Steampunk (timeline)

Steampunk is a Retrofuturism subset of sci-fi that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. For GURPS this is the 1815-1914 period though the genre itself focuses on the Victorian Age. In terms of technology it covers TL5 to early TL6. Its successor is Dieselpunk and predecessor Clockpunk. Real world inventions listed in Classic: Steampunk and Steamtech have a colored background and are in order of the year they were first used/made/discovered/patented with corrections in their dates. Unless noted otherwise these inventions are TL5
==Historical Timeline==
===Before 1800===
*3400 BCE?/1500 BCE: Opium as a medical drug
*Ancient history : Early Bactericide (alcohol) — TL6?
*Between 1000 and 1010: Prototype Glider
*1600 BC: Earliest natural Plastic
*Ancient Greece: Camera Obscura — TL4
*1570s in Europe: Quinine as medical drug
*1620: Cornelis Drebbel's Submarine
*1739: Anas Mechanica Arcana
*1745/1746: Condenser
*c 1750: Barrel organ; precurser to Player Piano
*c 1775: Clipper Ship
*1779: Primitive Voder
*1794: Observation Balloon
*18th century: Arsenic as a medical drug
*Before 1800: Charcoal Pills, Compressed Gas Tank, and Racing and Pleasure Yacht
*1799: First motorized air compression system invented
*1804: Punched Cards
===1815-1820===
* 1815: Mount Tambora erupts setting off events that resulted in "the year without a summer" (1816)
* 1816: Limelight
* 1817: Construction of the Erie Canal begins Simón Bolívar liberates Venezuela and sets off revolutions in South America.Simón Bolívar -Reverberations, Francisco de Miranda, Leavings and Returns, Defeat is Not Surrender, Heavy is the Head, and All Good ThingsSafety Lamp?first verified Bicycle
* 1818: Frankenstein published
* 1819: The sailing ship/sidewheel steamer SS Savannah crosses the Atlantic.Singapore is founded as a trading post of the British East India Company.
===1820s===
* 1820: George IV becomes king of the United Kingdom.Missouri Compromise signed.
* 1821: Catholic Church's ban on teaching Copernicus is lifted.Greece declares independence from the Ottoman Empire finally achieving it in 1832.First Mechanics' Institute established.
* 1822: Rosetta Stone is translated by Jean-François ChampollionCharles Babbage's Difference Engine 0 is built.
* 1823: Royal Asiatic Society established.Monroe Doctrine is declared.Samuel Brown patents the first internal combustion engine.
* 1824: Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals foundedPanoramagram invented.
* 1825: Stockton and Darlington Railway offers first passenger service. (Colonial Train)Menai Suspension Bridge completed.
* 1826: University of London founded.American Temperance Society founded
* 1827: Church of Latter Day Saints founded.Josef Ressel invents the screw propeller
* 1828: Britain allows Dissenters and Catholics to hold officeÁnyos Jedlik starts work on electromagnetic self-rotors (proto dynamos)Friedrich Wöhler shows organic chemicals can be made in the lab. 
* 1829: Metropolitan Police Service foundedJames Smithson dies, his will with provision that if his nephew Henry James Hungerford died childess his fortune would go to the United States "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men" which comes to pass in 1835.Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind by James Mill is published.
===1830s===
* 1830: George IV is succeeded by William IV
* 1831: Charles Darwin leaves on the HMS Beagle.Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.Anesthesia developed (Chloroform)
* 1832: On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures published.Hippolyte Pixii builds an alternating current electrical generator.
* 1833: Slavery abolished in the British Empire; the word "scientist" coined by William WhewellAnalytical Engine planned.
* 1834: Spanish Inquisition disbanded.
* 1835: Samuel Colt patents the first revolver
* 1836: The Great Trek of Dutch-speaking colonists up into the interior of southern Africa begins
* 1837: Victoria succeeds William IVFirst appearance of Spring Heeled Jack.
* 1838: First reference to fuel cells appears. Trail of Tears happens.
* 1839: First Opium War beginsFirst Opium War - Trade Deficits and the Macartney Embassy, The Righteous Minister, Gunboat Diplomacy, and Conflagration and SurrenderFirst Anglo-Afghan War begins.
===1840s===
* 1840: Wellington, New Zealand founded.Johnny Appleseed meets Abraham Lincoln in New York City where they plant apple treesDavid Livingstone goes to Africa
* 1841: New Zealand becomes a British colony
* 1842: Crawford Long uses the first anesthesia
* 1844: Samuel Morse demonstrates a telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
* 1845: Texas joins the United StatesSir John Franklin's Expedition sets sail to find the Northwest Passage.Dramatized in the mini-series The Terror. 
* 1846: Neptune discovered; Mexican-American War beginsWilliam Thompson appointed to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Glasgow.Elise Howe patents the sewing machine.
