Gorgeous mechanical sine-wave calculator
Dug sez, "I gather that you can do two things with the machine. First, the machine will produce various sine waves for you on paper after you set values for the amplitude and phase angle. Second, in a reversal of this process, you can trace a curve and use Fourier analysis to extract the phase and amplitude of the curve. All of this is done mechanically. There are tons of great pictures of the device on this site."
This isn't a vintage piece, either -- it was built recently, and the makers provided extensive material documenting the process. Link (Thanks, Dug!)
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Beautiful! You just don't find that kind of art in creations now days. I suppose the craftsmanship like that exists in the realm of case modders and things like Von Slatt's work, but not really in any/many manufacturers.
Didn't this get posted here a few weeks ago?
Bob the angry flower is on his way RE: apostrophe.
#1 @HOLTT - My work comes nowhere near the level of craftsmanship in evidence here!
In fact, the dirty little secret is that all of my stuff, the keyboard, the LCD, even the bus - its, well, all papercraft and trick photography - it's sort of a reverse tilt/shift process.
Phew, I feel better for getting that off my chest.
#2: I believe it was posted either here of BBG. I also think I remember this thing being ridiculously expensive to make. But craftmanship has it's price.
Jake, we still love it anyway :^) Keep up the good work!
earlier here http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/05/02/the-harmonium-plots.html
Man, that's some serious gear-wheel porn.
If this was the sort of stuff the Steampunk crowd was making, I'd eat my hat (with tabasco sauce) and sign up immediately at the nearest Steampunk recruitment office.
Unfortunately as Jake points out, they can only gaze enviously from afar before going back to hot-gluing old cogs onto discarded welding goggles.
Absolutely gorgeous. It just me or does the double differential bear a striking resemblance to the planetary gears on a Sturmey-Archer AW hub?
i find it most impressive that this machine was build by a woman who constructed her first very own oscillograph at the age of 14.
You may have to be a bit autistic to get such things done but this doesn't reduces the achievement...
@#10
Is that is typo in your post?
I sure hope so.
If it wasn't, it's a really crude fuckin' remark.
we were going to ignore that on the assumption it was a typo. Lets all, shall we?
I've taken the extremely rare step of tidying up #10's typo, which I am certain was unintentional.
Thank you, Takuan and Antinous.
O.K. Back to the subject...
Her work is devastating!!!! Such artistry. Genius!
I googled some links on her work and it and, well... I'm speechless.
yeah, ain't she great? I have this mental image of her sitting with tiny feather file in one hand and a block of steel in the other, tongue in teeth, squinting and saying to herself "Let's see, 259 teeth on THIS gear...." It's the kind of ability and developed talent that makes you despair as an individual and be satanically proud of belonging to the same species.
" It's the kind of ability and developed talent that makes you despair as an individual and be satanically proud of belonging to the same species."
Well said, Takuan!
here, this will make us feel "better":
http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/antikythera/
that's her reconstruction of the thousands of years old Antikythera Mechanism. They wuz purdy smart back thens too.
Ohhhhhh. Its too pretty. Just. Ohhhhhhh.
The fit and finish on all of the parts in the sub mechanisms is so exquisite. It looks like is was made in a 3d program and then to think that its real...
As I look at it I keep thinking of a small flat blade screwdriver tip slipping out of one of those screws on the top plate and gouging into that beautiful anodized aluminum with a barely audible squeal. Shudder.
I nominate Tatjana van Vark as Empress of the Solar System.
All in favour?
Aye!!!
Second!
arr!