Post by Kilarin on Jun 23, 2007 22:07:36 GMT -5
This is way cool and made me think of Merle! 
It's a Marble driven wooden Binary calculator!
www.woodgears.ca/marbleadd/index.html
I don't know if your dial up connection can handle the vid download Xaa, but this is a beauty to watch in motion!
For those who have not read the Oerth cycle, the heroine is a Mustie, a "Furry" Mustalid (weasel/otter family). The Mustie's counting system is binary, and, in the story, Merle invented a Marble Calculator very much like this one, except it would also do subtraction.
It's INCREDIBLY cool to see a similar machine operating in reality.
<oh, and a note for those who find this interesting, you can get the entire oerth series DIRT CHEAP in electronic format at -DiskUs-. I mean CHEAP, as in less than $5 a book. An incredible buy. And if you like your books in print, Just follow the DiskUs link over to Cafe Press where you can get the books very nicely bound.>
It's a Marble driven wooden Binary calculator!
www.woodgears.ca/marbleadd/index.html
I don't know if your dial up connection can handle the vid download Xaa, but this is a beauty to watch in motion!
For those who have not read the Oerth cycle, the heroine is a Mustie, a "Furry" Mustalid (weasel/otter family). The Mustie's counting system is binary, and, in the story, Merle invented a Marble Calculator very much like this one, except it would also do subtraction.
It's INCREDIBLY cool to see a similar machine operating in reality.
<oh, and a note for those who find this interesting, you can get the entire oerth series DIRT CHEAP in electronic format at -DiskUs-. I mean CHEAP, as in less than $5 a book. An incredible buy. And if you like your books in print, Just follow the DiskUs link over to Cafe Press where you can get the books very nicely bound.>
;D