* 1847: Cyrus McCormick is created with invention of the mechanical reaper.Nitroglycerine synthesized
* 1848: French Second Republic establishedThe Communist Manifesto written.First cast iron framed building constructed.Mexican-American_War ends 
* 1849: American Gold Rush begins.Chemical Rebreather developed
===1850s===
* 1850s: Electropathic Belt — TL6
* 1850: Taiping Rebellion begins; the name Georgium Sidus is abandoned by the last holdout in favor of Uranus
* 1851: The Great Exhibition is heldInduction Coil (first lamp is not noted until 1882)Tempest Prognosticat
* 1852: Second French Empire establishedHenri Giffard invents the steam injector and the powered Giffard dirigible airship.Elisha Otis invents the safety elevator.
* 1853: Crimean War beginsSamuel Colt starts manufacturing revolversAlexander Wood invents the hypodermic syringeChloroform becomes acceptedPneumatic Dispatch TerminalAcetylsalicylic Acid invented — TL6
* 1854: Matthew Perry opens Japan to the worldWireless telegraphy demonstrated
* 1855: Steam calliope patented
* 1856: Neanderthal man discoveredWilliam Henry Perkin discovers artificial dye in his search for synthetic quinineHenry Bessemer steel-making process makes large scale production possibleBig Ben is cast.
* 1857: The Indian Mutiny beginsThe Panic of 1857 occurs
* 1858: On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection is read at London's Linnean Society.Steam Launch
* 1859: Suez Canal construction begunGaston Planté invents the lead-acid batterySolar storm of 1859 (Carrington Event) occurs.
===1860s===
* 1860: Edmond Modeste Lescarbault announces announced the discovery of planet between Mercury and the Sun to a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris naming it Vulcan
* c 1861-1865: Use of Calomel as a Medicical drug
* 1861: American Civil War beginsVictor Emmanuel II becomes king of a united Italy
* 1862: The first Pacific Railroad Act is signed setting the stage for the First Transcontinental RailroadOtto von Bismarck becomes Prime Minister of PrussiaThe gatling gun patentedPepper's Ghost demonstrated though it had been scribed in 1584 by Giambattista della PortaFirst battle of Ironclads (Battle of Hampton Roads) occurs
* 1863: Verne's Paris in the Twentieth Century is rejected. It will not be published until 1994Trinitrotoluene (TNT) invented and used as a dye.Aereon AirshipAnti-garrote Collar
* 1864: William Thompson estimates Earth is between 20 to 400 million years old.International Workingmen's Association foundedFirst Geneva Conventions establishes neutrality of medical facilities in war 
* 1865: American Civil War ends with the defeat of the SouthLaying of first transatlantic cable succeedsJames Clerk Maxwell publishes his mathematic equations.Joseph Lister develops antiseptic surgery (Listerian Antiseptic Aerator)
* 1866: Austro-Prussian War occurs; Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
* 1867: Canada is organized as a Dominion; The Alaska Purchase is madeDiamonds are discovered in South AfricaWater-Drop Electrostatic Generator
* 1868: Meiji Restoration begins
* 1869: Thomas Edison patents the electric vote recorderDmitri Mendeleev publishes the first modern periodic tableFrancis Galton publishes Hereditary Genius
===1870s===
* 1870: Brooklyn Bridge construction begins15th Amendment to the United States Constitution passed.U.S. Army Weather Bureau created.
* 1871: Heinrich Schliemann begins excavation of Troy destroying much of the site in the process
* 1873: Long Depression begins
* 1874: First commercially successful typewriter manufactured by E. Remington & SonsFerdinand von Zeppelin comes up with the idea of giant airships — TL6Basic Set (Third Edition) Revised listed this as TL5. All other books say TL6
* 1875: Vegetable Compound
* 1876: Alexander Bell invents the telephone. Years later it would be said that Elisha Gray also invented the telephone.Elisha Gray and Alexander Bell telephone controversyPlayer Piano prototyps demonstrated
* 1877: Giovanni Schiaparelli's notes of canali (channels in Italian) on Mars are quickly mistranslated as canals in EnglishYears later it is claimed that Louis Pasteur discovered Penicillium notatum in his samples of anthraxThis may be a misunderstanding of contamination by other bacteria rather than by mold per Paul de Kruif's 1926 Microbe Hunters
* 1878: Resurgam (submarine)
* 1879: Zulu War occurs. Edison invents the first practical incandescent light bulbWork on Cocaine as a medical drug begins
===1880s===
* 1880: Thomas Edison's finances the publishing of Science journalWabash, Indiana becomes the first city in the world to be powered by electricity.First Boer War begins. Rough starting date assined to TL6 (The Mechanized Age) .
* 1881: Pasteur demonstrates his anthrax vaccine; Vatican archives are opened to the publicPhotographic Gun
* 1883: The Orient Express begins operation
* 1884: The Maxim gun is inventedGreenwich Mean Time is establishedArtificial Silk?
* 1885: first successful safty Bicycle
* 1886: Henry Faulds offers his concept of fingerprinting to the Metropolitan Police but is ignored. The concept will be refined by Francis Galton
* 1887: Michelson–Morley experiment fails to detect the Luminiferous aether used to explain how light travels through space.
