Posted by Scott Ellis (216.87.95.64) on March 13, 2002 at 00:30:27:
In Reply to: Gravity Wheel posted by John K on March 12, 2002 at 16:28:28:
Hi John, thanks for your post. Your "dumbwaiter" idea sounds similar to this:
In practice, these types of machines only work if the weights are raised more slowly than they fall, but they eventually stop when there are no more weights at the top. If the weights are raised at the same rate that they fall, the machines stand still. If the weights are raised at a greater rate than they fall, then the machine will run backward until the weights going up balance the weights going down, then it will stop.
Best of luck to you. I hope you will keep us posted,
-Scott
:
: Hi everyone,
: This is my first time posting on this page. Just curious, what do you think of the design below ?
: http://homepages.picknowl.com.au/astro1/jan/default.htm
: I'm a little unsure as to how all the pieces of it would function...but maybe together we could figure out if this thing has any merit.
: My father in law and I have been trying to come up with something similar (very much at the primitive stage of development).
: One idea of ours has been to use a 'dumb waiter' to provide a counterweight to the balls that would be lifted up,and placed at the top of the wheel. Of course friction would come into play,so we're trying to find low friction pulleys.
: We're also toying around with setting up the pulleys so that you have a large mechanical advantage to lift the dumb waiter up with. I'm wondering if you had a ball drop from the bottom of the wheel into a little bucket that was at the other end of the pulley, which the dumb waiter was attached to, then the ball falling off the wheel might be able to lift another ball onto the top of the wheel (by lifting the whole group of balls at once).
: I'm not sure if what I've written makes much sense, as I've just kind of plunked it down. But I would definitely be interested in people's feedback on the design I provided a link to.
: Thanks,
: John K