Vermont Steampunk Hero: Happy Birthday Levi Fuller!

A Gilman Four-in-One milling machine from the collection at the amazing American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT. The only known surviving example (source here).

One hundred seventy three years ago on February 24, 1841, on a family farm in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, Levi Knight Fuller was born. A descendant of some of the earliest European settlers of New England, he landed squarely in the Victorian era, and personified the accomplishments of the Gilded Age in the United States. Fuller Steam Division is an historically grounded steampunk enterprise inspired by the life and times of this man, and is headquartered in his eventual hometown, Brattleboro, Vermont – on Fuller Drive, no less, on a remnant of his former estate.

Gov. Levi Knight Fuller 1841-1896 (bio on Wikipedia)

Let’s take a quick look at this confluence of history and popular culture: what does the life of Levi K. Fuller, a once-prominent but now largely-forgotten Vermonter, have to do with the modern-day pop culture movement dubbed steampunk? Perhaps outlining the two will produce some correlations and comparisons. Steampunk is, after all, a multi-disciplinary genre which is drawn from historical antecedent and – right there – we are off to a good start! Steampunk has been defined in many ways, some more restrictive than others (which some might say flies in the face of its fantastic potential) but for simplicity let us refer to the most widely referenced statement on the subject, by the author G.D. Falksen.

A Victorian organ steampunked into a computer command center by the master Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic in Sharon, MA.  New England and Steampunk go together like pistons and connecting rods: see more of the regional  oeuvre by Jake von Slatt, who took this photo.

Falksen’s “What Is Steampunk?”  states summarily that Steampunk is Victorian science fiction (think of  progenitors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells), but goes on to elaborate on what that might entail today. Basically, the idiom is grounded in the industrialized 19th century, extrapolated through modern eyes and experience to an imagination of what may have been, given that setting and mentality. An alternate or speculative history can be woven from the fabric of mechanical technology, social reconstruction, expanding scientific knowledge, and grand opportunity (albeit, not for all). With such a rich and diverse heritage of inspiration to draw from,  a wide range of expression is enabled on many fronts: literature, fashion, applied technology, the fine arts, industrial design, the dramatic arts…

The Estey Organ Company complex: a National Register Historic Site on Birge St. in Brattleboro, VT Photo from FSD on Instagram

Levi Fuller was born into this time period and he epitomized many of its signature traits. A very brief enumeration: beginning a lifelong pursuit of knowledge at a very young age, he learned telegraphy and the printing trade at 13. With an early knack for science and engineering, he apprenticed with a firm in Boston at 16, returned to Brattleboro at 19 and found employment with Jacob Estey at his parlor organ manufactory. He proved his merit and rose quickly in the ranks, marrying his employer’s only daughter and becoming Vice-President of J. Estey and Co.;  an indefatigable researcher, he had over 100 patents to his credit, and amassed a considerable fortune in the process. He founded and funded the Fuller Light Battery, a local militia unit; he collected what was considered the most complete technical and scientific library in the state of Vermont, alongside the finest equatorial telescope on the East coast, at his Pine Heights mansion on a hill above the town and near the organ factory. Philanthropist and benefactor, he championed and participated in several institutions of higher learning. He was elected handily to the office of Lieutenant Governor and then Governor of Vermont, and initiated many lasting and significant innovations on behalf of his beloved State. He is credited (by William Steinway, no less) with bringing about the adoption of the world’s first standard pitch for instrument tuning. He travelled constantly, both abroad and domestically, in fulfillment of his professional and civic responsibilities, and moved in the highest circles. Well-dressed and distinguished in appearance, Fuller was everywhere and knew everyone, and seemed to have a significant impact on almost everything he touched. Sadly, his non-stop pace and devotion to duty were not sustainable and he died at the age of 55, on October 10, 1896, from overwork and exhaustion.

Bas relief portrait of Gov. Levi Knight Fuller on his grave‘s memorial marker at Morningside Cemetery on South Main St. in Brattleboro. His wife Abby Emily Estey lies beside him there.

In those 55 years of the late 19th century, he accomplished the work of several lifetimes, in an age when that scale of achievement was enabled and encouraged – a time and ethos we now celebrate in the Steampunk movement. Fuller Steam Division draws its references and personae directly from the life and times of Gov. Levi Knight Fuller and we feel this gives us a rare credence, a grounding that can deeply inform our creations and our story, crafting it from the material and archival evidence and circumstances which we uncover, both here in Brattleboro, Vermont and on the web. The word STEAM in our name is an acronym for the disciplines which Fuller pursued and from which we extrapolate with our work: Speculative Technology, Engineering, and Mechanics. We hope you will follow our adventures in Vermont Steampunk through the heritage of Levi K. Fuller. It promises to be an interesting journey!

Extension Announced: Steampunk Springfield Submissions

A teaser for Bruce Rosenbaum’s personal contribution – dubbed Humachines – to next year’s Steampunk Springfield exhibition?

