GOLDEN LION

- THE GOLDEN LION -
Ladies and gentlemen - for your pleasure and ultimate destruction:
The Death Ray
(circa 1880) - portable - one-of-a-kind. This guilded monster's beauty and craftsmanship is only surpassed by the madness that would twist scientific knowledge into a handheld god-like power ...
(then again,
that's pretty much what science has always aspired to).
The fact that there is a "safety" key designed into the butt-plate is nothing less than ironic. This one's a killer my friends - not a healer, not a saviour, not e'en a deterent.

Also cool - Here's an excerpt from the Steampunk novel I am writing ...

     "The trunks in question were always to travel with me. They were built custom to fit around their contents and covered in a deep red alligator skin.
They would, this way be found unmistakably in an emergency. I slid them from under the birth with all ease as their weight belayed their truth. I made good use of even the smallest estonium spheres I could find.
I pulled a gold chain from my waistcoat pocket sorted the keys and small instruments at it's end. One key unlocked three trunks. Three spring lids popped and I went to work in the largest box. With time at an essence, I left the full flight suit and put on only the jacket. It was of caribou leather and lined with silver fox fur and I guarantee you quite adept at keeping me warm in the harsher altitudes. Armoured pieces were secured at the chest and shoulders. Small maneuvering winglets came off the triceps like small bats. I belted on the holster with my Navy Colt from the desk and wrapped my traveling papers in their oilskin portfolio. This went into my chest pocket.
     I don't ever remember getting my boots off faster and I slid my feet into the remaining trunks. Two boxes that were the same and the opposite. They were of course left and right and were, in fact, boots themselves.
     Special boots.
     Rocket boots.
     I reached in to tighten two straps each until the buckle bit into the leather hard. I now slid on a control gauntlet. The left glove and partial sleeve holding the mechanics and switches by which I would control my flight. These boots were not a common device to the public or even the army, though I cannot say they were the only pair in the world either. These were mine and of my own mind and a favorite of my many inventions. I placed the accompanying helmet on. It covered my head in full with a golden oval shape. The faceplate was a brass filigree buckled or unbuckled to gain access to the rebreather filters. I saw the world through two round lenses and a series of informational texts sliding in and out of view on subsequential lenses.
Flight ready.
Fuel at 100%.
Altitude at 2,000 metres - and falling.
     I reached for one more item before my departure. A wooden box on the desk opened to reveal The Golden Lion ...
     The Golden Lion was, for lack of more subtle nomenclature, a death ray. It was a sort of pistol as I could grip it right handed by the carved walnut handle. Atop of that was a 10 centimetre brass holding sphere where mixed the chemical reaction from a catalyst that was fed through a tube from a smaller glass globe. A vent cap on the hind helped dissipate an incredible increase in heat - as did two radiator discs at the fore of a short barrel. Two contact points used the electrical current of the human body to act as triggers. Once the key in the butt plate was quarter-turned the lion was live and deadly. A simultaneous forefinger and thumb unleashed a violent disassembly of whatever lay in her path. Another result of a restless night, an easy access to volatile chemicals and my love/hate relationship with science.
     I lifted the gun at the exterior wall of our cabin.
     "One more hole in your ship, Captain ... And I would apologize if I could - I truly would."
     A red-hot circle appeared on the hull just before it fell away to the rushing winds outside.
     I adjusted the beam width to a smaller pattern and tipped forward ... headlong into the aether."

Now, isn't that fun?

Also cool -
This and some other artwork of mine are in the new book
"1000 STEAMPUNK CREATIONS"
http://whisperstudio-brokentoys.blogspot.com/2011/05/1000-steampunk-creations.html
to be released in May 2011.
320 pages, 1000 illustrations
$25, $5 s&h .... Contact me if you are interested in a copy