This is something that I first saw on the 'Net some years ago; I was reminded of it today, and was rewarded handsomely when I sought it out. It's described as "mechanical sculpture": a quarter-ton machine composed of 382 pieces, for opening a bottle of wine and pouring out a glass. Here it is in action:
There's another recording here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_2E-J44bY) (same event, different run) and here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa2JQkuRWik) (different event + different operator = different explanation).
Its inventor is Rob Higgs - his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/higgsrob) has more videos of this and his other exuberantly engineered creations. I also found a potted biography (http://www.oneofone.org.uk/rob_bio.html) for those who'd like to know a little more about him.
Truly, the Georgian verb of bottle-opening - grossly over-engineered for the job but also really quite cool :)
This is really cool, I kind of want one. I'd also like to see an industrial scale version for catering or something that is steam powered.
Might need modification other than just scale for wider use - e.g. can it do refills?
Quote from: Jubal on July 06, 2019, 10:47:38 PM
Might need modification other than just scale for wider use - e.g. can it do refills?
One of the audience asked about this at the end of one of the videos. Apparently, yes, it can do further glasses / refills - presumably it will run happily with a bottle that's already open. But it still has to go through the full cycle, because much of what it's doing is winding up a weight and a spring to provide the energy to lift the bottle and pour it.
Mm, makes sense. So fine in one sense, but somewhat inefficient :)
Something gives me the impression that pure efficiency might not have been an important design criterion for this...