Protopunk: Steampunk during the High Steam/Low Electric Age

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1270

I was drawn to this Steampunky collection of inventions because they were semi-futuristic inventions done at the time when the inventions could actually be fabricated--the idea was there and so was the material and expertise.  The only thing left was the will to do it and the fortitude to use it.  Perhaps the only thing lacking in all of it was that last part. 

Certainly people were getting used to technical and physics breakthroughs when these images were published in 1908:  the advancement of powered heavier-than-air flight since 1903, wireless transmission across the Atlantic in '01, quanta in 1900, X-Rays in '95, radium in '98, automobiles, motion pictures, electric toasters, Gilette's disposable razor (use and throw away!), and so on  (I'll not mention Einstein because he wasn't really in the public eye in 1908), so taking an extra and probably unnecessary step in these inventions seen below felt natural.  They were just a little on beyond necessary.