Mark Frauenfelder:
From the Make blog. It looks kind of phony. Why does the guy need to be up so high? Link
Mark Frauenfelder: Kaden says:
Ever hear about Rolamites? The only “basic mechanism” invented in the 20th century, they came out of Sandia Labs in the mid ’60’s.I’ve prototyped a few variations, and they’re *damned* fascinating… almost like alien technology, or something that fell through that rip in the space-time continuum that leads to the parallel universe.
A guy named Don Wilkes developed them, and they’re pretty freakin’ cool. A couple of rollers tracked into a spring metal band, and Bob’s yer uncle: stored energy with (no shit) frictionless constrained movement,
I remember reading about them in PopSci when they were first developed, then promptly forgot about them, what with being 9 years old and all. They popped back into my mind last night while pondering the Zen of primary mechanisms.
They currently seem to be *somewhat* popular in force sensor mechanisms, and there’s ongoing research into using ‘em in prosthetic joints, but for all intents and purposes, they’ve fallen through the cracks, Makerwise.
Check this guy out. He’s building Stonhenge in his backyard, by himself and using no equipment… Mmmm.. elbow grease
edit: so how did he get the first “stick” under the see saw? I guess Stonehenge is still a mystery…
