Chicken Head - a simple and realistic automaton by Bliss Kolb

Here's the latest bird-themed automaton form artist Bliss Kolb. Though the motion is simple, it captures the essence of the chicken perfectly!

Here is where you can see more art by Bliss Kolb.

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Wood and metal self-reversing segmental peg gear

This clever mechanism allows a segmental peg gear to reverse direction though the driving pinion continues to rotate in the same direction! I am guessing it was used as an elevator for a marble machine. The piece was recently featured on the Spiel und Kunst mit Mechanik blog.

The design of the mechanism is brilliant. A pinion gear drives a spoked peg gear located at a right angle to it. The peg gear features a compound mechanism. A section of the pegs have been removed and replaced with two horizontal wires (bent into curves). When the pinion reaches the end of the pegs, it disengages. At this moment, the end of the shaft upon which the pinion is mounted comes in contact with one of the two the horizontal wires on the peg gear. Because the entire drive shaft assembly is hinged (i.e. mounted on a single pivot located on the side farthest from the gear) it is free swing within a certain range from side to side. The turning drive shaft rides the horizontal wire, causing the entire drive assembly to shift to the opposite side of the peg gear, where it once again engages with the last pin of the peg gear. Because the pinion is now located on the other side of the peg gear, the gear will be driven in the opposite direction! The process is then reversed using the other horizontal wire. Truly ingenious.

[ Thanks Dave! ]

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Del Short's wooden peg and cage gear contraption

Though there hasn't been a post about him a while, I can't get enough of the inimitable Del Short and his wooden contraptions. Here's a machine that he made back in 1984, which features wooden peg and cage gears. The gears run on a 6 to 1 ratio and can be hand-cranked from either end.

See more wooden machines by Del Short on his YouTube channel.

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Two methods for making pinwheel gear templates

Click your way over to the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre site to read my latest column. In this article I cover two methods for making pinwheel templates on paper. This builds nicely off the last article on methods for making wooden circles.

Here is link to Dug's Automata Tips, Techniques and Tricks No.3: Two Methods for Making Pinwheels Patterns.

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Incredible industrial-scale Matchbox car track

Maybe this is old news, but it's new to me. And, if any of you good readers haven't seen it yet, I'd feel terrible about not sharing this installation by Chris Burden called Metropolis 2. It must be the biggest, baddest, most industrial scale Hot Wheels / Matchbox track ever. I could never have imagined such a thing. Unbelievable!

It's a pretty fair critique of some of our behaviors too. So much to learn from toys, so little time.

[ Thanks Gina! ]

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Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World

In his book Ingenium, physicist Mark Denny examanes five devices -- the bow and arrow, the waterwheel, the counterpoise siege engine, the pendulum clock anchor escapement, and the centrifugal governor. The author combines narrative, illustrations, and even equations to cover the history of each device. As a physicist, he is able to explain the physics behind each machine, how it was used, how it changed over time, and the impact they had on the world.

Here's where you can learn more about the book Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World

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Stirling engine powers Ferris wheel model

Here is a top-of-the-line desktop toy: a metal Ferris wheel model, powered by a small Stirling engine. It's not exactly cheap, but it sure is nice!

From the mode description:

The Stirling engine's flywheels are connected by a rubber band to four flywheels on the Ferris wheel, powering its rotation. Made in Germany, the kit's parts are made from machine tooled solid brass, stainless steel, and aluminum components on a walnut stained wood base. Ferris wheel: 9" H x 5" W x 4" D. Stirling engine: 5" H x 6" L x 4 1/4"

Here's where you can learn more about this The Stirling Engine Ferris Wheel.

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Push-powered wooden musical automaton

I don't exactly have the words for this incredible creation since I've never seen anything quite like it. It's a wooden cart that -- when pushed -- plays a tune, a drum, and animates a human figure on the front. Another wonder from the mind of Osamu Kanda!

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Pin Wheels, Lantern Pinions & Peg Toothed Gears

While not as a elaborate as Del's Amazing Wooden Machine, the machine shown in this video makes great use of wooden pin-wheels, lantern pinions, and peg-toothed gears. Wooden circles and pegs can clearly be used to create many speeds and directions of motion. Well done!

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Series of Passionate/Arbitrary Decisions Machine

Here is a kinetic sculpture by Benjamin Cowden.

The piece is constructed of steel, concrete, brass, urethane rubber, and foam. Several mechanisms are chained together to produce the awkward spinning of the figure suspended in the center of the hoop. The overall effect works well with the title of the automaton: A Series of Passionate but Arbitrary Decisions.

Apart from being a great piece with an outstanding title, it also serves to show how useful good old-fashioned pin-wheels can be. Here the artist is using them to change the axis of rotation -- a fairly common use for pin-wheels. The particularly novel application is in the double-ratchet mechanism in which the pin-wheel's pins serve as "teeth" that are pulled in order to advance the motion. Clever, economical, and -- I'll wager -- robust.

Thanks, Falk!