Meet the intrepid souls who pushed Victorian technology to its limits and paved the way for our present age. The shimmering halo of Victorian technology lures us with the stuff of dreams, of nostalgia, of alternate pasts and futures that entice with the suave of James Bond and the savvy of Sherlock Holmes. But the true science and tech reveals a much wilder reality of machines and humans, stunning innovations and uncertain consequences. Once, we sought to control power. In this latest age, humans have learned to manufacture power. We’ve become so used to flipping a light switch that we rarely take a moment to think—really think—about what this meant in our history. But to late Victorians, and particularly late Victorian engineers, this was the stuff of dreams. And maybe of nightmares, too. A social history of technology and the seduction of “clockwork futures”: this is the story of hope, trepidation, and the struggle of modern science in a steam-powered age. Salesmanship and indeed showmanship is the very spirit of steampunk, and the fictions we tell ourselves are part of the scientific framework we have inherited, part of how we “do” science and how we understand its destiny—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
