like that among your personal things or you’re an engineer, don’t hesitate to use them.

14. Expose antique items like barometers, telescopes or typewriters


Victorians had a passion for inventing new tools and gadgets, and the best part is the fact that you can still find them in antique shops. Even though many of them are not functional, you can use them as decorating items.

15. Try textural contrast


You can create a steampunk interior décor if you manage to combine a hard material (leather) and a soft one, like lace. So, part of the appeal of steampunk is the juxtaposition of traditionally feminine and masculine elements.

16. Expose a Victorian dress, or canes, or helmets on the wall


Maybe some of you will consider this a creepy idea, but I think it’s worth a chance. Canes or helmets are also a good choice, and they are certainly easier to find in antique shops.

17. Don’ t forget about small wood jewelry boxes


Walk up to your local hardware store and buy some small metal pieces like gears, or screws or anything else that could be glued to the wooden box. You won’t regret this!

18. Use wallpapers with a Victorian pattern


If you don’t really like those, and you happen to be a talented painter, try something new: paint some creatures in the books of Jules Verne, or some mechanical installations you remember from Time Machine.

19. Display old books


Old books are a must in this case! Hard covered books are usually used, but paperbacks are also welcomed. Old notebooks with leather covers will also make a statement if they are tastefully arranged.

20. Create a metal pipe bookshelf


Industrial all the way, even when we talk about ideas to display your books! Steel pipes are elementary in industrial design and quite easy to handle. Here we have a special article about how you can recycle steel pipes. Have a look!

21. Add a chandelier


Light fixtures are always important. Through light you can easily emphasize the interior design of the room and even the furniture. If you have high ceilings, use a chandelier. Bring a little luxury and comfort!

Source: homedit.com

Airships in Space ?!

"Astronomy From High Altitude Airships"

Sometimes the edge of space can almost be as good as space itself — that is, when it comes to telescopes riding airships at the top of Earth’s tenuous and rarefied stratosphere.

High Altitude Airships (HAAs), until now largely the purview of defense-related research, may ultimately find their rightful place as vehicles of science and industry.

At least that’s the hope of Sarah Miller, an astronomer and Chancellor’s ADVANCE Fellow at the University of California at Irvine.

Miller and colleagues are hoping to turn a February 2014 Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) report on the potential uses of stratospheric airships for science into a NASA-sponsored challenge to make HAAs a viable astronomical observing platform.

“The military has tried and failed to develop a vehicle, because they tried to move from a [stratospheric] ‘Kitty Hawk’[-type] situation to a ‘Boeing 747’ on extremely aggressive timescales that were all doomed to fail,” said Miller, one of the workshop study’s co-leads. “But astrophysics, cosmology, and earth and atmospheric sciences all motivate the development of these vehicles. So, we could actually see them succeed over the next decade.”

Jason Rhodes, a cosmologist at NASA JPL and also one of the workshop study’s co-leads, thinks an airship should be able to operate at a fraction of a cost of a dedicated space mission and at some 20,000 ft higher than the highest flying commercial aircraft.

“About 60,000 ft in the stratosphere is the sweet spot for these craft,” said Rhodes. “That’s about as high as you can go and still have enough of an atmosphere to propel against.”

Yet researchers say the atmospheric turbulence at that altitude is still low enough to get what is known as telescopic “diffraction-limited” seeing at optical wavelengths. That means the telescope’s resolution of distant objects is only limited only by the size of the telescope’s mirror and not by the blurring effects of the atmosphere.

And at such altitudes, astronomers would expect to do much better in the ultraviolet and the sub-millimeter and millimeter ranges.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is currently the only space telescope operating in that ultraviolet wavelength range, says Rhodes, and it will reach the end of its lifetime in 5 to 10 years. Thus, he says in the next decade, even a one-meter aperture stratospheric telescope could “really complement” NASA’s space missions.

However, as Rhodes notes, at 65,000 feet, the airship will still encounter some telescopic jitter from stratospheric winds. It’s a problem that Rhodes says HAA designers are still trying to work through.

In principle, a one-meter airship telescope could be up for many weeks or months at a time and do station-keeping which would allow for line of sight communications with a ground station. Likely powered by lightweight propellers, such an airship’s instruments and propulsion system would be run by energy gleaned from solar photovoltaic arrays within or on the airship’s surface.

But to date, as Rhodes notes, no one has even demonstrated an airship that could fly for 24 hours at a time at such altitudes. Even so, if there’s enough interest in such an airship for astronomy, Rhodes says NASA will run an X Prize-styled challenge over the next couple of years.

Rhodes says NASA has not yet committed itself to running the challenge, but sometime this Fall he and colleagues will initiate a Request for Information (RFI) from potential challenge participants.

