SD.NET Gets Steampunk "Tech" (rar?)

[Crossroads Inc.]

So originally this was going to be a "RAR" in the traditional "SD.NET World" type thing, with an nation and population based on various things. But for now, I decided to post the "Tech" I created for it, because well, I am curious for certain brainy types and nerd and such to check the various "Rules" of my tech. Basically I wanted to create some "Magical Technology" that would facility the various tropes one normally associates with Steampunk. IE:
-Utterly impractically airships or flying battleships, etc.
-Huge machinery and devices powers by ordinary 'steam'
-People making lightning guns or high powers electrical devices.
-Making computers out of 'apparent' victorian age technology.

So.. to that end I came up with the following and would love for the more mentally minded to "Field test" them...

Ubertonium.
The cornerstone of Steampunk Technology in this world, It is an extremely rare metal with several strange properties. It’s weight and mass density is similar to copper and can be worked at the same temperature as copper. However once heated and cooled, it takes on a strength similar to tempered steel.
Also, when a current is passed through the metal, it will become colder. The more current passed through, the colder the surface of the metal becomes.

Levistone:
A Light blue colored rock with the same density and weight of granite, but with rather unusual properties.
The stone, depending on the temperature it is subjected to, can decreases the mass around it causing it to float and levitate. At a base temperature of 60 degrees, 1 pound of contiguous rock ‘generates’ 1 pound of lift, or is neutrally buoyant.
If cooled artificially, each 5 degrees cooler generates 4pounds of lift.
1pounds of stone at 40degrees = 16pounds of lift or 15 useable pounds of lift.
The ‘useful’ physical limit a single pound can generate is 20 pounds; beyond that the surface temperature becomes freezing and the stone begins to shatter from the cold.
The Minimal amount of stone that can be used is ½ of a pound. Bellow that amount no lift is generated by the rock. (This is something to keep in mind, as it means chips of rock or bits that break off from Levistone will fall and possibly cause damage unless covered)
Most Levistone “ships” use thin bands of Ubertonium placed around their central lifting stones to adjust levitation, since Ubertonium becomes cold when an electric current is run through it, by increasing or decreasing current, the temperature of the stone can be increased or decreased, and by extension, the amount of lift.
The stone is typically found in warmer areas and so does not normally “float” unless temperatures get below 60 degrees.

Steamballs:
A steamball is the result of taking extremely rare hyper pure mineral water elements mixed with "Ubertonium” and compressing it within a reinforced steel sphere to a critical pressure where the water begins to create near unlimited pressure.
The reaction can only be created within a Steam Ball sphere, 1ft in diameter. Due to “Handwavium” If the reaction begins in anything smaller, the reaction ceases and the process ends. If the reaction begins in anything larger, the pressure has enough room to expand to begin to go critical and will continue to expand until it explodes.
Once a Steamball becomes ‘active’ it can be linked up to any device to provide a nearly unlimited amount of steam energy for whatever your devious mind can dream up.

Tesla Crystals
Effectively a room temperature super conductor, they resemble Quartz crystals in both size and shape, and must be cut carefully to avoid accidently shattering them.
Any electrical current passing through a Tesla crystal will have Zero resistance and can effectively be repeated forever..

Energist stones.
Large Coconut sized crystals that can produce immense amounts of electricity. When found naturally in rock (normally in metamorphic rock where diamonds would normally be found) they give off a weak electric current of a few watts. However when placed in an Übertonium ‘Socket’ they can produce far more electricity. When Ubertonium metal comes into contact with an Energist crystal, it reacts and increases more electricity. The more of the metal that is in contact, the more electricity produced. Typically most crystals can produce a maximum of 10MW before they would shatter from strain.

[madd0ct0r]

so, conservation of energy has gone on holiday?

Container ships sound fun, as does an enormous mechanical mole capable of digging canals where I want them.

[Crossroads Inc.]

so, conservation of energy has gone on holiday?

Container ships sound fun, as does an enormous mechanical mole capable of digging canals where I want them.

Oh GOD Yes, it is 'Steampunk' usually fits in the same vein as Fantasy magic 'tech' and all sorts of Sci-Fi tech that also tells the laws of physics to take a flying leap.

I just wanted to try and be consistent with the tech I proposed, and mostly interested to see what Others would do with it.

[Starglider]

None of those would make a major difference in accelerating development of computer technology. Something else will be needed, exactly what depends on how much computing power and what aesthetic you want.

[Ahriman238]

Look up Charles Babbage and his Difference/Analytical Engine you'll see the basics were there for a long time.

