Harbor Tub (nicknamed the Iron Fish) An all iron costal tugboat, considered extremely heavy and slow to come about. A coal-burning monster propelled by two side paddle wheels she could do foutreen knots in light winds. Built sometime before the American Civil War, by an unknown British naval engineer.After several sea trials were conducted of this strange ship the poor results canceled out any production plans.

Sketches are always key to getting the image to the paper

Working out the Diver composition on a small scale with pencil and paper

Going Deeper What is the hook in off shore British Natural Gas exploration?

Doodles for the mechnenical manufacturing idea

Old Rusty the shift from old school manufacturing of brick and mortar factories to the new digital age and cloud technology and beyond.

The Race is on, how is your 401 running? Steaming towards mid 2012

The Steam Pistol of 1898 several sketches were needed to flesh out the composition and the idea

The Popper Pneumatic Side Arm (electric pop gun) Designed for the British underground transit police the Popper as it was nick named was an electrically fired compressed air gun designed for short-range use. Wanting to avoid a spark and possible fire this weapon was heralded with much anticipation. Elegant in design however it failed to live up to its promised promotional expectations. Plagued by miss fires its French designer finally pulled it from London’s weapon competition of 1898

Speed Locomotion 404 A very early attempt at a steam propelled coal fired piston driven steam racecar. Vibration was a big problem as well as the ability to throttle the steam, the car proved slow to gain speed and it was also very hard to stop once the steam was on full boil. Although tested several times in Detroit area during1908 as an innovative new race machine the design never quiet lived up to the hopes of the designers.

Having great fun these days this is reminiscent of the many etchings I did in the seventies and eighties in terms of imagery that I am exploring once again.

Speed tests of old number twelve an earth skaking war horse of a machine.

The Vickers Victoria Hydroplane 1908 A steam propelled racing hydroplane, she did very well in her off shore steam tests. In the best of three runs she averaged 32 knots with her twin boilers on full boil. The Vickers had twin cast boilers and at low speed would produce thick white smoke when on full boil her twin pipes would give off copious amounts of thick black coal fired smoke. Her major flaw was that she was top heavy, and had to slow down in a turn. To compensate for this she was outfitted with twin outriggers, which added to her overall stability and increased her overall performance. An all-hard wood deck, with a cast iron twin hull she was a true work post Victorian of nautical art. She competed in several British off shore coastal races and captured the commanders cup three times.

Sketches for the great space cannon, the idea for this came during the recent Sherlock Homes movie

The Krupp’s Space Cannon 1898 Born of the industrial arms race just prior to world war one by the Krupps’s Armaments Company, The Space cannon was based on a German seize gun this was a one of a kind giant motor. The massive gun had a discharge angle of ninety degrees; the capsule was lowered by crane into its massive bore. A power charge then propelled the capsule twenty four miles straight up, at that point the capsule itself fired a small charged rocket pushing it still futher an eventfully in to outer space.

Poster currently on press for some up coming events

A mechanically steam driven harbor-walking dredge. Originally designed for the New York Oyster industry this all cast iron five legged semi submersible marine walker was constructed in the Bayonne New Jersey shipyards. Used at the low tides this clambering iron monster could traverse the shallow tidal pools of Lower New York Bay. Her designer inventor is still of unknown origins.

When the ideas pop up a simple scrap of paper will do, so as not to loose the vision. Never seem to have a sketch pad ready, so often a scrap of paper does the trick.

This is the source of inspiration for this series of images, it came from a street find the perfect amount of rust and patenia.

This is the beginning construction of the marine walking machine, kind of looks like a fish print in this early stage of the art construction process.

Two Legged Iron Shallow Bay Walker Another strange early American harbor design a two legged walker.” The Sea Flea” She required a long line trailed behind the machine to supply compressed air to run her air driven engine .The Sea Flea was used primarily to clear the local shipping channels of wrecks and other various harbor debris. An early dredger of sorts crude by design but in certain conditions this machine could do a rather job.

"Iron Rocket" Shot into orbit by a large space cannon an early approach to space travel. A capsule small enough to fit inside the large bore space cannon. This space capsule had retractable guidance fins it was very crude but efficient enough to explore the heavens

“Tin Zeppelin" Exploration of the heavens by night or in other words the joy of simply being a dreamer. Engaging now in longer and longer flights of pure fantasy.

