Steampunk Facts for Kids

Lady Della, an Explorer, showing a Steampunk outfit.

Steampunk is a fun style of fiction and art. It imagines a world where old machines from the Victorian 1800s are still used. Think about things like steam power, clockwork gears, and early electricity. These ideas are super important in the Steampunk world.

Many Steampunk stories are inspired by early science fiction books. Famous writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells wrote exciting tales that are still popular today. Sometimes, modern Steampunk stories even mix with themes like Goth styles or vampires.

Steampunk is also a lively community where people dress up in amazing costumes. They go to special meetings or conventions. Dressing up is a huge part of the fun! Many Steampunk fans love to sew their own clothes. They also collect cool accessories like hats and goggles. The Maker movement is popular with Steampunk fans. These "Makers" build fantastic devices, often just for art or pretend use. Some of these creations can be as big as cars, buses, or even a mobile house powered by steam!

Sometimes, Steampunk includes other old ideas from the 1800s and early 1900s. This can be small things like clothing and accessories. It can also be big things like old trains (locomotives) or even machines that weren't invented yet, like early airplanes.

What are Steampunk stories about?
Popular Steampunk Machines and Gadgets
- Steampunk Costume Ideas
Where did the name "Steampunk" come from?
Other "Punk" Styles
Steampunk in Books, Games, and Movies
Images for kids
See also

What are Steampunk stories about?

Sometimes, Steampunk stories have a tough, adventurous feel. This is common in American Steampunk tales. Many of these stories happen in the Old West or during the American Civil War.

British Steampunk stories are often different. They focus on the idea of a more polite Victorian society. They try to create a world with good manners, etiquette, and clear differences between social classes.

No matter where the story is from, Steampunk doesn't worry too much about being perfectly true to history. The main goal is to have fun and be creative, not to act out real historical events.

Popular Steampunk Machines and Gadgets

Steampunk fans really love certain machines. These often show up in stories or as part of costumes.

Time machines
Zeppelins and airships (like big blimps)
Rayguns (futuristic guns)
Robots, especially robots that walk on legs.

Steampunk Costume Ideas

Goggles

Goggles are one of the most popular parts of a Steampunk outfit. They help tell the story that Steampunk characters are brave explorers or scientists. They might be exploring dangerous places or doing experiments in their laboratory. In both cases, goggles are important safety gear. Steampunk goggles often have cool features like telescopic lenses or lenses that can spin around.

Hats

People don't wear hats as much today as they used to. So, Steampunk fans like wearing hats to make their costumes stand out. Popular hat styles include top hats, pith helmets, and pickelhaubes (a type of helmet).

Boots
Gloves

Gloves can be simple, with gears or other cool things sewn onto them. Or they can be very detailed, like mechanical hands.

Rayguns

Ray guns with fancy gears or tubes are very popular accessories.

Accessories

Old-fashioned accessories from the Victorian era are also popular. These include pocket watches, brass spyglasses, or walking sticks. Some outfits even have large tanks worn on the back.

Corsets

Female Steampunk fans sometimes wear corsets on the outside of their clothes. This is different from how they were worn in the real Victorian era.

Steampunk jewelry often includes gears. The octopus is a popular design. This might be inspired by the giant squid attack on the Nautilus submarine in Jules Verne's story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Where did the name "Steampunk" come from?

The word "steampunk" is made from "steam" and "punk." The "punk" part here has nothing to do with the punk rock music from the 1970s.

A famous science-fiction writer named William Gibson wrote books in the early 1980s. These books helped create the "cyberpunk" style. Later, he and another writer, Bruce Sterling, wrote an early Steampunk novel called The Difference Engine. This book became popular. Readers then looked for a name to describe this new style. They chose "steampunk," combining "steam" with "cyberpunk."

Another story says the term was first used by writer K.W. Jeter. He wrote it in a letter to a magazine called Locus.

Other "Punk" Styles

Several related styles have grown from Steampunk. Their names usually end in "-punk." The most well-known is "Dieselpunk." This style is set in the 1930s. Just like Steampunk fans love Victorian steam machines, Dieselpunk fans like the Modernist style of the 1930s. This includes shiny aluminum airplanes and engines that run on petrol or diesel.

Another style is set in the American frontier in the late 1800s. The old American TV show Wild Wild West from the 1960s is a good example of this.

"Paranormal Steampunk" mixes horror with Steampunk. It includes creatures like werewolves or vampires.

Steampunk in Books, Games, and Movies

Steampunk ideas show up in many cool stories and games.

Books to Read

The Oswald Bastable (Nomad of the Time Streams) series by Michael Moorcock
Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter
Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Video and Computer Games

Riven: This game uses lots of metal, steam-powered, or hand-powered machines.
Myst III: Exile: Two worlds in this game use Steampunk mechanics. One uses steam and water power, and the other uses hand-powered machines.
Myst IV: Revelation: The main area of this game, Tomahna, uses mechanical and electric devices. Some items in the game are "anachronistic," meaning they don't exactly fit the time period. For example, there are basic TV screens and circuit boards. The clothes worn by the characters also look like they are from the 1700s and 1800s.

Movies to Watch

First Men in the Moon (1964) - Based on a story by H.G. Wells.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) - Based on a story by Jules Verne.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - Based on a graphic novel.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - This is a Dieselpunk film.
Steam Trek [1] (1994) - A funny movie that makes fun of Star Trek using Steampunk ideas.
Wild Wild West - A TV series from the 1960s.
Wild Wild West (1998 film) - A movie based on the 1960s TV show.
Steamboy

Images for kids

An old drawing of Jules Verne's Nautilus submarine engine room.
"Maison tournante aérienne" (aerial rotating house) by Albert Robida. This was his idea of life in the 20th century, from a 19th-century book.
A print from around 1902 by Albert Robida. It shows a futuristic view of air travel over Paris in the year 2000.
Truth Coffee, a Steampunk-themed café in Cape Town.
The Aura Crystall Instrument, made in 1987 by Marc van den Broek.
The "Arts et Métiers" metro station in Paris. It was designed in 1994 to honor the works of Jules Verne.
Tim Wetherell's Clockwork Universe sculpture at Questacon in Australia (2009).
The Nautilus Steampunk-style still at The Oxford Artisan Distillery.
Author G. D. Falksen wearing a Steampunk-style arm.
The August 1927 cover of Amazing Stories magazine, featuring work by H. G. Wells.
A Steampunk-style machine made of different parts.
The Nautilus submarine as imagined by Jules Verne.
Robert Brown and Finn Von Claret from the band Abney Park.
The "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage" ride at Walt Disney World (1971–1994). This ride was based on the 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The character Arliss Loveless in a Steampunk wheelchair costume from the 1999 film Wild Wild West.
The cover of Steampunk Magazine, Issue 3.
A Steampunk couple at Carnevale 2012 in Boise, Idaho.