- SteamPunkAs Labor Populism
- SteamPunk: A New "Guilded" Age?
- 5th Gen. Seattleite's Dismay: "Boneshaker"
- Absinthe (AKA "the Green Fairy")
- Remembering the "Steam" in Steampunk: the Virginia V.
- "Steam" in Steampunk, part II The S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien
- "Steam" in SP pt. II, the regal triple expansion steam engine.
Remembering the "Steam" in steampunk:
The Virgina V
This is the Virginia V. The "V" as in 5, the last of a long lineage. Once the proud member of a fleet that served various communities around Puget Sound. Except for the cities like Seattle or Tacoma or Olympia, until the late 1920s, there were few highways in the area. All that tall timber and all those hills. And the long fjord-- in places 900 feet deep, with the Sound average depth at 420 feet. So no bridge from the Seattle side over to islands like Bainbridge or Vashon, or to Kitsap County, or the Olympic peninsula. But there was a rather competitive bunch ready to transport people and to deliver the goods. So many that they were likened to a swarm. Hence the name "mosquito fleet," of which the Virginia V is the only remaining example. Go see this beauty, designated a national history landmark, at the foot of Union Bay in Seattle. Just north of downtown and just south of the ship canal.
http://www.virginiav.org
http://www.virginiav.org
triple expansion Steam engine
And this is a view of the totally wonderful triple expansion steam engine that powers the propeller shaft. It was transferred from the Virginia IV (formerly the Tyrus.) Built in 1902, the engine was manufactured at the Heffernan Iron Works, in the area now known as Pioneer Square in Seattle. The steam for the engine and various engine room equipment is supplied by a Babcock and Wilcox watertube boiler. This is a replacement ; part of the overhaul completed in 2002. The engine was thoroughly rebuilt at the same time, but is still the original-- in the words of the classic soul song; ain't nothin' like the real thing, baby. Trust this old steampunk; there aint, there ain't. An absolutely fine example of technology as the sublime art of brass and gears. Where human labor has real meaning.