The Real World of Victorian Steampunk by Simon Webb

The Real World of Victorian Steampunk by Simon Webb ISBN-13: 9781526732859 Paperback: 168 pages Publisher: Pen and Sword History Released: Sept. 19, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
In the last few decades, steampunk has blossomed from being a rather obscure and little-known subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design and even music. In this book Simon Webb explores and examines the real inventions which underpin the fantasy.

The Real World of Victorian Steampunk shows the Victorian era to have been a surprising place; one of steam-powered aeroplanes, fax machines linking Moscow and St Petersburg, steam cars travelling at over 100 mph, electric taxis and wireless telephones. It is, in short, the nineteenth century as you have never before seen it; a steampunk extravaganza of anachronistic technology and unfamiliar gadgets. Imagine Europe spanned by a mechanical internet; a telecommunication system of clattering semaphore towers capable of transmitting information across the continent in a matter of minutes. Consider too, the fact that a steam plane the size of a modern airliner took off in England in 1894.

Drawing entirely on contemporary sources, we see how little-known developments in technology have been used as the basis for so many steampunk narratives. From seminal novels such as The Difference Engine, through to the steampunk fantasy of Terry Pratchett's later works, this book shows that steampunk is at least as much solid fact as it is whimsical fiction.


My Review:
The Real World of Victorian Steampunk is a book about how the fiction genre of Victorian Steampunk is inspired by attempted inventions or real technology created during the reign of Victoria. The author started by explaining what steampunk is, and he frequently referred to various novels that were inspired by the real technology that he's describing. I think this book was aimed more at fans of this genre than history buffs as I've read most of this material in more detail in books by other authors. This was more of an overview of the many ideas that were coming out at the time with some general descriptions of how they worked and why they didn't endure.

He talked about various steam-powered vehicles (cars, buses, lorries, dirigibles, a motorcycle, and a plane) and described why petrol vehicles "won" when electric and steam-powered vehicles were much more desirable (quieter, more reliable, etc.). He described several stretches of pneumatic railway that were actually built and why the technology was abandoned. He talked about wind-powered cars, the mechanical telegraph network, mechanical computers and calculators, wireless sunlight phones, telegraph fax machines, recording voice on metal wire or disks, their understanding of how televisions could be made, home stereo music over the telephone line, attempts to make mechanical men or animals, and solar-powered generators.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.