If Ubertonium is plentiful enough and as energy effective as it sounds, you would never need another form of refrigeration, air conditioning or maybe insulation. Similarly "crystals" that produce vast maounts of electrical current combined with superconductors would revolutionize electric power even beyond where it is today.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Been trying to decide just "rare" to make Ubertonium... Currently I am think a similar rarity to Gold. With gold, most of it is dug up and used for jewelry or decorations and such. Ubertonium is a dull, bland metal with almost no shine. Most wouldn't even know what to do with it until people started experimenting with electricity. So there would be a 'lot' of it around (relatively speaking)

One thing I am still trying to figure out is what "rules" should apply to it.
A great saying of fiction is 'It's ok if your breaking the laws of physics, just so long as your CONSISTENT about it."
I have semi good rules for most of the other ones... But not sure about what 'rules' to apply to the metal. I mean I've never been good with electricity... Volts, Amps, Watts, How much should go in to produce how much cold?
Obviously you can't get too cold, at some point the metal becomes brittle and unusable.

[Simon_Jester]

Levistone:
A Light blue colored rock with the same density and weight of granite, but with rather unusual properties.
The stone, depending on the temperature it is subjected to, can decreases the mass around it causing it to float and levitate. At a base temperature of 60 degrees, 1 pound of contiguous rock ‘generates’ 1 pound of lift, or is neutrally buoyant.
If cooled artificially, each 5 degrees cooler generates 4pounds of lift.
1pounds of stone at 40degrees = 16pounds of lift or 15 useable pounds of lift.
The ‘useful’ physical limit a single pound can generate is 20 pounds; beyond that the surface temperature becomes freezing and the stone begins to shatter from the cold.
The Minimal amount of stone that can be used is ½ of a pound. Bellow that amount no lift is generated by the rock. (This is something to keep in mind, as it means chips of rock or bits that break off from Levistone will fall and possibly cause damage unless covered)

Won't natural temperature changes cause existing deposits of this stuff to shatter themselves into gravel or rip loose and fly into spacec? It gets considerably colder than 60 degrees Fahrenheit underground, at some times of year, in many parts of the world. For that matter, you can't leave it out anywhere that it might get cold- for example, a levitation-rock powered hovercar cannot be left parked out in the snow, or even the winter air; it MUST be kept in a heated building.

[madd0ct0r]

None of those would make a major difference in accelerating development of computer technology. Something else will be needed, exactly what depends on how much computing power and what aesthetic you want.

well powering an analytical engine just got easier. With flying rocks around the place, I'm going to guess that projectile calculations are going to be even more important - and that was what drove the first computers wasn't it?

[Starglider]

Look up Charles Babbage and his Difference/Analytical Engine you'll see the basics were there for a long time.

There are good reasons why mechanical computing didn't advance faster than historically, despite plenty of demand from applications such as naval gunlaying. No amount of free electricity is going to accelerate progress in mass production of precision machined parts, also even ignoring (huge) cost and (poor) reliability issues no plausible mechanical computer can achieve the kinds of automation typical of steampunk fiction. The most plausible early computing technology that could come even vaugely close to a commercially and militarily useful general purpose computer would be early invention of a Zuse style relay machine; relays are easier and cheaper to mass produce than huge masses of custom precision gearing, but clock speed will still be limited to ~10 Hz with late Victorian parts. That is enough for some steampunk, but the sort that has robots needs additional non-historical tech to make it work.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Won't natural temperature changes cause existing deposits of this stuff to shatter themselves into gravel or rip loose and fly into spacec? It gets considerably colder than 60 degrees Fahrenheit underground, at some times of year, in many parts of the world. For that matter, you can't leave it out anywhere that it might get cold- for example, a levitation-rock powered hovercar cannot be left parked out in the snow, or even the winter air; it MUST be kept in a heated building.

That is actually a good point...

I would imagine perhaps the "activation point" of the stone should be lowered by quite a lot, perhaps around 40 or 30?
But then it gets into freezing a lot closer. I am curious what sort of rocks deal well and DON"T creak through constant freeze thaw cycles?
Since raising and lowering the temperature of the rock is what is used for increasing and decreasing lift, you would need a form of rock that could deal with that...
Unless you wanted to just go all out and say its "magical" and doesn't need to worry about that?

[Purple]

Why not just make it a rock that attains levitational capabilities not when cooled but when cooled and electrified. It would certainly fit a period theme with the whole electricity is magic angle and it would explain why the effect does not occur in nature (no strong direct current to activate them). Hell you could say that the levitational properties are somehow directly tied to the electric resistance of the material and that the cooling is actually needed to maximize that just like with superconductors.