8.9.2009 by Traveler.

As I have announced before, here are some images concerning the long voyage of L 104 in 1917. It was a planned relief mission to the outnumbered (but very successful) troops of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in  Deutsch-Ostafrika. The mission was cancelled befor completion, though because it was judged that the relief mission would not be able to turn the situation in Africa in Germany’s favor.

Still, the journey of 6757 km from Bulgaria to Africa and back (done in 95 hours and 5 minutes) was quite a feat.

Here is an image of the route and the crew (what an adventure this surely was…):

This is the penultimate entry concerning the Zeppelin Museum, there are some other images I’d like to share, including a Cthulhu-esque Zeppelin skelleton (does not sound as if it would make sense? Don’t worry, it won’t).

Geschrieben in Tales of the travelling steampunk | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

23.8.2009 by Traveler.

After a fairly long interval since the last entry, here are a few more images of artifacts from the military use of Zeppelins on display in the very steampunk Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen:

The patterns of Zeppelin crews’ uniforms:

The standard-issue Schako-helmet for crew members (worn while on the ground), fashioned after the Schako of the Prussian Gardejäger (I wonder if I can purchase one somewhere…):

A model of Luftschiff L 30:

 The board machine-gun Zeppelins carried later during the war, apart from bombs, this was their only armament. So it was nothing like the hevily armed Zeppelins you find in Steampunk fiction, especialy if it is manga/anime style:

And then there is this remarcable vision, NASA had much later:

And the corresponding text:

Still, there is more to come, I still have more photos. Next time, I will loose a few words on one expedition of a Zeppelin which attemped to bring supplies to the German troops fighting in Africa.

Geschrieben in Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | 2 Kommentare »

12.8.2009 by Traveler.

The Zeppelin Museum has a reasonably big exhibition dedicated to the military use of Zeppelins, which delighted me no end. As I have noted before, I am a militaristic steampunk.

The effectiveness of Zeppelins during the Great War is a matter of ongoing debate. Most Zeppelins were either shot down or lost to accidents, on the other hand, the Allied High Command was afraid enough of them, especially the capability to conduct bombing raids against London, to deploy considerable forces to defend agains those raids. These forces were tied down and could not be used elswhere. So, strategically at least, Zeppelins were a success.

Also, accoding to some sources, Wilhelm II preassured his generals to use Zeppelins in the armed forces, because he liked them and they were immensely popular with the German populace. The military experts of the German Empire frowned upon the idea, considering them little more than expensive toys.

After the Great War the US and other military forces experimented with Zeppelins, airships and Blimps with varying degrees of success. Many of these were lost in accidents, too, and nowadays they are no longer used in any sort of military capability. The reasons are obvious, Zeppelins, aiships and Blims are big and slow and ths would make easy targets, so the military use of these majestic giants has moved to the pages of history books.

How sad and uncivilized…

Here are some images I took:

A Zeppelin’s enlisted crew member’s uniform:

 And here’s a uniform of a commanding officer (I like the bow tie):

 And the final picture for today, images of a complete crew:

This concludes today’s entry, there will be a part two to this.

Geschrieben in Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

9.8.2009 by Traveler.

Now this bit concerns the Golden Age of Zeppelin Travel, the times of the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg, when they cruised majestically among the clouds.

The Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen has a life-size replica of some parts of the Hindenburg, some passenger bedrooms and the lounge, which are accessible to visitors.

The bedrooms are rather small, as can be seen in the following photographs and the lounge looks very modernistic with its plastic and aluminium furniture, but that’s what it was all about, Zeppelins were cutting edge technology. So, here are the photoraphs:

The lower hull with passenger access (that’s also where the visitors enter now):

 Various images of the lounge:

A more detailed image of the map with the Zeppelin routes:

 The sleeping quarters:

Access (no, I don’t know who that guy is):

Single bedroom:

Double bedroom:

This concludes the third installment of our very steampunk trip to the Zeppelin Museum, next time, I shall concern myself with the military aspects of Zeppelin use.

Geschrieben in Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

6.8.2009 by Traveler.

So this part of my report on our expedition to the Zeppelin Museum is a bit more technical, or, to be more exact, a bit more on the engine side. Up on the first floor of the museum in the main exibition area are quite a number of different engines (some original, some replicas, I guess) which powerd the propellers of the various Zeppelin and airship models, so, here are some photos I took:

This is the actual “nose-hook” of the Hindenburg:

And here’s another (burned out) engine and a propeller:

And another Zeppelin Engine (I guess this one was actually from a French or Italian airship but don’t quote me on it) :

Yawn! OK, so much for todays’ entry, there is still more to come but I am really sleepy now.

