WHERE DID STEAMPUNK BEGIN?

The term steampunk was coined in 1987 by American author K. W. Jeter, who used it playfully to describe Victorian-inspired speculative fiction written by himself and several fellow authors. The name was a clever variation on the already established term cyberpunk.

The stories themselves, however, drew upon much older ideas—fantastic machines, daring explorers, impossible journeys, unusual inventions, and imagined futures shaped by the technology of an earlier age. In that sense, steampunk existed in spirit long before anyone gave it a name.

Source: K. W. Jeter, “Letter to the Editor,” Locus Magazine, April 1987; Oxford Academic, Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology.

THE STORIES THAT INSPIRED IT

Long before anyone used the word steampunk, writers were already imagining remarkable technologies and extraordinary adventures.

Jules Verne carried readers beneath the sea, around the world, and toward unexplored frontiers. H. G. Wells imagined time travel, invisible men, strange machines, and encounters with worlds beyond ordinary experience.

Their stories helped establish a tradition of speculative fiction in which science and imagination could work together to ask one wonderfully powerful question:

What if?

That question remains at the heart of steampunk.

THE VICTORIAN AGE OF INVENTION

The nineteenth century was an extraordinary period of technological change. Steam engines powered factories and locomotives, railways connected distant cities, telegraph wires carried messages across great distances, and enormous steamships crossed the oceans.

Engineering rapidly transformed everyday life. Bridges stretched farther, machines became more complex, and inventors proved that ideas once thought impossible could become reality. For steampunk, this age provides both the machinery and the deeper spirit of experimentation, discovery, invention, and possibility.

FROM LITERATURE TO A STYLE

Over time, steampunk grew beyond books.

Artists, costume makers, inventors, filmmakers, craftspeople, and enthusiasts began creating their own interpretations of imagined nineteenth-century technology. Brass instruments, exposed gears, goggles, clocks, airships, mechanical contraptions, elaborate clothing, and fantastic inventions became familiar parts of the steampunk aesthetic.

But steampunk is not simply about putting gears on things.

At its best, it celebrates creative problem-solving, craftsmanship, exploration, invention, and imagining a world that never existed—but perhaps could have.

STEAMPUNK IN THE WORLD OF COGGLEPOTTS

Within the Curiositorium of Professor Cogglepotts, steampunk becomes something more than an artistic style.

It becomes a way of encouraging curiosity.

Professor Cogglepotts believes that every extraordinary invention begins with someone willing to wonder, experiment, build, fail, reconsider, and try again. That philosophy lies behind The Nine Principles of S.T.E.A.M.P.U.N.K. — Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, Practice, Understanding, Navigate, and Knowledge.

Here, brass gears and curious machines are only the beginning.

They are invitations to ask questions, explore possibilities, create something new, and discover where imagination might lead.

Because the greatest invention of all may still be the one you haven't dreamed of yet.