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REAL
MIKEBEDFORD LOOKSATTHE VICTORIAN
PIONEERS WHOPAVED THEWAY FOR
TODAY’SCOMPUTERS,AND ASKS
WHETHERTHE STEAMPUNKREVOLUTION
COULDEVERHAVEBECOMEAREALITY
fyou were in the West Yorkshire village of
Howarth last November,you’d have been
excused forbelieving that you’d been time-
warped back to the Victorian era. Well, sort of.
Certainly many of the characters walking up and
down the village’s cobbled street wore 19th-century
costumes, but it rather seemed that welding goggles and
strange mechanical contraptions were compulsory
accessories. Howarth might be better known forits
famous sisters, the novelists Charlotte, Emily and Anne
Brontë, but this particular weekend was acelebration of a
quitedifferent literary genre.The world of steampunk
postulates aVictorian society that enjoyed many of the
benefits of ubiquitous computing and communication
that we enjoytoday, but with adifference.These
computers were steam-powered mechanical contrivances.
THE
