I found some great pictures of a handmade Ferguson’s Orrery from MakezineDesigned circa 1750, the core of the mechanism depends on gears of differing ratios to illustrate the movement of the moon’s nodes and apogee as the earth revolves around the sun. It can be used to illustrate many things, including eclipses.” Jim further states he was inspired by Ian Coote, see Ian’s page about the orrery
Posts Tagged ‘mechanism’
Handmade Orrery
Sunday, November 1st, 2009A Great Old Video of the Black Forest Clock Industry
Thursday, October 29th, 2009>Alas, there are no more producers of European mechanical Anniversary Clocks. So many of these fine arts no longer exist. BUT, you can see a woman making a mechanical alarm clock that looks very similar to our very popular Sternreiter Alarm Clock! Quality mechanical items like these are very rare these days. We are very pleased to still be able to offer them. Contact your local clock dealer
What is an Orchestrion Anyway?
Thursday, October 29th, 2009A few weeks ago I did a post on “Orchestrion Hall” and all the goodies found therein. It occurred to me that the word Orchestrion may not be so readily understood these days, so here’s some pics and movies with Orchestrions.An Orchestrion is a mechanical musical instrument that starts with a large “player pipe organ.” Just as there have always been player pianos or pianolas, there were pipe
Orchestrion Hall, Baltimore
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009A few days ago, my Twitter followers may be been slightly mystified by my Tweets about finding hidden treasures in Baltimore.I had the inestimable pleasure of seeing a private collection of clocks, mechanical musical instruments, old fans, lamps, and more… all very rare and very interesting.The tower clock collection was particularly impressive. The house was fitted with several tower clock
Mechanical Cell Phone
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009Any connoisseur of mechanical wonders should follow the blog over at The Long Now Foundation. Here is an excerpted post from their blog:Early on in the Clock project we saw that of all the modern timepiece companies few were doing truly new things. One of the rare exceptions was Ulysse Nardin. Once we completed the first Clock prototype in fact we hosted Ludwig Oechslin their chief design
The Highest Craftsmanship
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009There really isn’t enough attention drawn to the beauty of craftsmanship in an Original Black Forest Cuckoo Clock. One must marvel at the complexity and quality of the mechanical clock works, particularly when these are made today in the midst of a throwaway market.In an age when you are paid to destroy and throw away aging machines, these Black Forest clockmakers are brave craftsman. They
