Spirals By Steven's wooden window blinds feature a hypnotically fawsome set of wooden helical gears, exposed for extra mesmerizing stupendosity: "The raise/lower mechanism uses a system of pulleys and gears to wind up or let out two lines that are attached to the bottom bar of the blinds. This line is threaded through holes drilled along the centerline of each slat, goes through pulleys to be wound up onto a spool attached concentrically to the main gear. The gears are not really necessary for the blinds to work properly, but they really add to the coolness factor! The pinion gear could simply be replaced by a spool to wind the line up on. The two lines comes off the spool on the bottom and wraps around a pair of larger pulleys – one on each of the two planes making the corner. This arrangement has the edges of both pulleys slightly hanging over the corner by a distance that is the same as the the distance between the other pulley groove and the board behind it. The exit tangent of the first pulley is the same as the entrance tangent on the second pulley. From the second large pulley, the two lines split off and go to a pair of smaller pulleys that are vertical over each suspension point on the bottom bar and thread through the center holes drilled in each slat."
(Thanks, Dug North!)
