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Author Topic: Train-driven orrery  (Read 1864 times)

Jeremy McCreary

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Train-driven orrery
« on: July 16, 2018, 10:32:06 PM »

My latest LEGO project isn't a top, but there's a whole lotta spinnin' goin' on here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhNpT3OtvNM

Please see video captions and description or blog page for more info.
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Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time ... and with spinning tops, we decorate both.
—after Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1960-1988

Everything in the world is strange and marvelous to well-open eyes.
—Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955

ta0

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2018, 11:45:00 PM »

 8)

Great idea! Orrery mechanisms are wonderful.

I was going to say that the revolution directions and the revolution ratios were wrong but then I realized this was a generic start/planet/moon and not the sun/earth/moon.

Here is a top spinning a train:

« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 10:02:52 AM by ta0 »
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2018, 12:07:46 AM »

Great idea! Orrery mechanisms are wonderful.
I was going to say that the revolution directions and the revolution ratios were wrong but then I realized this was a generic start/planet/moon and not the sun/earth/moon.
Here is a top spinning a train...

Thanks! It would be easy enough to add idler gears to correct the rotation directions, but they would add some bulk and friction. Even easier just to say that it's a model of the inner Zargon system, where you find retrograde rotations in the darnedest places.  >:D

By adding a second stage to the planetary transmission (bell-shaped housing under the orrery), I could boost the final drive ratio to a 1:9 overdrive. At that point, the train could do a decent job as a top starter with plenty of the torque.

On the model's blog page, I posted 2 photos of antique orreries I saw in the Science Museum in Valencia, Spain last month. One is a portable!

A top-driven train! Wonderful!

« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 10:02:16 AM by ta0 »
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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2018, 03:59:30 AM »

ta0: Off topic, but in old top drawings, the players shown are often female. Some of these drawings are ads.

Nowadays, at least in the throwing top realm, the players seem to be mostly male -- both in ad images and in real life.

What changed and when?
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 04:03:15 AM by Jeremy McCreary »
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ta0

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2018, 10:10:31 AM »

ta0: Off topic, but in old top drawings, the players shown are often female. Some of these drawings are ads.

Nowadays, at least in the throwing top realm, the players seem to be mostly male -- both in ad images and in real life.

What changed and when?

Alas, spinners have always been mostly men.
I think the drawing has (what appears to be) female hands to give the impression that the top was easy to spun. This is strongly hinted by the pulling by a single finger.
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Renee

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2018, 10:38:34 AM »

Alas, spinners have always been mostly men.
I think the drawing has (what appears to be) female hands to give the impression that the top was easy to spun. This is strongly hinted by the pulling by a single finger.

I think the gathered cuffs are creating an assumption that the hands are female in this illustration.  If you cover the sleeves from view, the hands appear less female.  Wouldn't that type of shirt/blouse be almost universal in olden days.  If you could see the rest of the person in the illustration, he might look like this...

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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2018, 05:40:53 PM »

Oh well, hijacked my own thread...

I think the gathered cuffs are creating an assumption that the hands are female in this illustration.  If you cover the sleeves from view, the hands appear less female.

Good eye! The hands themselves could go either way in this case.

I should look through old top images again. Maybe female players (not just bystanders) never had the media presence I seem to remember. And there could still be an element of preservation or presentation bias. But I'm guessing that in the past, females and tops also intersected more in real life.

Question is, how, and what changed?
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Mermouy

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Re: Train-driven orrery
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2018, 05:00:32 AM »

8)

Great idea! Orrery mechanisms are wonderful.

I was going to say that the revolution directions and the revolution ratios were wrong but then I realized this was a generic start/planet/moon and not the sun/earth/moon.

Here is a top spinning a train:



Ta0 you're such a full of top resources man! I'm always impressed!!!
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