Steampunk

One of the most exciting things to witness on Instructables over the last twenty years, was the emergence of the Steampunk community. These folks took bits, bobs and plumbing parts and created a magical alternate reality. On Instructables, you will find a vast array of Steampunk inventions for a fascinating parallel universe.

For the uninitiated, Steampunk imagines an alternate world in which the combustion engine was never invented, and steam power rules the day. In this world, Victorian fashion never went out of vogue, and instead crashed into punk rock. People travel around in mechanical steam-powered contraptions and dirigible flying machines. There is electricity, but many of the early experiments we currently think of as curiosities involving energy fields, vacuums, radio waves and other esoterica, rule the day. There is also a clear aesthetic involving ornamentation, gears, rivets, brass, leather and enough gilding to make the gilded age blush.

Given all of this, it should be clear why maker-types have been drawn to steampunk. It allows for boundless creativity and requires an astute attention to the most minuscule details.

After scrolling through this collection of amazing projects, you may even be inspired to don a pair of Steampunk googles and a top hat and run off to be a sky pirate.