The Russborough Turret Clock

On display at the Malahide Castle, County Dublin, Ireland, are the frame and movement of the mid-eighteenth century turret clock that originally ran the clock and sounded the bell in the bell tower of the Archway to the Russborough House, County Wicklow. In this century, Julian Cosby, a clock restorer, reassembled the jumbled parts from a cardboard box and it was cleaned and polished by the Russborough blacksmith, Michael Canlan. The clock works are known as a “side-by-side bird cage” clock due the wrought iron frame and two parallel gear trains, one for operating the hands of the clock and the other for ringing the bell.

The chiming train governs the ringing of the bell on the hour with a number chimes corresponding to the hour. Much of this mechanism is missing from reassembled clock. To build this model many photos and videos of other clocks of similar design and age were consulted. Accordingly, some of the details of parts and their arrangement may not exactly resemble the original, but their function is faithful to the original Russborough clock.

My thanks to Bill Anderson for sending me his photos of the clock. If you’d like more detailed information about the design and operation of clocks of this type, let me know and I’ll provide some links to sources that that helped me to understand them.

#Turret #tower #clock #Russborough #Blender #Cycles

Zeus UGV

Described by NIC Instruments Limited, its manufacturer, as a Modular Unmanned Ground Vehicle, light weight, portable and flexible. In its basic configuration it weighs around 40 Kg, it is 770 mm long with the arm folded and 465 mm wide. The three part arm is completely articulated and ends with gripping claw with its own camera. The arm can extend up to 1460 mm from the vehicle.  The Zeus has a top speed of three Kph, an 800 m operating range and a two-to-four hour mission length.

David White LT 8300 Theodolite

The theodolite was developed in the 18^th century to provide very accurate location of points in space, an essential tool for surveying and mapping. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on theodolites history and use. This model is based on the David Whites Instrument Company’s LT 8300 model, probably made in the late 1930s by the company in Milwaukee, WI, USA.

#teodolite #level_transit #surveying #Blender Cycles

 

Pendulum Wall clock

This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. In this animation, the model clock is running much faster than a real one would. At real clock speeds the movement of the minute hand wouldn’t be visible.

 # Clock #Brian_Law #Blender #Cycles

Mechanical Clock

 

This model is based on Brian Law’s Clock 9 plans: https://www.woodenclocks.co.uk/. I’ve made it before, but I wanted to try the project again with more experience and more advanced Blender software. While I’ve followed the plans fairly closely, I have used some artistic license and made some mechanical changes. The next step will be animating the clock.

 # Clock #Brian_Law #Blender #Cycles

 

Orrery

 I’ve been thinking about building a vertual orrery for a couple of years, but couldn’t quite imagine how it would work. Until, that is, l I saw Ken Condal’s videos: Building an Orrery. Orreries are mechanical models of celestial bodies, most often of the solar system, in this case the earth, moon, sun and the other planets out to Saturn. In this model the relative sizes of the planets and moon are accurate and their relative orbital periods are close to real. Except for the Earth, I used NASA photos of each body’s surface. The blue stationary gear is an earth year calendar showing the position of the earth and moon on any given day. My virtual model differs from Condal’s real one in some details; particularly I imagined the machine to be driven by a wind-up spring drive instead of a direct crank.

#orrery #Ken_Condal  #Solar_system

 

1867 Hugon Gas Engine

 

In 1867 Pierre Hugon of Paris, France, was awarded a U.S. Patent for an internal combustion, standing engine,his “gas engine”. The engine measured 1.6 X 2.3 X 1.1 meters and weighed over 1000kg. This model is based on photos of engines made by licensee Edward Casper in London, England displayed in the Science Museum, London, and the Anson Engine Museum, Poynton, Cheshire.

#engine #gas #internal #combustion #Anson #Science #Blender #Cycles

 

Vintage Singer Sewing Machine

I like machines, especially machines from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. It’s fun to find out how they work learn about their history. This project depicts a Singer treadle powered sewing machine made from the 1890s to the 1920s. Many of these Singer machines were extravagantly decorated filigree, floral designs. (I’ve been deliberately more modest with this model.) The Singer Manufacturing Company was founded in New York City by Isaac Singer and Edward Clark in 1851. Both domestic and international demand for the machines was so great that the company opened a factory in Glasgow, Scotland in 1867 that grew eventually to become the largest sewing machine producer in the world.

#Singer #sewing_machine #antique #Blender #Cycles

 

 

Wimshurst Machine

 Developed by English inventor James Wimshurst (1832 - 1903) in the early 1880s, the device is an electrostatic generator.  It consists of two counter-rotating glass disks with metal sectors pasted around the circumference driven by a crank, two Leyden jars and connecting circuitry. As the disks rotate, an electrical charge (voltage) builds up in the two Leyden jars (capacitors) until there is sufficient force to throw a spark across the gap between the metal balls at the top.

This model was inspired by the YouTube video series “Building a Wimshurst Machine” by Winky’s Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLVlV0N7Y1Y&list=PLz2A001hMBoTW59vbJtitbinLMcaYpn4T

#Wimshurst_Machine #electrostatic #generator Blender #cycles

Autoped Self Propelled Scooter

 Invented by Arthur Gibson, the Autoped self-propelled scooter was granted a US patent in 1916 which was assigned to the Autoped Company of America, New York, NY. It was powered by a 155 cc, single cylinder, air cooled, gasoline engine. The company manufactured the scooters from 1915 to 1922 and a licence was issued to Krupp for manufacture in Germany. The Autoped had a top speed of 20 mph (32 kph.) It weighed 110 pounds (50 Kg) and sold for $110.

 The inspiration for this model came from a photo posted on Facebook by Dimitri Borodine.

 #AutoPed #scooter #self-propelled #Blender #Cycles

 

Egyptian War Chariot

 

The chariot was not invented by the Egyptians, but they probably discovered it in their wars with the Hyksos in the Nile Delta region around 1,500 BCE. These chariots were heavy and cumbersome to manoeuvre, so the Egyptian engineers and military planners set out to perfect them. They made them much lighter (two soldiers could easily carry one), stronger, faster and more stable. The combat chariots carried a crew of two; a driver and an archer/spear carrier.

Once refined this design stayed in service for three hundred years and proved to be the decisive weapon system in the expansion of the Egyptian empire from northern Sudan to the southern part of Turkey, including present day Syria, Lebanon and Israel in between. The great military leader, Pharaoh Thutmose III used thousands of them in 17 campaigns in the Middle East.

This model is based on chariots found in the in the tomb of King Tutankhamen and described in detail in the PBS NOVA video “Building Pharaoh’s Chariot” on YouTube.

 #Egyptian_Chariot # Tutankhamen # Thutmose_ III #Blender #Cycles