Ideas sometimes come two at a time, when in the zone

"Steam Diving 1860" Steam powered pneumatic diving bell, good for depths of up to two hundred fathoms.This all cast iron forged diving bell employed force feed compressed air for wreck dives of over an hour in duration. British design

"Steamobile" Nick named the “Templeton Tea Pot” this coal-fired cast iron cruiser was a rare bird. Constructed in England this early automotive experiment was a coal-fired steamer capable of sixty-three blistering miles an hour along the Bristol Beach flats.

“Coal Fired Oyster Troller” A first attempt at a mechanically driven coal fired oyster-harvesting machine. Slow but steady its dredging arms would ply the shallow bays of New York and gather the much-prized lower bay oysters.

Amazing got a flight in the V-Bee on a recent Friday morning. The dam thing took off like a bat out of hell, straight up. I had to fight the stick for the entire sixteen minute trip, the machine wanted to barrel roll on me. It finally leveled off over Miller Field at about one hundred and two miles an hour, at about three quarters of the throttle. Did one loop to Bay Terrace I think I nicked a cloths line was a bit to low. The altitude gauge was reading about two hundred and twenty feet, way to low for a surban area. Landed with a thud on the strip near the water made a heck of a lot of a lot of noise. Some women called the police but we had the machine packed and away by car well before any one arrived, amazing.

I travel around with the scluptures to many towns on my little island looking for good locations to shoot.The places I discover are often just as amazing as the shoot is fun.

Autumns Journey,shot on the deck of a sixty year old barge note the iron bolts

This is what appeared to be old company housing located not far from the docks where I was shooting

“The Robinson Caruso” of early flight Little is know of this some what obscure inventor a native New Yorker who lived for a short time on the shore line of early Staten Island. The son of a railroad boss, John Bellows earned his trade as a boilermaker for the now closed former B&O railroad. In 1898 he began to test his all metal steel skinned flying zeppelins designs on the shores of what is now called the southern bay. He was obsessed with compressed air mixed with helium; a volatile mix that he then combined with steam that he generated in large amounts with his hand fabricated portable boilers. A quiet man known only vaguely to the neighbors, who were in short supply during this early time as the island was scarily populated. Little else is known about John Bellows other that he was somewhat eccentric inventor tinker who passed away in his early fifties of pneumonia. Reports vary as to his actual results; some claim he did in fact make several unconfirmed flights .One account reports a strange cigar like shape was spotted hovering in the skies over Old Bridge New Jersey. But there are no actual documents to support these sightings. He passed away as a somewhat obscure and colorful local legend.

Night flight of the “Tin Zeppelin” Kansas City 1899 A now famous print of this Kansas City test flight of the John Bellows Zeppelin fondly nicked named the “Tin Zeppelin”. Brought out west by locomotive in 1899 to take part in the Industrial Symposium held there during that year. She rose into the night sky with just a small hiss as the steam values were slowly opened. This print depicts the midnight flight that lasted a little over forty-five minutes and covered over ten miles of rural Kansas farmland. This test proved beyond a doubt that steam mechanical flight was possible. This air ship used a combination of compressed air, steam, and helium the steam was started off ship in a field boiler prior to lift off. Later models did not need the field boiler to start their eternal boilers.

This is a model of the Zeppelin in my office along with my great grandfather

All metal body thirties racer,

Working from memories memories of early child hood, where anything you wanted could be found in the back of comic books, from rocket ships to sea monkeys and all for two dollars amazing

Commander Codey’s Ray Gun (personal side arm) Few might remember Commander Cody and the lost planet airman but I do. Black and white short film serials released by Republic studios in the forties. Fighting bad guys and bug eyed Martians as well as the ability to fly via his personal jet-pack.

Art from the other side of the tracks and slightly below the tracts enter a world of cast iron pipe and steam-propelled locomotives. Old and forgotten places "Girls and Guns" Steam below ground

Still exploring the curved form played against the Straight form, so the series: “Girls and Guns”, continues.

“Space Gun”, this is an all-metal full cast zinc body electro- pop stun gun.

Trouble on the number seven local, girls need to make a living, so a little protection is often required

“Russian Steam” very rare crude but effective three shot short-range single cartridge blaster

“Hello Governor ” side arm protection for the working -woman

Note the comparatively small size of the weapon when compared to a cigarette package

A single shot “Skelton Steamer”, one of the most powerful hand held steam pistols ever created