Cabaret Mechanical Movement

Making Automata is hard. Making other sorts of three dimensional objects can also be hard, but he extra dimension of movement seems to add a disproportionate amount of difficulty. For most people, especially those untrained in engineering skills, getting to the point where making making mechanical devices is easy, can be a long and frustrating task. Then again, there are many people who have a sound understanding of engineering but can't even draw a horse. These things can be learnt. This book does not teach you to draw a horse, but it removes the mystery that surrounds the world of mechanisms and the business of making things move. Cabaret Mechanical Movement contains a lot of theory but it is also packed with practical tips and ideas for making your own automata, moving toys, or mechanical sculpture.

Automata and mechanical toys delight children and adults alike with the beauty of their design and the excitement of their movement. This book explains how the mechanisms work and celebrates many leading makers. Topics covered: ·History of automata & mechanical toys including the early inventors from Hero of Alexandria, through the mechanical marvels of the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, to contemporary automata. ·Advice on how to get started; tools and materials required and techniques explained. ·Step-by-step instructions with clear colour photographs.

Designing and making successful automata involves combining materials, mechanisms and magic. Making Simple Automata explains how to design and construct small scale, simple mechanical devices made for fun. Materials such as paper and card, wood, wire, tinplate and plastics are covered along with mechanisms - levers and linkages, cranks and cams, wheels, gears, pulleys, springs, ratchets and pawls. This wonderful book is illustrated with examples throughout and explains the six golden rules for making automata alongside detailed step-by-step projects. Magic - an unanalyzable charm, a strong fascination so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Superbly illustrated with 110 colour photographs with examples and detailed step-by-step projects.

Get Your Move On! In Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, you'll learn how to successfully build moving mechanisms through non-technical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects--from kinetic art installations to creative toys to energy-harvesting devices. Photographs, illustrations, screen shots, and images of 3D models are included for each project. This unique resource emphasizes using off-the-shelf components, readily available materials, and accessible fabrication techniques. Simple projects give you hands-on practice applying the skills covered in each chapter, and more complex projects at the end of the book incorporate topics from multiple chapters. Turn your imaginative ideas into reality with help from this practical, inventive guide. Discover how to: Find and select materials Fasten and join parts Measure force, friction, and torque Understand mechanical and electrical power, work, and energy Create and control motion Work with bearings, couplers, gears, screws, and springs Combine simple machines for work and fun Projects include: Rube Goldberg breakfast machine Mousetrap powered car DIY motor with magnet wire Motor direction and speed control Designing and fabricating spur gears Animated creations in paper An interactive rotating platform Small vertical axis wind turbine SADbot: the seasonally affected drawing robot Make Great Stuff! TAB, an imprint of McGraw-Hill Professional, is a leading publisher of DIY technology books for makers, hackers, and electronics hobbyists.

Make Your Own, Amazing Moving Art! Have you ever wanted to create your own moving-part toy or mechanism but weren’t sure where to start? Now you can easily build fascinating kinetic structures and simple machines with this do-it-yourself guide to making art in motion. Master craftsman Rodney Frost shares his wealth of knowledge with clear explanations and easy-to-follow instructions, building from simple to more complex projects to help you quickly absorb the lessons and build your skills. Frost keeps the concepts relatable, the materials accessible, and the projects doable. Simple illustrations help explain how basic mechanisms work, including cams, cranks, levers, pulleys, gears, and flywheels. In the skill-building simple projects, Frost suggests making the models with inexpensive household items, such as cardboard and string, before beginning construction with wood. Although the book consists primarily of projects for beginners and those with a desire to learn the basics of mechanical constructions, the much-beloved Creative Kinetics has nevertheless become a valued resource for hobbyists of all ages and experience levels. The simplified projects explained here provide excellent opportunities to learn the fundamental components and functions of more complicated creations, making this book a helpful and inspiring springboard for exploration of more advanced artwork and sculptures.

This beautiful book draws on Robert Race's extensive collection of traditional moving toys, looking at the ways the makers have achieved remarkable and varied results, often with very limited resources. Each chapter begins by looking at the mechanisms and materials used in some of these traditional moving toys, goes on to consider possible variations, and describes how to make a related moving toy. It continues, from this basis, to develop a design for an automaton. The book shows that designing and making these simple but wonderfully satisfying mechanical devices is fun, and that good results can be achieved in many different ways, using a variety of materials, tools and equipment such as wood and wire, card and paper, bamboo, string, tin plate and feathers. It exploits, in a simple way, mechanisms such as levers, linkages, cranks and cams. It explores different ways of moving those mechanisms directly by hand, by springs or falling weights, and by the wind. Beautifully illustrated with 117 colour images.

A Playful Path, the new book by games guru and fun theorist Bernard De Koven, serves as a collection of ideas and tools to help us bring our playfulness back into the open. When we find ourselves forgetting the life of the game or the game of life, the joy of form or the content, the play of brain or mind, body or spirit, this book can help us return to that which our soul is heir.