Dear friends,
Ours is a push-button digital world. Very convenient it is too, but somehow it’s lost the tactile sense that old analog equipment had. My study is a strange hybrid of the old and the new. On the wall now is a generator control panel from the early 20th century, and it is slowly coming back to life. Read on…
- Fzz
Dear friends,
We found a new use for the electric go-kart today. Thought it might amuse you.
Cheers,
Fzz
Dear friends,
Hallowe’en has rolled around again, and my eldest is developing more refined tastes. No longer is it sufficient just to be a wizard; now he wants to be a steam robot, sidekick to Doctor Steam. And so it shall be.
Click here for pictures, video and construction details.
Cheers,
Fzz
Dear friends,
It’s Easter, and in the Fzz family that can only mean one thing: the Easter Challenge. Last year we built an Egg Cannon, but this year the challenge was to build a device to take an aerial photograph of my father’s house. Extra points are awarded for style and the use of mad science.
With those bonus points in mind, my son and I set out to build a hydrogen reconnaissance balloon, complete with a remote control camera and mounting. But we only had a week from idea to challenge, so we had to work fast.
Read on for how we faired, or look here for construction details.
A sneak preview of my Halloween costume. More pictures are here.
Dear friends,
Before our Steam Rocket leaked fuel into the top of it, I used to have a wireless basestation on my desk, and I’d got it the habit of looking at the activity lights when a download was taking longer than it should to see if anything was actually happening. Being a creature of habit, I kept glancing at where it used to be whenever I was waiting for a web page; clearly a replacement was needed. Well, here at last it is: a steam gauge to measure the pressure in the tubes of the Internet. Read on for how it works…
Dear friends,
My son and I had a wonderful time last weekend making a short film about a certain mad scientist. Hope you enjoy it.
Cheers,
Fzz
Dear friends,
What better to entertain the young steamers at the steampunk picnic than a steam rocket! We knocked this together in a couple of evenings, and didn’t have time to test it before heading off to deepest darkest Penge. Read more about its construction and public debut here.
Yours,
Fzz
Every Easter my brother and I have a friendly competition – together with our kids the challenge is to build some crazy device to throw an egg as far as possible. The criteria are simple – either build it from whatever is in Dad’s garage (which is full of useful building materials), or it has to fit in the back of the car together with the suitcases, kid’s strollers, etc. In the past we’ve built a trebuchet and a ballista. But this year my son and I decided to build an egg cannon. Read the rest…
Now with a little more steampunk style, and considerably less risk of electrocution, here is my rebuilt desktop Jacob’s Ladder. Ah, the smell of ozone in the morning!
More pictures and video here. Construction details are here.
Every mad scientist should have their own machines for making big sparks. This one only generates inch-long arcs, but it’s still noisy, dangerous and rather fun. More photos and some video are over here.
Dear friends,
Here is my latest creation. It’s a little more minimalist than the previous lamp; the aim was to capture the general impression of water level gauges on steam locomotives.
More pictures, and pictures of its construction.
- Fzz
Dear friends,
Here is my copper pipe lamp, complete with wonderful (if rather pricey) squirrel-cage bulbs.
More pictures, and pictures of its construction.
- Fzz