An Elephant Thinking of Inventing the Wheel

Paul Spooner has just finished 7 of these elephants.

The elephant is either re-inventing the wheel, or practising the fifteenth letter of the alphabet.

They are made from limewood with a leather sheath over stainless steel spring in the trunk. The box is a tropical hardwood salvaged from a hotel door frame.

Dimensions H 130mm , W 160mm, D50 mm.

Edition of 7

£295 (excl. VAT)

Sold Out.

A Novel Transmission

ROBOTS

The marketing arm of P Spooner Stithians, noticing the upswerve in the sales of robots, has created its own Robonics Division. The first models to be produced were in the “Space Men” range, capable of seeking out female humans and subjecting them to a jolly exciting shaking.

In spite of their popularity these products were discontinued. High incidences of VWF were costing the company too much. Customers who have experienced such problems might wish to contact this site; www.fentons.co.uk, and typing VWF in the search box.

The obsolescent testosterone chip was replaced by more nurturing software that extended the machine’s capabilities into the domestic arena. New products could wash, dry and put away dishes and, with the appropriate (available) attachments, could make sourdough loaves and suggest family outings instead of staying at home all the time. 

 
Robots are usually employed to perform tasks that human beings find too dirty, dangerous or tedious to undertake themselves. Many modern women find breast feeding an irksome chore and now that most village girls have their sights set on more glamourous careers than wet-nursing, the new lactating robot is set to fill a niche. So far these wet-nursing androids have found favour with only the laziest, most self-absorbed and narcissistic of customers. Bundled with the hardware is a software package that enables the machine to locate, adopt and ship children from foreign countries.

Codenamed “The Mother of Invention” it is marketed as “A Novel Transmission” partly to gratify those men who are interested in the mechanical workings of our products. The mechanism, drawings of which can be seen on p. 270, vol 3 of “Ingenious Mechanisms for Designers and Inventors”, Industrial Press, NY, 1951, was chosen for its simplicity and ability to deliver a relentless reciprocating action under arduous conditions of service.

Ron Fuller Retrospective

An exhibition of work from Ron Fuller and Guy Richardson opens at Craftco in Southwold, Suffolk this Saturday. Ron says, “Mine is a special retrospective show one example of every toy I’ve ever made over the years (43 to be exact). It should be worth a visit to see some unusual creations and be of special interest for hobbyists, model-makers and craftpersons who make things with their hands in their spare time.”

Saturday 28th August – Thursday 9th September
Craftco Site

Deluxe Designing Automata Kit

This box contains everything you need to get started with automata design.

Contents:-

1. Designing Automata Kit. The classic CMT kit – No glue or tools are required, and you will learn about simple mechanics using cams and a crank slider mechanism. Many different designs can be made, and the kit used over and over again.
It is suitable for either left or right handed use, and takes the frustration out of designing automata by allowing very quick assembly and testing without the use of tools. It is a valuable teaching aid, and ideal for those wishing to experiment with some basic mechanisms.
Kit includes a DVD showing you how to put it together, (and our small Barecat has some fun along the way!)

We have enjoyed using this kit around the world at workshops and exhibitions. Produced in Thailand using chemical-free rubber wood, from sustainable sources.

2. A range of materials to help you create your own designs.
(5 pieces of foam material, 4 straws, feathers, wire). Colours will vary.

3. The Interactive CD-Rom. An interactive version of the Designing Automata Kit – hours of fun.

4. How to Make Automata DVD (NTSC or PAL) Understanding mechanisms with Keith Newstead

5. Cabaret Mechanical Movement – Our book, republished many times since 1998. Covers all the basic mechanisms with specific reference to CMT automata.

£79.50 (excl. VAT)

Simon Tait’s Mews No.15

Beastly time
You know about Chronophage, the weird and wonderful clock/creature created by John Taylor that has adorned the corner of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for the last couple of years, but you don’t know its younger brother yet. These monsters are multiplying.

Chronophage means ‘eater of time’, telling of the birth of time, and its devourment. It tells of death, with a chime of chains and a coffin lid. It is mesmerising, and puzzling in its precision and apparent randomness, and its constant movement makes it seem to be alive. The Corpus original has a creature at its apogee, a hybrid with elements of a grasshopper but also of a hornet for its wings, a viper fish or its vicious jaws and teeth, a coelacanth’s eyes and a wasp’s sting.