* 1888: Heinrich Hertz publishes papers on transverse free space electromagnetic wavesCollapsible BustleJack the Ripper starts murdering prostitutes.
*1889: Construction on Eiffel Tower finishedWireless Field Telephone (TL6) invented but production doesn't become cheap until c 1910
===1890s===
*1891: Work on the Trans-Siberian Railway begins
* 1892: Dewar vacuum Flask — TL6Cinematograph
* 1893: The Kinetophone (Speaking Mutoscope) sound-film method (TL6) is said to have been demonstrated at the Chicago World's Fair Formaldehyde developed
* 1894: Earliest date for The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (the first movie to record sound and moving image in synchronization aka Speaking Mutoscope) — TL6Ernest Duchesne relates in his doctoral paper "Contribution à l’étude de la concurrence vitale chez les micro-organismes: antagonisme entre les moisissures et les microbes" (Contribution to the study of vital competition in micro-organisms: antagonism between molds and microbes) that Penicillium glaucum kills bacteria 
* 1895: X-rays discoveredPortable Fire Escape
* 1896: Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity though Marie Curie coins the termXenon discovered
* 1897: Queen Victoria's Diamond JubileeTurbinia demonstrated for Spithead Navy Review 
* 1898: Spanish-American War, Radium discoveredJohn Jacobson files for a patent on the first modern example of lenticular printing Mark Twain publishes "From The ‘London Times’ in 1904" which describes the telelectroscope the foundation for the internet like system in the story.
* 1899: Second Boer War begins
===1900s===
* 1900: Boxer RebellionThe Kinetophone short Le Duel d'Hamlet starring Sarah Bernhardt is shown at the Paris Exposition.The cylinder recording was lost but other examples from 1900 are Little Titch y sus Big Boots (1900) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1900 film) exist.HBO's Brain Games "Tales of Wrongovia" perpetuates the historical myth that sound films did not exist before 1927 by that a sound picture was the one thing out of four Sarah Bernhardt could not have done. 
* 1901: Karl Landsteiner identifies A, B, and O blood types 
* 1902: Wilhelm Kress's attempt to get a seaplane to fly fails
* 1903: First powered flight by Wright brothers
* 1904: United States takes over the construction of the Panama CanalJohn Ambrose Fleming invents the two-electrode vacuum tube diode (the basis of the vacuum tube)Russo-Japanese War begins
* 1905: Einstein publishes the Special Theory of Relativity providing a better solution then Luminiferous aether regarding light, magnetism, and gravity 
* 1906: San Fransisco earthquakeHMS Dreadnought launched — TL6Tartar Emetic
* 1907: Salvarsan synthesizedBakelite (first plastic made from synthetic components) —TL6Arsphenamine synthesized — TL6
* 1908: Robert H. Goddard starts work on rocketsModel T manufacturedSulfanilamide first prepared — TL6
* 1909: Robert Peary reaches North Pole
===1910s===
* 1910: Earth passes through the tail of Halley's Comet.
* 1911: Amundsen's South Pole expedition and death of Scott of the AntarcticSun Yat-sun becomes first president of the Republic of China
* 1912: Titanic sinksSee Titanic: Adventure Out of Time for alternative timelinesPiltdown man hoax staged
* 1913: Henry Ford invents the modern assembly lineH.G. Wells publishes Little Wars which is regarded as the progenitor of RPGs through ChainmailFluidized CoalFor some strange reason it is not noted this was really invented though the process wasn't very effective. (Coal Liquefaction)
* 1914: Written in 1913, H.G. Wells' The World Set Free outlining the future history of atomic power and bombs is published.Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated setting off a series of events that result in the Great War and ending the era.World War I: The Seminal Tragedy - The Concert of Europe, One Fateful Day in June, The July Crisis, The Final Act and LiesBig Bertha (Howitzer) — TL6
*1915 Einstein publishes his General theory of relativity
==Post Streampunk Era==
*1918: Long Range Cannon
*1920s: 
==Related Material==
* Classic: Old West
* Classic: Steamtech
* GURPS Horror
* GURPS Steampunk 1: Settings and Style
* GURPS Steampunk 2: Steam and Shellfire
* GURPS Steampunk 3: Soldiers and Scientists
* Vehicles: Steampunk Conveyances
==Additional Material==
===Extra History===
*England: The Broad Street Pump: You Know Nothing, John Snow, Epidemiology Begins!, Map of the Blue Death. The Sanitary Movement - A John Snow Epilogue
===Other===
*Sears and Roebuck Catalogues: 1897 (2018 reprint, Amazon); Catalog 112 (1902, Internet Archive); Catalog #114; 1905 (2013 reprint, Amazon); Catalog #124 (1912, Internet Archive)
* The Sanitary Movement
* The Supersizers Go... Victorian: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
* 5 Reasons The Victorian Era Was Utter Insanity | Answers With Joe
* Hidden Killers of the Victorian Home
* Hidden Killers of the Edwardian Home
==Notes==
Category:Timelines
Category:Historical Periods
Category:Steampunk Genre