“It would be a two-tiered challenge,” said Rhodes. “The first would be to fly an airship for 20 hours with a small 20 kg payload at an altitude of 20 km for a $1 million prize. A second would be a 200 kg payload at 20 km for 200 hours for a $2 to $4 million prize.”

Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Raven Aerostar, the Near Space Corporation and the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) have all expressed interest in further work on HAA technology.

Rhodes says there are parallel drivers for the airship tech to develop and mature. Thus, aerospace companies interested in HAAs for defense or telecommunications applications might end up developing an HAA design that astronomers could then adapt as an observational platform.

“I could see NASA having a fleet of these airships that they could either rent out, or let the public use through a competitive process,” said Rhodes.

To cut costs, Rhodes says such research airships could be multi purpose — using the platform for earth science observations during the day, while switching to astronomical mode at night.

Rhodes says it might even be able to compete with SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), actually a modified flying Boeing 747, which he says can have operational costs of up to $70 to $80 million a year.

“These stratospheric platforms are much more stable, still, and flexible than traditional fixed wing aircraft platforms [like SOFIA],” said Miller.

An astronomical HAA could potentially access wavelengths that SOFIA can’t, which would be a real boon for millimeter and sub-millimeter observations. Such observations are crucial for detecting water in emerging protoplanetary disks around other nearby stars as well as taking high-resolution images of the very early universe’s Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).

And as a helium-filled structure, an airship could be launched from regions of the world that normally wouldn’t be conducive to optical astronomical observations. Then the onboard telescope could either be controlled remotely or be fully automated.

Unlike traditional low altitude blimps which need a sizable ground crew, Miller says, some of these airships have been designed to be launched “out of a box” by one or two people.

“At least a 4-meter class airship telescope is possible using full-scale design concepts and without an onboard crew,” said Miller. “We’ve gotten very good at automation and remote control of these telescopes.”

And unlike most spacecraft, NASA could keep reusing these airships; switching out telescopes and instruments as observations warrant.

For the last 14 years, Rhodes says he’s been working on mission concepts to study Dark Energy with both NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy. But Rhodes says he is looking for a game-changing way to make that whole process faster. One that allows access to space-quality astronomical data without so much lag time from idea to launch.

This would help astronomers quickly and affordably react to new science discoveries and do astronomical observations from a space-like environment.

Rhodes says an affordable airship platform would also fill gaps in NASA’s observational capability, particularly when trying to answer fundamental questions about the universe.

If such airships could be had for only tens of millions of dollars, institutions that could normally never access state of the art telescopes would suddenly find themselves with their own private windows onto a pristine sky.

Source: forbes.com

Heathrow's stairway to heaven!

Forget their sci-fi image: airships really could be the answer for Heathrow in a post-airport future, says Hawkins Brown’s Darryl Chen

Imagine the sky above London dotted with softly humming airships. Half floating, half jet-propelled, they make for a spectacle as familar and surreal as a dream. You recall the skies used to be streaked with vapour trails and resound with that delayed roar of aeroplanes? They’ve long been banished to somewhere in the estuary, while a new creature has taken its place over central London…

Fanciful? Not say manufacturers betting serious R&D money on airship technologies. Not say the UK government who have invested in airship development, or Hybrid Air Vehicles who plan commercial freight services by 2021. Airships are currently being deployed around the world for scientific missions, humanitarian efforts and even surveying natural disasters. The question of airships in the mainstream is not a matter of if but when.

Airships are becoming faster and quieter, they carry heavier payloads and, importantly, are carbon fuel-efficient. Current models emit 1/7 the carbon of a 787, with half the noise. Ballasts keep them stable in rough weather and they are filled with inert helium which is non-flammable. They benefit from vertical take-off and landing, and can dock in any small field with two ground staff.

Hawkins Brown’s airship port proposal

We have imagined they might take on some of the freight transportation were Heathrow to be decommissioned. The plan would consolidate logistics infrastructure already in place at Heathrow and in west London, and go some way to addressing the void of economic activity in the wake of the airport moving.

Airships will fundamentally alter the geography of distribution, in alleviating congestion on road and rail networks and in reaching both more remote and more built-up areas. (Could this be the lifeline to the north that HS2 is mooted to be?) Some 920 million parcels were dispatched from UK e-retailers in 2013 making Britons the biggest online shoppers in the world. The smooth distribution of goods underpins modern life. It underwrites our material securities. This is the stuff urbanism is made of.

Sure, we should be consuming less. But as long as we are consuming, let’s do it greener. Low carbon-emission airship freight might form an ethical brand, comparable to fairtrade or organic. A cost premium can be added at the point of sale when dealing in comparison goods. And let’s not forget that if we’re still in the EU then they will increasingly be on our back about enforcing emissions cuts.

If airships are the whales, then drones are the mosquitoes. What other creatures will inhabit this airborne ecosystem of the near future?

