The Mechanicals

Our new exhibition , The Mechanicals, produced in collaboration with Science Projects is enjoying a successful first outing at the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock.
Visitor feedback has been very enthusiastic:
‘Outstanding – for the imagination of adults as well as children’
‘Absolutely awesome. Brilliant for 3 & 40 year old. Shame it’s not permanent’
‘Superb – bringing fun to science and engineering, kids loved it’

Continues until 11th September 2011

Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
Sunday 2pm – 5pm

The Oxfordshire Museum
Fletcher’s House
Park Street
Woodstock
OX20 1SN

Gallery of all the exhibits here.

Article in The Oxford Times

Clever Hans the Intelligent Horse

Paul Spooner’s latest work features a complicated mechanism which draws the infinity symbol �??.

The story of Clever Hans is pretty well known. There’s a good account on Wikipedia with valuable links to other smart animal stories such as Nazi Talking Dogs and Lady Wonder, a mare with purported psychic powers which enabled her to foretell the outcomes of horse races. Clever Hans – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans flourished around the turn of the 20th century and communicated by means of hoof taps. If asked the square root of 49, he would bang the ground seven times and stop. He could compute the dates of Easter, in both the Catholic and Orthodox calendars and perform other complex calculations with great accuracy.

Thinking that such an intelligent animal might be frustrated by the limitations of hoof- tapping as a means of communication, I did this drawing to show how Hans might extend his repertoire into the graphic domain. Were someone to give him a sum to which the answer was �??infinity�?�, a less resourceful beast might be forced to tap on the ground an infinite number of times. To save himself from an eternity of tapping, I surmised that Hans might make imaginative use his god-given resources.

About a year later, I had developed the technology to make a model of this striking example of animal intelligence. Key to the design is the long conical spring wound from stainless steel wire, tipped with a small Neodymium magnet and sheathed in thin leather.

The mechanism that controls the movement of Hans’s drawing instrument is sketched below. It clearly shows the Cartesian coordinates; the X axis controlled by a crank producing harmonic motion and the Y axis by a sliding carriage governed by a cam.

The Hans sculpture is carved from limewood with additions crafted from leather, wire and a magnet as detailed above. The mechanism is largely made of oak recycled from a wardrobe.

Height 270mm x Width 270mm x Depth 100mm

Edition of 2 (1 remaining)

£1395 (excl. VAT)

The King and Queen of Hearts

A great collectors item from Fourteen Balls Toy Company.

A pair of tiny hand carved crowned royals, which vibrate lovingly on their spring mechanisms.

Both pieces are number 1 of the edition from January 2001.

Height of each piece 10 cm

Sold as a pair only.

£250 (excl. VAT)

New Book – Paper Models That Move

A new edition of Walter Ruffler’s book.

The book contains 24 pages of theory and 14 construction kits. 8 of the construction kits are for individual mechanical principles, and 6 of the kits are to make paper automata. Great value, and a wonderful set for teaching aids.

£19.99

Last few days of Designing Kit Discount

Our Designing Automata Kit and the Deluxe Automata Kit both have a discount of £15 until 5th July.