Success in Breeding Rare Cornish Coppermine Nautilus Cephalopod

 

Rare Cornish Coppermine Nautilus now
successfully breed in captivity by Boffins Bunker Laboratory

Success in Breeding Rare Cornish Crypto-zoological

Steampunk Coppermine Nautilus Cephalopod

With so many species on the CITES endangered species list it is always good news when a crypto-zoological creature is saved from brink of extinction. 

 

That's what has happened in Cornwall (UK) thanks to brilliant work of Professor Boffins Bunker (me).  The incredibly rare & seldom before seen Cornish Coppermine Nautilus has now been successfully breed in captivity in Boffins secret steampunk laboratory in Cornwall.

 

 

Rare Cornish Coppermine Nautilus
in tin colouration embryonic stage 

 

What is known about Cornish Coppermine Nautilus? 

 

Cornwall is extremely rich in mineral deposits like tin, lead, copper, even gold & has been extensively mined over millennium from pre-Roman times to the point where certain parts of Cornwall are like a Swiss cheese, with many holes & tunnels boring through it (ex. St. Day & Redruth). 

 

What is far less known are some of the crypto-zoological species which are now said to inhabit these primarily abandoned cave & mine tunnel networks. For example the Cave-mouth dwelling Cornish Copper legged tarantula or the aquatic Cornish Coppermine Nautilus.

 

Cornish Coppermine Nautilus are thought may originally have been marine cave dwelling creatures from around the Cornish coast which have subsequently found their way into flooded mine shafts & tunnels.  Here they have adapted & evolved to live in such a hostile heavy metal mineral deposit environment.

 

Rare Cornish Coppermine Nautilus
in pre-copper metal colouration stage

The Boffins laboratory breed species go through various stages of development:-

(i)  Embryonic tin coloured stage
(ii) Pink/beige secondary stage (pre being fed copper mineral heavy deposits)
(ii) Copper stage (maturity)

Rare Cornish Brass Cephalopod Octopus,
also breed in Boffins Bunker Laboratory

Boffins said; "We are delighted with our laboratory successes to date in proliferating  these rare & lesser known Cornish creatures.  Whilst we deplore some irresponsible genetic DNA tinkering & Frankenstein like modification between non-related species, we ourselves are at the very forefront of pushing the boundaries of pseudo-science crypto-zoology in Cornwall.  In time we hope to bring even more lesser known species to the attention of a wider public, funding permitting"

Besides the Cornish Coppermine Nautilus, there are a already number of crypto-zoological species quite unique or rare to Cornwall which have successfully come out of the Boffins Laboratory.  These include various Fiji-mermaid like creatures, the previously mentioned copper legged cave tarantula, & examples of what some have referred to as 'dead-fairies', plus the aquatic Cornish pasty crimped jellyfish species.

To contact Boffins Bunker simply join twitter for laboratory updates & find him loitering there!

 

Rare Aquatic Cornish Pasty Victorian Museum Specimen Find

Tiny part of Boffins Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities ' Collection

Rare Aquatic Cornish Pasty Victorian Species Specimen

found in Scandinavian Museum Cabinet

Dear Boffins laboratory journal reader

Living in social & geographical isolation as the Boffin does (like you had not noticed) it was my various medication, meanderings, collections & tinkering's which drew me to the steampunk aesthetic.  Boffins own 'Cabinet of Curiosities' being various & peculiar, the steampunk objects & gadgets just nestle right in there alongside occult & natural history specimens.

The Boffin recently read on Brass Goggles forum that Steampunk is not just about Victorian-esque cloths!? 

For me it has never been about the cloths.  Heresy for some SP's, well yes, Boffin concurs there is something both airy & convenient about wearing nothing but an open back surgical frock gown, prosthetic assisted & converted elbow length rubber acid proof gauntlets, surgical face mask & multiple magnified optical lens apparatus in the laboratory (Health & Safety would approve). 

However this is apparently not a good look or socially acceptable day wear to answer the front door for receiving eBay parcels from the man of the postal service.  It's the bending to put the parcel down exposing lower nether region buttock cleavage due to wearing nothing but the open back surgical gown that clinched it, or should that be clenched it. Who knew?

The point being Steampunk is for some adherents to the genre/aesthetic other than cloths.  For the Boffin it revolves around my ever growing 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.

Which is why I was delighted to learn that an exceedingly rare example of the believed to have been lost 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty'  Pasty aquaticus had been located in a Scandinavian Museum Cabinet.



 Genuine specimen Finnish Museum Natural History;
 said by Prof. BB may be of the extremely rare 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty'

A little research quickly established no records whatsoever of a Victorian captive breeding programme of these strange & rather bizarre frilly tentacle creatures. Despite now being rumoured to have been used by the Bodmin Moor fishing fleet to herd towards nets,  the equally rare Cornish double winged flying pilchard as used to be caught off the East coast of Cornwall.

