Agreed would love to see some Victorian/Edwardian skyscrapers acting as airports gigantic airships. With the earlier emergence of the Bessemer process we could get skyscrapers emerging earlier.
A part of me is thinking in a world where the American Civil War had machines guns, airships and who knows what else US soldiers in the aftermath would look more like they came out of the Spanish American War or Pancho Villa Expedition instead of the Indian wars.
The idea has some interesting potential, maybe a dirigible vtol craft?
I'd also like to point out the
M1895_Colt Browning_machine_gun which while it did use smokeless powder and was closer to the Maxim Machine Gun actually used a mechanism similar to lever action rifles.
Guess Edison becomes an even bigger jerk than OTL...
The phonograph does seem a lot more likely to appear early than the record player.
More like they came out of the Spanish American War or Pancho Villa Expedition in what ways exactly?
According to the book
Airship Technology by Khoury such VTOL setups are categorized as "Rotastats". I think that the fan wing design I mentioned before could also perform as a VTOL of the blades of the wings were made to rotate around the axis of the fan. Otherwise it could also work as a short-take-off-and-landing vehicle
The M1895 was actually the result of a project Browning started years before with a
modified Winchester rifle that had a gas catching cup at the end of the barrel. The cup was then connected to a hinge, and a bar that was connected to the gun's lever. As a result Browning had made a gas operated sub-machine gun! I'm not sure if the designs of the M1895 could work with black-powder though. I'm afraid that the gas port near the muzzle would clog up with fowling too easily.
I think an even better design for a similar concept though was made by Hiram Maxim who patented a modification to the Wincester lever action that made it a recoil operated semi-automatic. If that designs had been incorporated into a Winchester 1876 then we could have had an infantry rifle comparable to the M1 Garand
All of these seem like modifications that I think could have been come up with as soon as the Winchester 1866 hit the market. I imagine a Dr. Loveless type character would have no issue arming his men with such weapons. Much cheaper to make than the mini-gatling guns his henchman seem to use in the
WWW Millennium comic series that came out in 1990
Also don't forget that Maxims first machine gun was made to work with black powder cartridges.
Besides those ideas what I have learned from this video is that if you want a black powder automatic then you should use a long-recoil action in order to avoid fowling the action. So a Browning Auto5 would work
1901 Phoenix Log Hauler
Powered by four steam engines
100 horse power
Capable of speeds of 6-8 mph
Weighs 18 tons
Can pull 25 sleighs of logs
Boiler tested at 240 lbs.
Safety valve set at 125 lbs
I didn't know about the Pheonix brand, only Lombard. I'm surprised the track design wasn't used until the 1890s when it existed in patent form decades earlier. I think you have a typo in saying "Powered by four steam engines" the
source I found says "four-cylinder engine " which makes more sense. This makes me wonder then about steam engine designs and how they could get more energy from the boiler. How many cylinders could a steam engine have in theory? I'm afraid I don't know much when it comes to engine design
Ah, but esteemed gentleman, have you heard of
aetherium, the ultimate plot-device-ium ore ?
Aetherium ! It's good in
electric batteries, it's good as
airship lift gas, it slices and dices and maybe even works as an ingredient in anti-constipation tonics ! Aetherium ! Available now at every aetherium rush mine and claim !
Lol, "plot-device-ium" sure would come in handy, but I enjoy the challenge of finding more plausible means of powering such Steampunk tech. Given that this is a common plot device in things such as Steampunk Soldiers. Deadlands, and
Empires of the Smoky Skies, I would like to find out if there are alternative fuels that could be more efficient for steam engines. Providing a more exothermic reaction than coal when burned. Besides radioactive materials of course, but people in the 1800s wouldn't know how to handle such things without massive risks of radiation based diseases. So I'm not sure of any other form of solid, or even liquid, fuel that could provide as much of an exothermic reaction needed for a steam engine boiler that isn't far more dangerous to use