Source: bdonline.co.uk

The Donk!

"The Donk is based on a heavily used Peavey Precision Bass. The kind of bass you can take anywhere – to play anything." Built by Himmelfahrt Guitars

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Source: himmelfahrtguitars.com

Giants of the Skies Return!

Blimps are back, with the ability to carry massive payloads cost-efficiently. But can the industry really rebuild itself?

The Dragon Dream from Worldwide Aeros Corp. Worldwide Aeros Corp

AEROSPACE GIANTS AND startups are preparing the revival of a century-old concept: the Zeppelin. Once envisioned as a way to travel across the Atlantic in great luxury, the new generation of giant blimps is being targeted at industrial sectors with a track record of spending large amounts of money in the pursuit of a competitive edge: telecommunications, mining, and defense.

Some of the top aerospace companies, including Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT +1.35%and Thales SA, HO.FR +1.09% are becoming involved in the lighter-than-air sector that has long been championed by a coterie of smaller companies.

Customer interest is also rising as Icelandair's ICEAIR.RK -0.58% cargo arm and Cargolux, one of the world's largest independent airfreight operators, express interest in the form.

The attraction of the massive hulls, which can measure more than 500 feet in length, is their ability to carry large amounts of cargo from remote areas where planes often can't land. Though slower than a cargo jet, blimps have far lower transport costs.

The German Hindenburg, catching fire on May 6, 1937 Getty Images

One of the biggest problems for the Zeppelin zealots, however, has been one of perception. The most iconic image of the industry is that of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, which was caught on film when the hydrogen-filled hull caught fire, engulfing the vehicle in flames, and killing 36 people.

"We have to change the public perception," said Jean-Philippe Chessel, who heads the StratoBus airship project at France's Thales. The company plans to build a demonstrator in about five years to help build confidence among potential customers and safety regulators. Thales said its vehicle will be solar-powered, fly at 60,000 feet and remain airborne for a year. It could be used by the military in crisis areas, carrying cameras, radars or telecommunication relays. The airship would provide ad hoc coverage at far lower cost than a satellite, said Mr. Chessel.

Other prototypes have already taken to the air. Lockheed Martin flew the P-791 hybrid airship demonstrator in 2006 and in 2012 began the process to win a type certificate for the LMZ1M airship that would feature a gondola for up to eight passengers and two crew members. The vehicle could also carry cargo in an internal bay or externally.

Britain's Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. flew its Airlander 10 in 2012 under a U.S. Army contract with Northrop Grumman Corp. NOC +1.46% Its California-based rival, Worldwide Aeros Corp., flew the Dragon Dream vehicle about 30 hours last year. The craft is a half-scale prototype of the planned ML866, designed to carry 66 tons of payload.

Hybrid Air Vehicles's Airlander Hybrid Air Vehicles

Modern airships are far more sophisticated than Zeppelin-era designs, featuring advanced buoyancy systems and the use of advanced materials in their structure. The Lockheed airship would feature fly-by-wire electronic controls now widely used on combat jets and modern airliners.

Igor Pasternak, chief executive of Worldwide Aeros, said airships could spur a revolution in air transport. "We are creating the Internet for logistics," he said. The company is working with potential users to explore how best to employ such transportation systems. "The challenge is how do we structure the right business model," Mr. Pasternak said.

Establishing the industry hasn't been without its setbacks. The U.S. military canceled the program involving HAV's Airlander after deciding it couldn't meet military needs in Afghanistan fast enough. Hybrid bought the aircraft back from the U.S. government and is now rebuilding it for demonstration flights, said Chris Daniels, head of partnerships at HAV. The goal is to return it to flight early next year. Work has also started on a larger version, the Airlander 50, with a range of 2,600 nautical miles.

Worldwide Aeros's craft suffered a partial roof collapse of a hangar which heavily damaged the Dragon Dream. The company isn't sure it will rebuild the vehicle, Mr. Pasternak said. It is, however, pressing ahead with construction of the first two operational ML866s. Work on a vehicle capable of carrying 250 tons of cargo will start in two years.

The biggest challenge for the industry isn't technical, Mr. Pasternak said, but financing. Worldwide Aeros is funded for the next 12 months, but needs more capital to complete construction of its first operational vehicles. Hybrid is funded through to early next year and the planned return flight of the Airlander. It hopes to secure orders by then to proceed with building further vehicles.

The companies are confident, however, that the market holds enough promise to help them raise funds. Hybrid sees a potential market of 650-1,000 airships over several decades, although Mr. Pasternak said it is difficult to gauge the size of the market accurately since airships are a disruptive technology.

Production plans are ambitious. Worldwide Aeros has plans to build as many as 12 vehicles a year. Hybrid targets production of 30-40 airships a year toward the end of the decade. "Our biggest issue is likely to be satisfying demand," Mr. Daniels said.

