Holy Shit

[zdashamber]

OMG check this out. I've been doing research for torchwood_1920, and I found this page of Cardiff history timeline stuff, and on it was the note "1918 = E.T.Willows of Cardiff set up in business manufacturing Balloon Airships" and I'm like, wait, what? And googled him, and found this explanation of his visionary development of the first directed airship to circle the Eiffel Tower, and then this page of photos, among which was this photo of a guy on a rope descending from an airship onto a speeding locomotive...!



OMG! Totally fucking metal! Can you imagine how much effort went into setting up that shot? I've done that in games, but here in 1913 someone's doing it in real life! Who knew the past had moments that cool?

ETA: Hah, another page on early British airship development. On his first Cardiff-London flight Willows only made 14 mph because he had to keep descending to shout at people with a megaphone to find out where he was.

Comments

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

That is total metal, er, Steampunk.

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Science!

[curgoth]

Possibly even SCIENCE!!!

[evilmagnus]

OK, that got me googling and now I have floorplans for the Hindenburg, circa 1936. Sweet!

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

Oo! Oo! Put up the link!

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Very hardcore. (:
(I nearly have that prop finished! Now all I need is the second half of the plot for Thursday!)

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

I'm sure we can occupy the time... :)

[mechanteanemone.livejournal.com]

The man's name must be Jayne Cobb. ^_^

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Holy god that airship is hawt. If Acacius finds out about this project he's going to be so tempted to run off and join them, alien tech or no...

[zdashamber.livejournal.com]

I think they give rides at the local fairs, so we've certainly got a chance of running into them... I was guessing Acacius's reaction would be "Bah, an amateur effort! With no thought to stress failures along this and this and this line!" (in head: WANT WANT WANT) :)

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

Oh he'd be babbling about that and the fact that they should really be called "deathships" as all you need is one decent spark and it's raining hot, fiery you for miles and miles. But oh how he'd secretly yearn for one and probably run off to play with them given the chance.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Loved your photo. I hadn't known anything about Willow.

I will jump in, before some patriotic Brazilian spots your posting, to say that Alberto Santos-Dumont (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont) flew his dirigible Number 3 around the Eiffel Tower in 1890. More famously, he flew Number 6 around the Tower in 1901 as part of a controversial prize attempt.



Perhaps circumnavigating the Eiffel Tower became a tradition among airship people. It's certainly a nice way to get two steampunk icons in one photo-op!