When brilliant minds get bored they invent something that will surely puzzle you: either really innovative or rather crazy. I will only try to present the facts and let you draw your own concluions and be the judge of it. Well, the story begins with a brilliant mind housed by the lazy body of a young student attending the Michigan Tech for the second year of study. My guess is that he was really bored and couldn't find anything to stimulate his great mind work properly, so he started combining things. The funny thing about it is that he tried to combine very different things belonging to different fields and different periods in time. To be more precise he tried to mate a computer with a pile of brass. And he called this project The Steampunk PC and later the computer was called the Telecalculograph . Doesn't it sound really interesting already? Well, I am not going to talk about the Steampunk PC, because I will focus on its weird peripheral caleed "The Bug", the Steampunk solid brass computer mouse. But if you are interested to see the whole creation process you can visit this guy's blog.

The Steampunk PC mouse that you can see in the pictures was built by designer Jake who thought that the  needed a suitable mouse for the Telecalculograph I told you about. The Bug is very small and comfortable and is made of brass, knobs and keys.  The total cost of this unusual computer mouse was the amazing sum of $5 and was build mostly of things taken from the parts bin where he collected all the parts and bits of electronic devices over the years. It was made as a home made combination of real computer mouse parts and cables and wires and a lot of improvisations made of brass. The result is surprisingly working and it connects in some way to the brass computer.

As you can imagine it is a lot heavier than a normal computer mouse, but its author says it is a reassuring feeling to really "feel" something when you hold this device, as the plastic of most computer parts makes him feel artifical and ugly. He may be right, you know. I remember I used to climb my grandma's attic and I would find a lot of old stuff deposited there. There were a lot of brass things around there, as in the past this was the basic material for things around the house. And I remember that the brass pots that I would touch felt cold at the beginning and then borrowed my heat and felt warm and nice and polished and smooth. I guess he tried to describe the same feeling.



This Jake guy says that most brass parts that he used to build the solid brass computer mouse were taken from an old toilet mechanism. I take his word for that. What I appreciate most is his innovation and imagination, even if the final result did not replace Jake's regular computer mouse on his desk (though he says it works just fine, even if a bit slower - which is understandable). The Bug has two large gears as its base. Then there is a cilindrical piece  of solid brass in the middle that was taken from a scrap bin from the University where he is studying. It is pretty heavy and kind of stabilizes the entire construction. A real circuit board is hidden under a piece of steel usually used in corners, that was after that covered with brass. There you can see an orange LED glowing in order to make this weird device quite similar to a normal computer mouse and at the same time to fit the yellow-orange colour of the whole system. At the opposite side you can see another gear used as a scroll wheel with two handles on the sides. The entire construction is held together by a lot of wires and screws ans strangely, it really seems to look like a computer mouse. Those things that look like door handles actually press some buttons and act like the right and left mouse buttons. All the components come from different strange sources: a spring is taken from a mechanical pencil, a gear from an alarm clock, some other parts come from an old toilet seat and so on. The connection with the computer, I am sorry - the Telecalculograph - is made through a normal USB cord wich was peeled off its plastic skin and was covered in cloth in order to get an antique look.



There is also an optical sensor incorporated and it peeps through the hole of one of the two gears that form the base of this solid brass computer mouse.

The funny thing about this mouse - The Bug - is that it actually works and you can operate the computer with it. It is just another unusual way of doing somehting special, of using intelligence and imagination to do something that can actully works. I appreciate inventivity and courage most of all at this guy. It may not be the invention of the telephone, but it is a start. I am sure that great inventions started in the same way, that inventors experimented a lot before getting to actually make a true invention. But this shows the power of the human mind and this is amazing. If you are skeptical and say that this is rather a weird thing with no apparent use, I invite you to do the same and see what you can accomplish.

In the end: Well done, boy! And never lose this amazing inventivity orf yours!