Copyright © Shab Levy
The Rolling Ball Web
An Online Compendium of
Rolling Ball Sculptures, Clocks, Etc.
By David M. MacMillan et. al.
Shab Levy, noted for his Gravitram rolling ball sculptures, has created several kinetic works for the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some of these employ rolling balls, while some do not.
The Franklin Institute is online at:
http://sln.fi.edu/
The images on this page appear through the courtesy of the artist/designer Shab Levy.
This page illustrates the:
This is the Energy Bicycle. Levy describes the operation of this machine:
Visitor pedals to activate electric motor and raise the balls to the top. When balls comes down it activates bells and lights.
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Copyright © Shab Levy |
Levy describes and explains this apparent perpetual motion machine in this way:
Visual design follows a similar 19th century design. Clever design hides a motor, batteries and a planetary gear system inside the shaft and spins the wheel very slowly continuously for 2-3 weeks while the steel balls appear to be doing the work.
Proposals for "unbalanced wheel" machines date back several hundred years. A good overview of schemes for perpetual motion machine may be found in Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume's book Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1977.) There is some discussion of the history of this type of machine on the Rolling Ball Perpetual Motion Machines page of the Rolling Ball Web.
 Copyright © Shab Levy |
 Copyright © Shab Levy |
Levy describes this kinetic sculpture:
As an homage to Calder, we designed this for the Future Energy section of the Franklin Institute. The sails spin and twirl slowly from the gentle wind that a fan supplies. The fan itself is powered by an array of solar cells on the south windows of the museum.
 Copyright © Shab Levy |
The images and quotations from Shab Levy on this page are copyright © 1999 and earlier by Shab Levy. With the exception of any material noted as being in the public domain, the text and encoding of this document are copyright © 1999 by David M. MacMillan.
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Version
1.1, 1999/12/02.
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