It has just come to our attention this morning (while stumbling through the aetherwebs) that the deadline for artist submissions for the upcoming grand exposition “Steampunk Springfield: ReImagining an Industrial City” has been extended at the last minute to November 22, 2013. We can throttle back on the power feed to the Time Machine and fall back on real time. Whew ! *puff of steam* Notice was discerned on the Fuller Steam Division’s Facebook feed from ModVic and Steampuffin, curator Bruce Rosenbaum’s inestimable steampunk enterprise in Sharon, Massachusetts. A quick jaunt to the fine print on the host’s site, Springfield Museums, confirmed the news. A toast (never too early, we say – what? it was just green Juicy Juice…) was raised to our imminent good fortune and we returned to the workshop bench here in Brattleboro, Vermont somewhat strengthened in our resolve.

Anyone else joining in? Tell all your New England compatriots and co-conspirators. It’s going to be a sight sure to fog your goggles. Mark your chronometers and set your airship auto-pilot to the proper coordinates:  North 42° 6′ 17.16″, West 72° 35′ 9.55″. Arrivals tethered from March 22nd til September 28, 2014.

Objective Inspiration: Vermont Farm Machinery Co. Machine Oiler

A beautiful example of a nickel-plated drip-feed machine oiler, manufactured by the Vermont Farm Machinery Company of Bellows Falls, VT. Oil reservoir, angled feed arm with vacuum breaker port, and machine attachment fitting. Brass, glass, and class…

Fuller Steam Division brings you the second in a series of vintage objects that evoke the spirit of the Steampunk movement: mechanical technology, explicit functionality, a legacy of inventiveness. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Vermont was a center of industrious pursuit, harnessing the water power of its rivers and brooks, connecting small towns with larger cities by railroad, and creating the tools and products needed for the Industrial Age with steam-powered shops, mills, and factories. The gritty town of Bellows Falls on the Connecticut River epitomized this busy period of New England history: one of its most successful manufacturing concerns was the Vermont Farm Machinery Company.

End view of the VFM Co. drip-feed machine oiler, showing the point-of-attachment fitting.

Established in the booming river town in 1868, the company was originally called the Hartford Sorghum Machine Company and made sap evaporators. This equipment was used to boil maple sap in the production of maple syrup, an agricultural endeavor in which Vermont still leads the nation, nearly 150 years later. The firm’s name was changed to the Vermont Farm Machinery Company in 1873 and the product line diversified rapidly, evolving toward the dairy industry, which had begun to surpass sheep farming in the 1850’s. For decades after, farming in the state was dominated by the production of milk for New England’s metropolitan markets – Boston was a short refrigerated train trip away – and the company grew rapidly. They produced the Cooley Creamer, invented by William Cooley of Waterbury in 1877, and it became their flagship device, used on the majority of New England Farms by the late 1880’s. In addition, they developed and manufactured a myriad of other lines, including machine butter churns, separators, presses, bottle washers, coolers, and steam engines and boilers. At one time the largest manufacturer of farm machinery in the world, and one of Bellows Falls most significant employers with hundreds of workers, the company fell on hard times and shuttered the doors of its great three-story brick plant in 1925.

Top view, showing the maker’s stamp, the knurled drip valve nut with spring clip keeper in the foreground, and the pivoting cover for the fill port behind the nut.

Machines need lubrication for their constantly moving parts such as bearings, bushings, gearboxes, and pump housings, and manufacturers invented a number of devices for this never-ending maintenance task. An attachment known as a drip machine oiler was a common solution: a sealed vessel on an arm attached to the part in need of lubrication held an amount of oil (replenished periodically by hand) and this was fed steadily, drop by drop, into the area of friction, by gravity. Typically the vessel is a glass cylinder (for visual inspection), a bottom feed outlet leading to the mounting arm, and a cap with provision for replenishment (a fill port) and control of the dispensing rate of the lubricating oil. Constructed of brass, plated steel, glass, and other durable materials, these simple yet effective  parts can last for many years of service; they are still used today, albeit with more modern material components. They might not last as long as their vintage counterparts, but the operating principal still works just fine. Part of the allure of steampunk, however, is all about technology which has withstood the test of time, and sparks the imagination of a world where things that whir, click, and hiss can be understood and depended upon, whatever may come along.

I came upon this beautiful little find in a local antique shop and was delighted to learn that it originated from nearby, just 20 miles up the Connecticut River. Bellows Falls, like Brattleboro, was a beehive of activity in the days of steam, and its past lives on in many forms, from small machined parts to hulking historic structures. Well-made objects, and the stories they can tell, or fuel, in the case of Fuller Steam Division, create a perfect imagination engine, generating a fascinating take on history, whether real, speculative, or alternate. Holding something solid in one’s hand, the past becomes palpable and the fictional is substantiated. How much fun is that?

Quotidian Steampunk: A Clockwork Roomscape

 

Second in the series of “Quotidian Steampunk” discoveries: scenes captured with an iphone in the course of a regular day-in-the-life of a modern Vermonter (no comments there, please)…  New England is a treasure trove of recombinant imagery: our steam- and water-powered past seasons our 21st-Century lives at home, in town, and in our attitudes and mindset. The echoing industry of past enterprising Yankee generations reverberates through the physical evidence still amongst us – workaday and ornate brickwork, rusted steel rails and bridges, glass and gilt furnishings, brass and turned wooden mechanisms…