Horse racing automaton powered by heat from a brewing teapot

Check out this clever automaton by Jo Fairfax in which three horses race around a track. The entire thing is powered by the heat rising from a teapot that has been filed with hot water.

See more work by Jo Fairfax on his web site.

[ Thanks Lorenzo! ]

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Even the Grim Reaper is entitled to a break for lunch

Here is an automaton by Tim Donald titled Lunch Break. The piece depicts two characters sitting on a bench in the park. Even the Grim Reaper is entitled to a break for lunch! As usual, I love Tim Donald's rich carving style. I've never tried a skeleton, but it seems that most of the well-known automaton makers have done one at some point. Time to add it to the list.

You can see more automata by Tim Donald on his web site.

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Renewable by Paul Spooner depicts three wind power generators in action

Here is a new piece by automata legend, Paul Spooner. This one depicts three wind turbines atop small green hills. Titled simply Renewable, the piece is made of pine, lime, alder, aluminum, steel, nylon, brass, bronze, acrylic paint.

True to form, Spooner uses an ingenious mechanism to turn the blades of the windmills. Pulleys, of course, right? Oh, no. Take a good look at the shaft on the side of box moving in and out. That's a clue as to what's going on inside.

Paul Spooner on the details of the mechanism:

This piece employs the well-known Sliding Block mechanism to link the movement of the driving handle to all three turbines. The action is not particularly smooth, in fact it’s downright jerky because of the lack of balance in the turbine blades and the 3 x 352 degrees of lost motion in the transmission.

I adore Spooner's signature dovetail joints which hold the mechanism box together.

Here is where you can read more about (or purchase) the automaton titled Renewable by Paul Spooner.

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Rhino Training - automaton by Dave Johnson

I have often said that many contemporary automata are animated three-dimensional single-panel cartoons like the ones you might find in the pages of The New Yorker. The piece shown in the video above is a perfect example of what I mean. A familiar scene such as training a dog to sit is turned on its head when the dog is replaced with a rhinoceros. The piece is by Dave Johnson who you may remember as the creator of the famous Buckyball-moving machine.

The artist explains the origins of the piece:

I got an email at work one day, and the subject was "Rhino Training". (We use a CAD program called Rhinoceros.) My colleague Arlen and I thought that was a hilarious image: trying to get a rhino to sit, with no effect whatsoever. All day long we'd say "Sit!" and then crack up.

So I made a machine about it.

Humor, sound, a slew of nifty mechanisms including the one for the word-bubble, and some truly organic twitching motions for the rhino's ear and tail. An excellent machine all around.

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