Now the geographically inclined will say 'Hang on , there is no East coast of Cornwall, that's called Devon' .  Exactly!  That is what makes these 'Aquatic Cornish Pasty' beasties so damn rare!

Both of the exceptional Cornish species said to be rarer than even a live specimen of the Scottish Haggis. 

Boffins Bunker has secured initial research funding from the Brass Ministry of Pointless Experimental Exercises, a micro small steampunk budgetary section of the Treasury Dept.  If the Boffin can procure a tissue sample from the Scandinavian museum pickled wet specimen, then Cornish Pasty, Jellyfish & Sculpey *TM cross breeding programme can be eventually begun in the Bunker early last year.

Boffins Bunker experiments cannot be any weirder than fish genetic DNA being used in tomatoes?

Boffin will let you know how we get on in time. (In time for what I'm not sure)

NB: NOT FOR THE SENSITIVE or WEAK OF STOMACH: 
For many more examples of 'Cabinet of Curiosities' Wet Specimens both real & faux visit Boffins Bunker research page on Pinterst  'Get Wet & Pickled' 

Brief return to tinker in Cornish Steampunk Laboratory

A return to tinker in the laboratory.
Image is not the Boffin Bunker but seemingly a colleague in the scientific world

Dear Reader

Having taken the step in the region of two weeks ago to emerge from my bunker, today I am having a little respite & returning to my lair of  dank experimentation for a little practical R&R therapy. Plus I have been neglecting my tinkering, & with more than half a dozen projects on the go ...but none anywhere nearing completion I must prise myself away from the infernal screen which sucks leech like upon my time, like a Goth vampire on a vein.

My blunderbuss 24 bore steam cannon approach to getting out there in steamy punk world (when did I start, was it really 3rd April?) has had a smattering of very positive results, and some less successful than had resulted with prior experiments on different topics on the internet in the past.

However, this has left me scratching my head & now considering a different Boffins Bunker formula & strategy to my world domination plans or at least to the furthering of steampunk in/from Cornwall.  What worked for me once in terms of the internet are clearly not as useful as they once were, (something to do with google having a zoo filled with genetically altered algorithm pandas & penguins, or something like that) so things having moved on whilst I've been hunkered down in the lab. That will teach me to take my eye off the leather spherical object.

My google page rank when 'Steampunk Cornwall' is searched has been most satisfactory, but its not resulting on 'boots on the ground' trampling around of multitudinous visitors on my various interconnected sites ie. youtube, pinterest, flickr,  twitter & this blog.  That said the quality of visitors & contacts made has been epic & my peeks into the analytics of source visitors I always finds interesting & educational...not that I've worked out what to do with the stats yet, but hey, who knew I had a fan in South Korea?

Until the next post, regards

BB

Steampunk Android Robots Paranormal Occult 'Hand of Glory'

Steampunk Android Robots Paranormal Occult 'Hand of Glory'

Steampunk Android Robots Occult 'Hand of Glory'
created by Boffins Bunker, Cornwall, UK

Before that nice chap Mr Isaac Asimov came up with the three laws of robotics

You know:-

1.  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Well before Mr Asimov's three laws,  I feel sure there may have been a few rogue element robotic creations out there from the late Victorian era.  Not least amongst the darker scientific community of the late C19th, the ones tinkering with both science & the paranormal occult. The real inspiration for  Mr Jules Verne & Mr H G Wells writings, & possibly the good lady Mary Shelley too.

The idea of a severed hand having occult properties is old, very old.  The traditional 'Hand of Glory' associated with witchcraft & the paranormal folklore of Europe, including the United Kingdom over hundreds of years, was a fundamentally a  burglar's tool made from the fat of the hanged corpse of a criminal.  See here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Glory



Image from Whitby Museum of their 'Hand of Glory'

When the  'Hand of Glory' was burning, all those asleep in a house were said to stay asleep & all those awake said to stay awake.  A handy little tool for a would-be thief.

Whitby Museum has one of the only known examples of a real human  'Hand of Glory' to have survived from the period of darker witchcraft & folklore in Europe.  It is on display in their museum. 

Forefront: Steampunk Android Robots Occult
'Hand of Glory'

The Steampunk Android Robots Occult 'Hand of Glory' featured here from the Boffins Bunker collection in Cornwall may have been removed from a convicted criminal robot (or not).  A bot that clearly must have broken the three laws (before they became the benchmark of robotic conduct).  It is a cross over between science & the occult by those seemingly meddling in the darker more sinister forces of nature, science & paranormal.

More images of Boffin Bunker creations from Cornwall can be found here on Pinterest