The Rolling Ball Web
An Online Compendium of
Rolling Ball Sculptures, Clocks, Etc.
By David M. MacMillan et. al.
(6 photos, approximately 330 kilobytes total)
Sculptor and metalworker Fred Crusade assisted George Rhoads with some of Rhoads' early public pieces, and has since, with Rhoads' blessing, gone on to create Audio-Kinetic ball machines of his own for science museums in the US and Europe, and for private collections.
Crusade describes his work as "fully user interactive, in such a way that electric power is unnecessary for operation."
Fred Crusade has kindly provided the following biographical material:
Fred Crusade
Deep Lake Industries
Manufactory of Animated Mechanisms
E-mail
crusade@deep-lake-ind.com
For the past 15 years, I have worked independently as a designer and fabricator of mechanical devices for science museums, private collections, the vending industry and the medical equipment field. With my background in mechanical and electrical engineering technology, I have a strong interest in research and development. I have extensive experience in layout, design, fabrication and trouble shooting, in addition to knowledge of materials, welding, and machine shop practices.
Professional Highlights
Interactive Museum Machines:
Interactive Vending Machines:
Numerous Privately Commissioned Works
Designed component parts for a Therapeutic Testing Machine:
Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Co.
Audio Kinetic Sculptor, George Rhoads:
Worked as an independent contractor engaged in the design,
fabrication, installation and
troubleshooting of mechanical, electrical and gravity activated devices.
Payne Inc. (Aerospace / Marine Research): Consultant engineer in the design development, and testing of experimental high speed composite boats.
Other Interests
Blacksmithing, investment casting, antique motorcycle and wood boat restoration.
Education
This photo of Crusade's work in the Techniquest Science Museum, Cardiff, Wales, appears courtesy of the artist. Photo by Harry White, exhibits director of Techniquest.
This machine employs what the artist terms a "scotch yoke" ball lifting device. The artist says of it that
... a column of balls is lifted by a reciprocating rod. A ball enters the column of balls at the bottom, is pushed up slightly more than the diameter of the ball, and is held in place by a catch or dog. As a result of the ball entering at the bottom, a ball at the top exits the column of balls. Both ball lift devices are human powered, and protected by a slip clutch.
He describes the device at the top as follows:
The appendage above the Vitensenteret machine is based on an Ignatze device. This is a rotating tethered ball, powered by a 1 1/2" steel ball below. As the ball rotates around its axis, it flings outward (centrifugal force), and is caught by a vertical rod, and wraps around the rod, stops, then unwraps. This repeats, or cycles, as long as the steel ball below is applying force to the drive arm. The Ignatze was an early 18th century clock timing device.
Crusade has also said of this device, in comparison to the similar device on the George Rhoads piece in the Ontario Science Center:
The Toronto piece ... by G Rhoads, does have a variation of the ignatz, driven by a ball rolling down a helix, pushing a rod that is connected to the rotating ball device (I fabricated that device). My version of using this time buying device, is a bit different, where the ignatze is ball driven by a lever arm, via a worm gear. The reason this device is important to me, not only as a neat thing to watch is, as I said above, it buys time. Many times it is very hard to tie up, or slow the progress of a ball to the next device. Some devices take a set amount of time to die down before the next ball arrives, so those slow sometimes subtle devices have an important hidden purpose.
This machine employs the "scotch yoke" type of ball lifter (see the Vitensenteret machine above).
Crusade built, owns, and operates these two rolling ball gum vending machines, Zig Zag Zoo I and Zig Zag Zoo II. At the time of writing (May 1999), Zig Zag Zoo II is for sale. Photos courtesy of the artist.
Zig Zag Zoo is also featured on a web page of the New Mexico State University Advanced Manufacturing Center:
http://www.nmsu.edu/~amc/jit_nov96/dept.html
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The photos and the text by Fred Crusade on this pages are copyright © by Fred Crusade. With the exception of any material noted as being in the public domain, the encoding and any other text of this document are copyright © 1999 by David M. MacMillan.
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Version
1.11, 1999/06/07.
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