The mechanism, though, is a development from John Harrison’s world-changing mid-18th century chronometer, the watch that allowed navigators to chart longitude and so avoid crashing sideways into things.

‘The critical thing in a clock is the escapement between pendulum and the driving mechanism’ John tells me, with infinite patience. “The escapement was controlled by sliding levers which created friction. Harrison designed a mechanism with rocking levers that made no friction – the first mechanism in the world which requires no lubrication’, and the most accurate clock in the world for 150 years. Harrison’s rocking levers, touching the escape wheel on just two precise points to move the escapement, seemed reminiscent of the legs of a grasshopper, and so it became ‘the grasshopper escapement’. Ta-da!

‘Ninety-nine people out of a thousand don’t know how a clock works, it’s all hidden away. My clock turns it inside out, with the escape wheel much larger than any before and it’s a part of what you see, moving at a pace controlled by the Chronophage’s feet.’

But this is Chronophage II, known as the Midsummer because it was unveiled for the first time on Midsummer’s Day this year at the cut-class, 24-carat Masterpiece Fair in Chelsea (strictly no photographs, which is why this stolen snap of mine is a bit blurry). And the grasshopper has become something else.

John doesn’t work alone, of course. There’s a team of trusted engineers, led by Stewart Huxley; designers, like Gary Moore; craftspeople, such as the enamellist Joan Mackarell. And there are, of course, artists, in particular, there is Matt Sanderson, a sculptor more used to street art who conceived the… well, the thing on the top, no-one really knows what it is, especially Matt, except that it’s thoroughly nasty, with golden fangs, claws and a thoroughly unpleasant look in its eye. ‘As a public artist I want to create theatrical spectacles’ he says, ‘moving street theatre that changes, not just on the hour but every second’.

And the team will stay together, because interest in the first piece has been so great they have decided to open for commissions. ‘Each one will be different, each one is a work of art, each one is a development of John’s original inspiration and each one will have the team’s creative thoughts in it’ Matt says. “I can’t repeat anything, and if you ask me to make another Corpus Christi Clock you’ll have to find someone else to copy it, because I can’t. It needs to evolve’. Well, the Midsummer isn’t another Corpus Christi Clock, and it’s available, yours for a mere £2 million.

Or if you’ve got your own monster in mind, the Chronophage team will work to order…

Mewsette 1
Even the most dignified of art galleries are not above our sort of art these days, and the Ferens in Hull is no exception. Their exhibition, Manic Mechanics, Moving Sculpture, on until September 5, is a series of pieces put together by Johnny White and Amanda Wray from odds ends, like an kitchen mixer, fire extinguishers and even an exercise bike.

Mewsette 2
Be sure not to miss the show of the village toymaker himself, Ron Fuller, which opens at Craftco in Southwold on August 28.

Mewsette 3
And if you’re in the Highlands stalking the grouse, there’s still time to break your Purdeys and catch the end of Maria and Michael Start’s show at Nairn Museum, drawn from their collection of the House of Automata.

Mewsette 4
CMT, of course, has something happening at any time somewhere in the world, and the latest adventure is in Tel Aviv, at the Eretz Israel Museum. ‘The people, animals, and diverse creatures that come to life and move by pressing a button are operated by cogwheels, cranks, rubber bands. and wooden sticks, in the age-old tradition of accurate manual mechanical instruments’, says the press release – 40 pieces in all, made by the likes of Paul Spooner, Ron Fuller, Peter Markey and Matt Smith. Here’s an update from the museum’s director, Zachi Becker: ‘I am pleased to say the exhibition is very successful. We have positive press coverage, and the visitors are very happy with it. Since the opening on July 12 we have had over 12,000 visitors, and hope to reach 20,000 by the end of the run. Only three of the machines are troublesome, but we manage to carry on…’ Ahem, well, this is mechanics as art, you know, perfect isn’t part of the ethos… ‘On the whole – a great exhibition!’ It’s on until October 10.