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| James Watt's workshop from SCRAN |
The following was excised from the notebooks of James Watt on grounds of National Security.
I could think of nothing but that machine.
By day I was working on more plans and
sketches for Dalmarnock, but each evening was spent imagining this marvellous
steam powered man.
As our world moved further and further
towards full automation, I envisaged a future where even the greatest of our
weaknesses - war - could become automatic, both creating new industry and
saving lives. My automaton soldier would take the place of flesh and bone,
never wearying, always obeying. Stronger, more determined and relentless - a
metal man.
I busied myself with the plans, taking care
to have the parts created in several different foundries, fearing some would
think me mad for such an endeavor. I had no wish to play God, only to serve
man.
I began to see the other applications; if
successful in war, perhaps the automatons could be put to work in mines or in
the more hazardous factory professions. I was creating us a workforce, which
would leave mankind more time to indulge in the pursuit of science and social
reform, surely the only ways forward for our society.
By the winter of 1811, he was built,
already capable of several movements, determined by the notations upon a
cylinder, much like a barrel organ. Differing actions could be achieved using
different cylinders. I quickly realised however, that powering my metal man was
t be more challenging than I thought. The energy consumption was intensive,
even allowing for reuse of water through steam condensing. Either I would have
to make more space to store water, or accept that the automaton would only be
able to work in short bursts, requiring assistance to continue. I feel sure I
would have achieved this, for the basic principles were all in place, and the
most challenging problems - the movements of joints etc, had been all but
solved. This is when I was visited by the gentleman from the government. I had
dealt with his sort once before, during the unfortunate business with the Saint
Nazairre experiments. Having somehow
heard about my experiments with the steam powered soldier, they were interested
in deploying my automaton in the Russian and French campaigns. This was not
presented to me as a matter open to discussion. My metal man was taken.
I heard but brief reports of his exploits,
enough to know he survived destruction on the peninsula. Despite several
requests for his return, he remained with the military, and my missives to
parliament, went unanswered. I tired of trying and moved on to further works.
I do not think of him often, he was simply
another experiment, a tool. However, if maintained correctly, I see absolutely
no reason that my automatic man will not outlive us all.
Tin Jimmy
Megan has a secret, a big secret that only her recently exploded Grandmother knows. To uncover the truth behind her secret, she and her best friend Cam must follow an old town map down forgotten roads and disappeared places, through abandoned bomb shelters and railway tunnels, to graveyards and secret passages beneath the river. And all the while, the sinister men from the Waterworx company are watching, with their strangely menacing Public Art sculptures...
Tin Jimmy is a character in a childrens book I'm re/writing called
The Superpower Project. It's unashamedly based in Inverclyde, using a backdrop of the sorts of folklore and legends of the area that appear on here, and featuring characters that appear in
Identity : The Archivist's Treasure, our childrens book
Wee Nasties, the
Tales of the Oak comic and at
The Dutch Gable House.
I've been sharing bits of it on my
Stramashed blog over the last few months.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
This is kind of how I imagine he looks...
Here are a few related stories from this blog...
Captain Nemo : Propulsion
The Cabin Boy
And here's a wee unrelated
steampunk love poem from my other blog. Awwww.
The Steampunk community, as you would imagine,
do like a bit of the old James Watt...
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James Watt, perhaps outraged that in future he will be dishonoured by the
very rude renaming of his college, creates a giant robot to destroy us all.
(by Andy Lee, as seen in our Tales of the Oak comic) |
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