BlogCadre - engineering

Building the Orrery

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 11:15:26 -0600

My friend Chris sent me some photos of this amazing orrery that he comissioned. Created by artist Eugene Sargent, it's a beautiful piece of engineering.

There is a small shaft to the right of the main shaft which turns at one revolution per moon orbit around the earth. The moon orbits smoothly on extremely tiny 2.5mm diameter ball bearings.

We definitely picked made the right decision on the cranking ratio...one fortnight instead of one moon orbit. It’s extremely easy to turn and still gives plenty of planetary motion satisfaction.

Here's a video of its making, filmed by Sarah Moore. Notice the ice caps on the Earth—a nice touch that'll be memorable when the real ones have melted away.

The Orrery has landed - Link

Pongmechanik!

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 03:11:51 -0500

Everybody loves ping pong, right? (That's table tennis for you Olympians...) Everyone loves Pong, right? Well, what would happen if you combined the two into one sleek, mechanical, energy-efficient package? Why, you get a nifty little art project called Pongmechanik.

Pongmechanik is a genius invention that could have been built in the thirties, had we enough thought put towards it. The board uses an old telephone relay computer to calculate movement of the ball and bats, and everything is done without transistors and microprocessors, even the sound. If you're looking to show up your buddy and his new 3000 dollar pool table sitting in his garage, build one of these. Hours of entertainment and a small electric bill to back it up. Genius, just pure genius.

Pongmechanik

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 03:09:39 -0500

A mechanical version of Pong created using parts available as early as the 1930's.