Chief of doubtful improvements
Professor Silas Cogsworth
Believes every problem can be solved with another gauge. Has yet to explain what any of them measure.
A fictional society / an actual workshopA machine with
A machine with
questionable judgment.
Three Victorian gentlemen. One brass-and-steel spider. A regrettable lack of supervision.
The Society for Peculiar AcquisitionsThey set out to
They set out to
defeat the ordinary.
In our entirely invented account, the Society constructed an eight-legged mechanical collector to seek out remarkable objects and deliver them to a cabinet accessible to all curious people.
Its instructions were clear: find things with character. Its interpretation was less disciplined. It acquired art, curious instruments, unassembled projects, and several hats that were still in use.
The machine is called The Acquisitor. The cabinet is SpiderPunk. The gentlemen maintain that the hat problem is almost solved.
Keeper of the cabinet
Mr. Algernon Quill
Records every acquisition in exquisite handwriting, except the ones that escape before classification.
Committee of moral oversight
Dr. Octavius Vale
Objects to the word “nefarious.” Prefers “ambitiously underregulated.” Has lost four hats.
The Society and its members are fictional. The spider is the shop’s original brand artwork; a robot is not being offered for sale.
The real conspiracyA more interesting
A more interesting
kind of shop.
SpiderPunk’s spirit comes from old mail-order catalogs, curious workshops, and the mischievous Victorian engravings remembered from Apple II-era Beagle Bros advertisements. This is an independent shop with its own imaginary cast and its own real maker.