Steam

(1) A Mock Feud

One of the best mock feuds was the battle over steam between Ken Bulmer and Vincent Clarke, on the one hand, and Walt Willis and Lee Hoffman on the other. Bulmer cleverly established his claim to be the inventor (a.k.a. the father) of steam during a visit Willis paid to the Epicentre. Noting that the lid to his tea kettle appeared to be lifted by the strange forces that resided in the vapors produced by the boiling waters, Bulmer remarked on the possibility of someday harnessing this energy to provide transportation and other benefits to all mankind.

Not long thereafter, LeeH formed Hoffmanothing to supply the needs of the Ft. Mudge Steam Calliope Company. Vincent Clarke, acting as Bulmer's mouthpiece barrister, sent notice to Ms. Hoffman that this was a clear infringement of Mssr. Bulmer's patent or copyright or whatever it was. Rather than pay the fees suggested by Clarke, however, Ms. Hoffman retained the services of Walter Alexandrew Willis, whose legal expertise may be gauged by the fact that his firm had apparently never heard of the concept of "conflict of interests" – he was one of her columnists, so he wound up representing her.

As is usually the case when matters turn litigious, no real results were obtained by either side, and although Hoffman and Bulmer managed (without the aid of legal counsel) to reach enough agreement to form an international group to supply white steam for general use, a.k.a. "Fair Steam," clearly the edge was off. The legal exchanges were really only so much hot air – but that, of course, is a vital element in the production of steam, so it wasn't entirely nonproductive. However, neither firm managed to capture the markets they should have, as witness the fact that NASA went on to utilize those dreadfully expensive liquid-fuel rockets and, in all the dreadfully modern world, there's not a single steam-powered computer to be had.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

(Watt:Bulmer) During a visit by Walt Willis to the Epicentre, Ken Bulmer noticed the lid of a teakettle being lifted by a strange force that seemed to reside in the vapor of the boiling water, and speculated on the possibility of harnessing this energy for transportation and other socially useful ends. Owing to international patent difficulties a competitive organization, Hoffmanothing Inc, was formed independently in the United States to supply the needs of the Fort Mudge Steam Calliope Company [Fort Mudge is part of the Pogo mythos; Hoffmanothing stocks were later taken over by Ashworth's Amorphous Abstracts, Ltd, of England after a prolonged lawsuit between the former and the Bulmer Aqueous Vapor Company. (They proved to consist largely of colored steam.) After a conference at Cleveland Hoffwoman and Bulmer organized an international group, Fair Steam, to supply the white kind for general use.

See also: Steampunk.

(2) A Fanzine by Ken Bulmer

A fanzine published by Ken Bulmer during the mock feud. It was sub-titled the "Official Calliope of the Bulmer Aqueous Vapour Company". It appeared in OMPA.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes	OMPA mailing
1 V1.1	Autumn 1954	2		1
2 V1.2	Winter 1954	14		2
3 V1.3	Spring 1955	2		3
4 V1.4	Summer 1955	2		4
5 V2.1	Autumn 1955	2		5
6 V2.2	Winter 1955		See the Chattahoochee Combozine
7 V2.3	Spring 1956	6		7
8 V2.4	Summer 1956	6		8
9 V3.1	Autumn 1956	6		9
10 V3.2	Winter 1956	6		10
11 V3.3	Spring 1957	4		11
12 V3.4	Summer 1957	4		12
13 V4.1	Autumn 1957	4		13
14 V4.2	December 1957	1	Single-sided	14
15 V4.3	Summer 1958	28	#15 on the cover
16 V4.4	Autumn 1958	26		17
17 V5.1	December 1959	1	Last issue; Single-sided	22

• Steam online at fanac.org.

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Publication

1954—1959

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