Kipling built a very detailed world of dirigibles. He creates ads, letters to the editor. ( )

Early SF, describing the efficiency and the inner workings of a world-spanning dirigible network, as reported by a journalist on board of a transatlantic mail carrier. As a story, it didn't do much for me: it runs entirely on technobabble and world-building exposition, and is only fun to read from an engineering point of view. However, Kipling added to his story a whole bunch of classifieds, job ads and advice, purportedly from the same dirigible-themed magazine that published the journalist's report. Those are the most fun to read. Excellent idea for world-building.

Finally, let me add that, with the world-building and the tech-speak taking centre stage, this story reminded me of "How David Weber orders a pizza" (but in a good way), or perhaps something Ian Sales would write.

Freely available on Project Gutenberg. ( )

Terrible. ( )

You are so amazing RK! What a fun ride! ( )

The story is a report of a single journey of high speed mail ship which operates in the context of an aeronatical control board with light beacons (lighthouses), and anchored tenders serving as routing and safety services for an industry based on lighter than air ships. Given it was written in 1905, this almost a guide for modern steampunk.