It’s a very dark and I think a little cloudy here this morning, certainly not the wonderful display of stars that greeted me yesterday. I had considered having a last attempt at getting up that mountain today if it was clear, but now I’m not too hopeful. There also appears to be no signs of a glorious sunrise today, hidden behind the clouds is my guess. I think if I were to start this blog again from scratch I would probably start each new post with a photo of that day’s sunrise from where ever I was and whatever the weather.

Anyway, last night on Twitter I mentioned that I would be featuring another piece from my portfolio today and looking back through my postings I now realise that it is a week since I did last show a piece, and so today we have Engine. This piece is in many ways like Still which I showed last week, not only in that it is another potential sculpture, but also that it is based on a simple although perhaps little known scientific principle; the solar heat engine or as it is more commonly known the rubber band heat engine. The idea is simple, if the heat from the sun shines on one side of a wheel with rubber bands for spokes the rubber will contract, shifting the center of mass away from the center of rotation. The resulting in balance of the wheel causes the engine to rotate. Well that is the idea, but this isn’t a scientific model it is a sculpture, what I did was follow the scientific principles involved with the intention of making a sculpture rather than an engine. It does not function as an engine, but in its failure to function as an engine it functions as a sculpture which was always the intent. Once again the piece has the potential for motion; to use energy, but fails to do so. Some people see a “green” agenda at work in these pieces of mine, I make no comment on that.

 For anybody interested the demonstration below shows how the science part actually works.