Some real stempunk!

Bruce Sterling collects some very curious gadget proposals of Charles Babbage. Funny read, now, after over a century.

Babbage is the inventor of "Analytical Engine", never actually built but often considered the first digital computer. Arthur Clarke has written a story on the subject too - "The Steam-Powered Word Processor"; only the hero here is "Charles Cabbage".

Related: Stories of Bruce Sterling, Arthur Clarke.