The Cole Mechanism

[Emile]

Here's a kinetic piece from a while back, as much science as art really. No preliminary plans or drawings (animations and diagrams were produced later)....

The Cole Mechanism

Materials - Scrap plastic, coathanger wire, bicycle parts, a bearing set from a "Lazy Susan", lots of nuts and bolts (that I actually had to buy) and three thirty year old exhausted ceramic magnets (selected for their uniformity of weight).

Tools - Two pairs of needlenose pliers, a screwdriver, a pocket knife, a hacksaw and a file.

A uniquely balanced mechanical arrangement, its motion is pendulous, but unlike a simple pendulum which has two possible positions of equilibrium (stable when down and un-stable when up), this pendulum actually has four possible positions of equilibrium.... two un-stable positions alligned with the force of gravity (up or down vertically) and two stable positions perpendicular to the force of gravity (positioned to either side horizontally)....

With repeated periodic displacements of as little as five to seven degrees its rate of rotation rapidly approaches about 100 to 150 rotations per minute over the course of just eight to ten repetitions, all while overcoming only negligible frictional resistance from the main axel (equipped with bearings). It may have some applications for extracting rotational motion more efficiently from wind and wave and maybe a couple of other things too, or it may just be a work of art....

[Maets]

Nice art and nice mechanism.

[Emile]

Nice art and nice mechanism.

Thanks Maets. Hey man (off topic for a moment), I checked out your site. That's wild! I love the boxed set of dueling pistols....

Do they actually function?

[Emile]

Do they actually function?

Ah yes, I see now (I made my own eyeglasses, you know) that the whole so called "Steam Punk Movement", as it appears to me, revolves largely around things like role playing and the production of aesthetically pleasing, albeit practically useless, artistically produced fantasy objects, or props of various sorts that serve no real purpose (not that there's anything wrong with that, sounds like people just having fun).

[Maets]

Nice art and nice mechanism.

Thanks Maets. Hey man (off topic for a moment), I checked out your site. That's wild! I love the boxed set of dueling pistols....

Do they actually function?

Thanks!

[J. Wilhelm]

I'm liking this pendulum.   It reminds me of a chaotic motion device with two attractors, whose description I read about

[Emile]

Thanks!

You're welcome.

[Emile]

I'm liking this pendulum.   It reminds me of a chaotic motion device with two attractors, whose description I read about

Hah! Right, and thanks, I've had various reactions as I worked on it over the years.... there was the guy who was reminded of a Russian dancer (you know, when they kick their legs out from side to side), and there was the Police Officer that stopped me because he thought it might be part of some sort of weapon like a gattling gun, and there was another guy that thought it might be part of a UFO!

It's interesting, that's the problem.... it's all just too damn interesting!

[von Corax]

Do they actually function?

Ah yes, I see now (I made my own eyeglasses, you know) that the whole so called "Steam Punk Movement", as it appears to me, revolves largely around things like role playing, and the production of aesthetically pleasing, albeit practically useless, artistically produced fantasy objects, or props, of various sorts that serve no real purpose.

It's not that so much as that far too often building a fully-functional whatever-it-is would be impossible, impractical or illegal...

[Emile]

Right.... that makes sense.