Gale Force Drummer

Gale Force Drummer is a type of outdoor automata that plays a drum kit as the wind blows harder.

Here's how it works:
There are a number of simple wooden figures that carry out actions in response to the wind driving a propellor blade, connected by a simple crank to a moving component. (like a saw of or an axe) (see link)

Gale Force Drummer takes this principle of harvesting wind power, but uses it to drive a much more complex figure that plays a mini drum kit. On a calm day the figure taps out a simple regular beat, but as the wind increases, more gears are engaged in response to sets of secondary propellors being activated.

These cause the figure to make additional arm and body movements striking more drums and cymbals, until a mad full blown drum solo is acheived in the event of a gale force wind.

Kits can be fully customised to include congas and other "ethnic" drums, and the gear box controls adjusted accordingly to play a nice samba during the blowing of a warm wind.

Delux version features a double kit, such as used by Ginger Baker. (the figure looks like him too)