Exilian
Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter => Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds => Topic started by: Glaurung on June 29, 2019, 01:56:40 AM
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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.
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Truly, the Georgian verb of bottle-opening - grossly over-engineered for the job but also really quite cool :)
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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.
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Might need modification other than just scale for wider use - e.g. can it do refills?
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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.
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Mm, makes sense. So fine in one sense, but somewhat inefficient :)
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Something gives me the impression that pure efficiency might not have been an important design criterion for this...