Geschrieben in Technomantic Stuff, Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

2.8.2009 by Traveler.

Finally another steampunk expedition that is really worth mentioning here in my blog. I would not want to bore you with my more or less common travels which I undertake every now and then. This expedition has quite a large number of documentary photographs so I will most definitely split the tale into a number of entries here in my blog.

As you very likely have noticed by now (if you follow this blog on a regular basis), I have a thing for Zeppelins, I have expounded on my reasons why I very nearly have a Zeppelin fetish on numerous occasions in this blog, so Ishall not repeat myself here now.

But you can imagine how delighted I was when we decided to take a Sunday trip to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen a few weeks go. This particular expedition already took place on the 19th of July 2009 but being a rather busy steampunk and also rather busy in the real world, I did not come round to write any sort of lengthy article or traveller’s tale until today.

So let me relate this tale in boring, minute detail (the times given below are atually correct, since I used the notepad on my iPod Touch to take notes during the trip).

So here we go:

Sunday, July 19th 2009 - Expedition to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, ETA: 11:30

08:40 Put on my goggles

08:49 Buckled up, car starts (Timo is driving)

09:02 We hit the Autobahn

10:06 Breakfast at the Golden Arches

10:42 Break in the Autobahn (road Construction)

10:46 Alps come into view

10:49 The Autobahn continues

11:09 We are now right in the center of extremely scenic sourroundings, or, as we Germans say “Gegend”, on the E54

11:16 Arrived in Friedrichshafen, 14 minutes ahead of ETA

11:31 Now on foot, we stroll along the banks of the Bodensee and notice the natives being outnumbered by heavily equipped tourists (large caliber cameras, sandals, shorts, you get the idea…)

11:32 We enter the museum

And now for the first set of fotos:

Entry Hall 1 (the names are oviously cities visited by a Zeppelin during the Golden Age of Zeppelin Travel, the time every steampunk and dieselpunk out there would have enjoyed being part of):

Entry Hall 2:

And here is a bust of the father of the Zeppelin: Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin and another image of his very own goggles:

And the goggles, his very own goggles, now this is what I call a steampunk relic:

This image concludes the first entry concerning the expedition to the holy steampunk site, the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen.

There are plenty of images still waiting to be uploaded.

Geschrieben in Technomantic Stuff, Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

24.6.2009 by Traveler.

A dear friend of mine has pointed some remarkable historic factlet out to me:

In the 1920’s there were several attempts to reach the North Pole by Zeppelin! Sounds almost like the expedition done by LZ-X1 Württemberg (see the link menue to your left). Unfortunately, these real-life expeditions were not remotely as successful nor was their equipment as advanced as the one of my very own fictional Zeppelin.

In real life, they all failed. Read the whole story (in German) by clicking on the image below:

Also:
Let us remember Roald Amudsen, the famed explorer, who gave his life rescuing the members of one such an ill-fated expedition by airship.

Geschrieben in History, Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

20.6.2009 by Traveler.

OK, so this is my second article in this blog for today and I stick to the space theme:

Virgin Galactic and the State of New Mexico are building the first commercial spaceport for space tourism!

Yes!

Finally! The 21st Century is here! We still do not have jet packs (which are a stupid idea of sorts anyway and rather impractical) but there is a space tourism industry that is finally picking up momentum! Private funding for things in space. Another source of financial back-up for adventuring along the final frontier. So if NASA doesn’t get the funding… Private companies jump in… OK… I’m dreaming again.

Read the report on CNN.

I will propably never have the money, but what an adventure for a traveler that would be!

Well, maybe one day it will no longer cost 200.000$… I can still dream.

Geschrieben in Technomantic Stuff, Tales of the travelling steampunk | Drucken | 2 Kommentare »

20.6.2009 by Traveler.

In my early to mid-teens I was interested, fascinated and a firm believer in UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle and related stuff. Scientific education, more in-depth knowledge of the workings of the universe and related matters dispelled my believe (and failed predictions of aliens revealing themselves to us). I still continue to follow news and events concerning these matters on an irregular basis. A fairly random search concerning UFOs led me to Worth1000.com, where I found these marvelous steampunky images:

Encounter with a Steampunk UFO

Steampunk things abducting ships in the Bermuda Triangle

All rights belong to the respective artists, this is basically free advertisement.
Now I shall see if I can find a steampunk Sasquatch somewhere on the ætherweb.

Geschrieben in Technomantic Stuff, Tales of the travelling steampunk, General Steampunk Things | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »

19.5.2009 by Traveler.

Imagine that:

Travelling to R’lyeh by Zeppelin… What an epic journey this would be!

Geschrieben in Cthulhuiana, Tales of the travelling steampunk | Drucken | Keine Kommentare »