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This would take both artistic vision and an incredible
engineering skill.
Picture a massive linear steam engine twisted and bent
into
interesting shapes and sized, some cylinders being just
an
inch or two across, some being 3 or 4 feet wide, all
working in
sync to turn something.
I'm
a big fan of kinetic sculpture, but as far as I know
nobody's made an artistically sculptured working engine
before.
Some general shape ideas posted in links.
Shaped like this...
https://images.app....l/ULt9XEQi6kFfKWYQ8
[doctorremulac3, Jul 12 2019]
...or this ...
https://images.app....l/ggXaXGsAtNJVv1fr5
[doctorremulac3, Jul 12 2019]
... etc.
https://images.app....l/4zVpW4J3ta1m7hT4A
[doctorremulac3, Jul 12 2019]
Heureka
https://www.atlasob...eka-useless-machine
Prior Art [8th of 7, Jul 12 2019]
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While almost all steam engines are beautiful things in their own right, this would be an opportunity for some innovative Steampunkery, so we award a bun. |
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There are several artists who have made
mechanical movement sculptural objects of whom
Jean Tinguely is perhaps the best known. There
are others who have made more industrial
machines, such as San Francisco artist Mark
Pauline, but I can't think of a steam piston
powered outcome, so the doc has something. [+] |
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That he has something is not in doubt; the concern is that it might be contagious. |
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//Jean Tinguely is perhaps the best known.// There's a less
well known one? |
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There's always the example of "Blackwell's Folly", a
behemoth stationary atmospheric steam engine which, it
was hoped and promised, would be super-efficient for
pumping water out of the Cornish tin-mines. It was the size
of a bus but not as pretty to look at. The main cylinder, as
well as the piston, moved. But it also had secondary
cylinders and secondary pistons, and on those were
mounted tertiary cylinders and tertiary pistons. The whole
thing moved like some sort of fractal accordion-player, only
not as fast. Or as efficiently. Or as profitably. And only
until it broke, which was almost immediately. |
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It was more a masterpiece of psychopathology than a work
of art, but more a work of art than a useful device. |
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[Max] Was the Folly before manufacturing processes could make it good or was there no redeeming partial ideas at all? |
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It would be the height of achievement for the beautiful, inspiring sculpture to have an actual purpose as well. Nuclear isotopes heating the water, to start off public education? |
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That Heureka thing is close. Looks a little practical though. |
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I'm picturing the thing following lines that are decidedly non
intended for an engine. |
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Hey Max, got any links to that Blackwell's Folly steam engine
thing? |
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Ack! It took me a moment to realize why I don't like this idea. I think it suggests to me the proposition that existing steam engines are *not* art. |
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I visited Crossness pumping station recently, where they have restored one of the steam engines to working order. Hundreds of tons of moving cast iron, all ornately decorated, in a cathedral of Victorian architecture. It is unquestionably sublime, but since it was built for function, I suppose some people might argue that it is not art. |
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But I have been to many model engineering fairs, where old engineers demonstrate how they have spent their retirement, sinking thousands of hours into machining model steam engines. These have no function. Some of them are miniatures of real engines, but many of them are new designs that serve no purpose other than to perhaps demonstrate the skill of their maker. One design that springs to mind is the "elbow engine" - a steam (or compressed air) engine with the only selling point being that it's difficult to build. |
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The vast majority of steampunk artworks are fake, but model steam engines are real, pointless, and beautiful. |
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I'm not saying machines as they are aren't art and can't be
beautiful. |
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This is just an idea for twisty, weird steam engines, nothing
more. |
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// demonstrate the skill of their maker. // |
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It's an interesting distinction. |
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"Works of Art" by and large are unique, and incapable of duplication ; whereas a machine, though it may also exist only as a single instance (such as Stevenson's 'Rocket', or the Difference Engine) could be reproduced, said reproduction being merely a matter of technical and financial resource. |
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Some art works are produced as editions, so the
distinction is more subtle than being a singular
item. |
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Talking of energetically expensive, this should be a global art competition with entry installations at cities with national parliaments or equivalent. |
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