I’m a bad steampunk. I like pretty things with brass and wood, but I end up injuring myself when I try to build/sew/knit/glue things, with the end result usually only a mess. With the exceptions of berets, I don’t do hats very well even if I could afford them. Mostly, I like something because it’s pretty. And because ye-olde-timey moustaches kind of rock my socks, but that might be something entirely different.
The National Museum of American History doesn’t seem like the first place you would look for Victoriana, but delight in invention wasn’t limited to those across the pond. And, as the former National Museum of History and Technology, we have quite the range of attractive and inventive artifacts which I know will inspire my next creationpurchase daydream. I’ve compiled a list of my favorites around the museum, but we’d love to hear your thoughts. Inspiring creativity and invention, the real glue for the steampunk aesthete, is as much in our educational mission as teaching the War of 1812.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
