12-4-2023 Midjourney v6
Lord Alistair Steamforge (1912, Victorian England):
Driven by a desire for progress and independence, Lord Alistair built the Iron Kraken, a colossal steam-powered generator housed within his vast estate. This marvel of Victorian engineering not only powered his mansion and factories but also provided electricity to nearby villages, earning him the nickname “The Illuminator.”
Joseph “The Tinker” MacWade (1892 Aberdeen, Scotland):
Joseph was a reclusive inventor, who worked from rented warehouse space in the Scottish Highlands. Joseph dedicated himself to building complex clockwork machines with seemingly impossible functions.
His “Whispering Walls” utilized advanced acoustics to carry messages across vast distances, while his “Cloud Catchers” collected moisture from the air to irrigate his remote farm.
It was reported that David Colville & Sons, a major steel maker helped seed the construction of several machines that would have been used to power early automation and wireless telecommunication at the David Colville & Sons mills, but poor health led to the cessation of the project and Joseph passed in 1906 before it could be employed into use on a large scale.
His papers and laboratory were seized by Scottish authorities on behalf of the then English government in Scotland, not a trace being made available to the public.
Nikolai Petrov (1903 Vladivostok Russia):
A Siberian fur trapper, Nikolai observed the constant pull of magnetism on iron and devised a series of magnetic turbines that generated electricity for his isolated trapper community. His innovations laid the groundwork for later magnetic-powered technologies.
Akio Tanaka (1971, Honolulu HI):
A Japanese woodcarver living in Hawaii, Akio built a series of water-powered automata known as “Oni-no-Tsukai” (Demon Servants).
These intricate machines, powered by hidden waterwheels, performed various tasks for his family farm, from fetching water to grinding grain.
Governmental red tape denied Akio of any patents. Also, because of superstition, the surrounding community shunned Akio and his ideas as being “the devil’s handiwork”, Akio died penniless. Even his own family who benefitted from his life’s work, all turned their backs on him. His machines can be found in now-protected wetlands, rusting and in disrepair
Elias “Lightning” Jones (1966 Springfield, MO):
A former traveling encyclopedia salesman, Elias, a brilliant “closet” inventor, built a series of elaborate clockwork automata powered by lightning strikes he captured in specially designed lightning rods.
His “Voltaic Wonders” toured the American West, sparking curiosity and fascination with the power of harnessed natural electricity.
Professor Ava “The Spark” Truning (1944, Pasadena California):
A brilliant inventor and former codebreaker, Professor Truning built the Static Spark Generator. This innovative device harnessed the static electricity generated by industrial machinery, transforming it into a usable source of power for factories and other industrial installations.
project note: early experiments with Chat GPT were less than satisfactory, and I still claim that even with GPT 4o, Gemini, Bard etc, the human imagination is still far superior when it comes to writing fiction. 5-2025.