Not everyone is a convert. Airbus Group EADSY +0.94% NV, which explored the airship concept, has shelved plans, said Sebastien Remy, the company's head of innovation. The company saw too many obstacles for a viable system, though Mr. Remy wouldn't rule out an eventual reversal, in partnership with another company.

Source: The Wall Street Journal / wsj.com

Part blimp, part helicopter Airship...

...takes transport to new heights!

The aft of the 26m-high Airlander 10 dominates Hangar One at Cardington, Bedfordshire

In Britain's largest aircraft hangar, near Cardington in Bedfordshire, a new type of hybrid is being designed -- the Airlander 50. "It's like an airship, in that it uses helium to generate buoyancy, but it also has a specifically engineered hull design to generate aerodynamic lift and thrust," says aeronautical engineer Nick Allman, programme director at Hybrid Air Vehicles.

The 119-metre long vehicle, which will make its maiden voyage in 2018, has a hovercraft undercarriage system so it can take off vertically and land on any flat surface, including water, marsh or snow. It will also be able to hover like a helicopter while carrying about 40 per cent of its full cargo, making it ideal for transporting goods to remote areas.

"If you need to build a mine in Africa or northern Canada, at the moment you have to build a road first and then transport materials," says Allman. Early next year, a 92-metre-long version known as the Airlander 10 (pictured), which can climb to 6,000 metres for up to three weeks at a time, will be demonstrated as a stable platform for communications, geological survey or filming. 

Left: Airlander 10's flight deck is positioned directly below the helium-filled envelope. Right: One of four propulsors. Two are fitted to the sides, and two at the aft.

"Our plan is to set up an aerial mobile-phone mast and fly out over areas with no coverage, and also use it during the Rio 2016 Olympics as a satellite and telecommunications platform," says Allman.

Source: wired.co.uk

Of Bigamy, Blackmail and Betrayal!

...A scorching new graphic novel by... celebrated Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope

-Works by novelist Anthony Trollope being recast as 'graphic' comic book
-First 'novel' is based on John Caldigate and will be renamed Dispossession
-Comic book will be published next year in time for bicentenary celebrations

Anthony Trollope is one of the most celebrated novelists in the English language, a towering icon of the Victorian era who is feted by critics and adored by readers to this day. But now one of his famously lengthy works is being recast in the unlikely form of a comic book, pared down to fewer than a hundred pages of cartoon strips.

The first Trollope ‘graphic novel’ is based on his relatively obscure work John Caldigate.

The first Anthony Trollope 'graphic novel' is based on his relatively obscure work John Caldigate, and has been re-named Dispossession

Published in 1879, it is a story of bigamy, blackmail and betrayal set during the Australian gold rush, a very different milieu from the political and ecclesiastical intrigue of the Palliser novels and The Barchester Chronicles for which Trollope is best known.

Under the new title of Dispossession, the comic book will be published next year in time for the bicentenary celebrations of Trollope’s birth.

Dispossession has the same characters and plot as the original novel but it tells the story in a way that will surprise the writer’s legion of fans.

Trollope is often to referred to as the Establishment’s favourite author, and his admirers include former Prime Minister Sir John Major, the Bishop of London Richard Chartres and Lord Fellowes, the Oscar-winning creator of Downton Abbey.

Anthony Trollope is one of the most celebrated novelists in the English language, a towering icon of the Victorian era who is feted by critics to this day

Whereas Trollope’s novel ran to more than 600 pages and included no illustrations, the graphic version has just 96 pages and 576 separate images. 

Much of the narrative is delivered in the form of speech bubbles.

It also includes 700 words of Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal language that does not feature in the original book.

John Caldigate is a Victorian ne’er-do-well who graduates from Cambridge with gambling debts and begins a new life in the Australian goldfields. 

On the voyage he meets feisty widow Euphemia Smith, and the pair set up home in Australia.

Caldigate returns to England alone after making his fortune and marries his childhood sweetheart, Hester Bolton. 

But his past comes back to haunt him when Euphemia turns up and accuses him of bigamy.

Dr Simon Grennan, the artist and academic who has created the comic book, said he had chosen John Caldigate precisely because it wasn’t as well known as Trollope’s other novels.

He said: ‘That opens up the opportunities for adaptation.’

His version includes Aboriginal and convict characters only hinted at by Trollope.

Grennan, a research fellow at the University of Chester, said: ‘Trollope set this story in New South Wales but did not make more of the miners, convicts and Aboriginals who lived there. 

'I didn’t want that implausibility in Dispossession.’ 

Lord Fellowes welcomed the new version, which he hoped would introduce new readers to the author, saying: ‘Any road that leads to Trollope is worth taking.' 

Source: dailymail.co.uk