Vortex is a small sculpture that creates some fascinating patterning effects. The two overlapping wheels turn in opposite directions at the same rate of speed. During one phase of the motion, the pattern appears to collapse and shrink in upon itself. The wheels then slow and reverse direction giving the perception of a growing and expanding form.
The drive mechanism is one I developed many years ago and have used extensively. It's very quiet and reliable. In this version I've "split" the pin wheel into two parts and use a smaller drive pulley between them. This extends the run time to nearly 120 minutes.
Limited Edition of 150
Size:22"h x19"w x 6"d
Power Source: negator spring
Approximate Run Time: 2 hours
Vortex ©1995 David C. Roy
Animated gif-formatted drawings work well when using Netscape Navigator 3, Microsoft Explorer 3 or more recent versions of these browsers. The gif animation will repeat itself and play more rapidly when the page has finished loading. It takes 1-2 minutes for all the frames of the animation to load. This type of animation is very compact and works well over the Internet but it has it's limitations. The speed that the animation plays back at depends on the viewing application that you are using and the speed of your computer. In order to keep load times short I have only used enough frames to give a brief idea of the motion. This should only be considered a brief sketch of the motion.
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©2000 David C. Roy