Victorian Technology – the good, the bad, the ugly and why there is steampunk and why there is Caledon

An amazing revolution

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. Indeed, the era of Queen Victoria brought to England one of the most dramatic changes in the level of science and technology – second perhaps only that of the twentieth century. By the end of Victoria’s reign, a largely rural and agricultural society had been transformed with the might of industry, technology, and science. Steam power HAD begun to replace horse power. Factories dotted the landscape, bellowing with steam, smoke, and a new era of technological power. The belief that if it could be dreamed, it could be done became prevalent among the new class of gentleman scientists and industrialists (although H.G. Wells did not expect the first airplane would arrive until the 1950’s). Indeed, the new Victorian gentleman scientist could attempt heavier than air flight, create the newest iron alloy, even travel in time – but always be back in time to dress for dinner.

The Victorian era saw the arrival of the telegraph, the bicycle, gas lighting and then electric lighting, steel, the subway, the telephone, the motorcar, hydro-electric power, x-rays, and even the earliest form of radio. A case could be made that any one of these inventions was society changing – that they all arrived in one era led to astounding change.

“Natural Philosophy” became “Natural Science’ and ultimately, science. The esoteric became commodity. Rural estates became electrified and electric lights lit the previously dim corridors of many stately mansions and castles (although not without the occasional electrocution of a working man doing the installation).

By the middle of the nineteenth century, safe and reasonably efficient steam engines were being put to use to power many things. By the end of the century, steam turbine engines are powering even giant ships. Steam prevails. But as the last quarter of the nineteenth century began, electricity was gaining a foothold over the industrialization of Victorian England. Indeed, steam began to be used to generate electricity until other sources were discovered. Electric vacuum cleaners and washing machines were available at the end of the Victorian era.

First place or second place

As electricity, electric motors, and electric appliances became prevalent, a silent contest developed. Which would prevail? Both sources of power had potential (no pun intended). For all intents and purposes, electricity beat steam. Not that steam wasn’t (and still is) useful. This contest led to the question that created steampunk. What if STEAM, not electricity had prevailed. What would the world look like if the industrial world of steam had continued and electricity became a modest accessory for steam power? That’s the speculative question of steampunk. What if steampunkery had determined our future more than electrical tomfoolery? Hence, there is steampunk.

Why IS there steampunk?

Apart from the fact that many people love to theorize about what MIGHT have been in history (what if the American revolution had failed, what if the South had won the American civil war, etc.), there is a certain elegance to steam machinery. Unless you’re someone who loves machinery – its workings, its appearance – you might not understand. Moreover, steampunkery involves machinery with a certain elegant Victorian design. Machines should look good. Control buttons are intricately carved levers (pronounced “lee-vers”) mounted on elegant mahogany trimmed panels. In motion, in operation, and in appearance there is beauty in the machine and its intricacy.

Dressing for dinner

In H.G. Wells seminal novel The Time Machine, the time traveler returns from a trip to the distant future to address his friends. But NOT until he’s had time to dress for dinner. Whatever the revelations of a troubled future, they can wait for proper gentleman’s dinner attire. Not that Victorian scientists and engineers were afraid to get messy. More than a few journeyman engineers blew off a few fingers or found themselves on the other side of the shop after an encounter with high voltage. But by God, one dressed for dinner.

Noblesse Oblige

In Victorian England, there were essentially three classes: the nobility graced with wealth, power, and privilege; the middle class, some of whom were wealthy but for whom the power and privilege was denied; and the lower class, men and women for whom toil and desperate attempts to maintain body and soul were part of the norm. It should be noted that the nobility accounted for approximately 2 or 3 percent of the population and the nobility and middle class combined accounted for perhaps fifteen percent of the population. The masses led lives of toil and quiet desperation. Although there are plenty of exceptions, the Victorian engineer was likely a member of that fifteen percent.

The steampunk/post apocalypse notion of dirty, iron cities, their factories belching smoke is sometimes truer to life than we like to picture. Indeed, the Victorian scientist/engineer could retire to his quiet lab away from the pounding factories, retire to the walnut bookcases in his lab, be served tea by the housekeeper, and jot notes of profound significance in his journals. In the end, steam may not have prevailed because electricity is seen to be “cleaner.”

The beautiful picture of the Victorian laboratory, run by a solitary man of science – a gentleman (and not a part of a huge “think tank”), while quaint, ignores the reality of Victorian existence for the masses.

Caledon: steampunk and old lace

Caledon, a SecondLife Victorian steampunk nation, is beautiful. There are factories, but they do not belch much smoke and what smoke they belch does not linger. Caledon is not the post apocalypse steampunk city so admired by the extremist steampunk fanatics. In fact, Caledon is the ideal blend of the best of Victorian England. It is gentleman and gentlewoman inventors (who dress for dinner or when appearing in public) with steam engines, Tesla devices, motor cars, airships, and the like. And it is Victorian finery – from the finest frocks for ladies, to superb plateware emblazed with emblems of the time (rabbits, notwithstanding). It is, for that, a wondrous place. A place I like to live. Manners and gentlemanly behavior reflect the best of Victorian morality. What modest scandal exists only serves to properly reflect the time (and occurs largely behind closed doors). If Caledon did not exist, someone would have to invent it (apologies to Mr. Shang).

All that is missing is that other 85%. No one in Caledon has a housekeeper. There are no 14 hour shifts for laborers. There are no laborers returning to hovels without enough coal for heat.

It is the perfection, the finest of Victorian society. Benevolent capitalism prevails over worrisome socialism (although socialist ideas were prevalent in Victorian England – Mr. Wells himself a sometime socialist). As for the unwashed 85%? Why do you think there is a mainland in SecondLife?

Mr. H.G. Wells would, I think, be comfortable in Caledon. And by God, he’d dress for dinner!