The amazing Do Nothing Machine at the Museum of Craftsmanship
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- čas přidán 4. 11. 2013
- The Do Nothing Machine, built by Lawrence Wahlstrom, plus stationary engines by Rudy Kouhoupt at the end. Craftsmanship Museum, Carlsbad, CA.
From the museum website at www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com - According to a newspaper article (paper unknown) from about the early 1960's, the inventor of this engineering marvel was Lawrence Wahlstrom, a retired clock maker. He worked in the newspaper business and for the telephone company, while also acting as caretaker and landscape gardener for a Beverly Hills estate for 40 years. He always enjoyed tinkering with clocks and had attended a clock school to learn about their repair. Somewhere along the line he acquired a fascination for gears. After coming across a surplus WWII bomb sight containing a complicated cluster of gears, he got it working again. He also realized that people prefer to be entertained rather than educated, so he began adding more and more gears to his assembly over a 15-year period starting in about 1948. The first known publicity photo of it appeared in 1950.
Over the years, the number of gears continued to grow, reaching either 744 or 764 depending on which account you read. Like the motion of the machine, the actual figure is somewhat fluid. It attracted a lot of media attention over the years, appearing in magazine articles and on TV shows. It was seen on both the Art Linkletter show and the Bob Hope show. The family archives also contain a telegram arranging for Mr. Wahlstrom to appear on the Garry Moore show in November, 1954. Life Magazine gave it a full page in the April 20, 1953 issue, and Popular Mechanics gave it ½ page coverage in the February, 1954 issue. In February, 1955 it was also featured in Mechanix Illustrated magazine. There were also many other newspaper and magazine articles documenting its constant evolution.
Called by its inventor variously a "Flying Saucer Detector" or other nebulous and facetious descriptions, his goal was to add at least 50 gears each year to the constantly growing project. As noted in Popular Mechanics in 1954, "We all know someone who works harder doing nothing than most of us work doing something, but we can't possibly know anything that works harder at nothing that a machine built by a California hobbyist. The machine has over 700 working parts that rotate, twist, oscillate and reciprocate-all for no purpose except movement."
At some point after the Do Nothing machine came into the possession of the Antique Steam and Gas Museum in the Joe Martin Foundation's home town of Vista, CA. It was put up for auction, where Mr. Wolf purchased it in about 2003, repaired it and for years took it to several shows a year for the public to enjoy. - Věda a technologie
He built a working model of our government. Genius.
+Leo Iezzi BWAHAHAHAHaahaha !! exactly, including non-moving parts as the sleeping ones !! +1000 xD
+Leo Iezzi Except this one doesn't produce lies.
+Leo Iezzi Definitely of Scalia.
The guy in the video made basically that exact same joke
Keynes would be proud of this
Regardless of the non working bits, it's still a wonderful bit of nothing in particular which
is what makes it great, it's a visual treat and is bound to inspire others, especially any
young engineers.
It's a time machine! It wastes time.
😆 😆 😆
@Bradley Frank A Time-Burner
Lmao 😂 lol CZcams can teach you anything even how to waste time
Hahaha :D
Badum tss
the value of this machine by seeing it operating every type of gear connected in it is very unusual and great work understood by those peoples who work in mechanisms and research... great work
This is just going to mess with future archeologists
+Brian Hoffman No, the dolphins.
Lol. Maybe, but it's really gonna fuck with the philosophers trying to figure out why someone would purposely create a machine that does nothing.
ya need to chill up a bit baw0909. You'll live longer.
He's joking around incase you haven't noticed
If postmodernist wet blankets want to become one with nature, nothing is stopping them from turning themselves into worm food. Other benefits include improving the mood of those he leaves behind.
Can you imagine if it turned out the Antikythera mechanism was basically this?
"It does a lot of stuff with no result, you should have called it Congress" #lolz
Lol what are u doing here? ☺ i subed a long time ago and i found u here.
Barnacules Nerdgasm It is Congress everything is going around in circles and it doesn't work quite right. It probably even goes on a month long vacation every couple of weeks.
Barnacules Nerdgasm Nice, very nice
+Barnacules Nerdgasm ..The original Rube Goldberg cartoons were a satire of how politics works...
+Barnacules Nerdgasm
You just stole my thunder :)
As a laymen when i looked at it..it gave me so many ideas of how levers could work..its like opening up possibilities to ideas..
I will happily spend hours and hours just staring at this thing. Seeing a square-shaped gear for the first time !
I love looking at old stationary engines. They have such application in the not too distant past.
They revolutionized farming and made such banale things such as recreational skiing possible.
Totally amazing bits of kit.
Always one of my favorite parts in any steam fair with my son. He gets it too. Those first one cylinder petrol engines were the way of the future.
Luv and Peace.
I am a Do-nothing machine. Working for nearly 30 years now. I sleep, eat, recycle.
lol..me too
When you say recycle does that mean eat the food that you shit out?
That's means you're a recycling machine
He meant repeat.
@@MrSamdabeast what you do while eat, use for agriculture in way 😭😭😭😘
I will call as "Do Everything" to this machine. Masterpiece
Incredible! A brilliant idea, a machine that does nothing. Got to go to a mechanical engineering museum for all to see
This video and what it is of is Totally incredible, I also don't understand why anyone would hit the dislike button.. if anything this video should have at least 2 million thumbs up clicks... it is mind blowing the amount of thought skill and of course time that was put into the construction of this contraption. even though it does absolutely nothing, there is so much going on while it's working... thanks for sharing this with us.... You Sir are a Genius
It must take a lot of maintenance to keep this machine doing nothing.
Hose it with thin oil every once in a while
Just throw more money at it
Ergo "congress".
1:10 that gear suspended in the chains is really amazing, it's just behind the solenoid looking thing. Now that's balanced perfectly.
Donated by Circus..
It does something. It makes money to its creator. This is what we have to invent when all useful things have been already invented.
Maybe it cost more than it make .
Hhhhhh
who is its creator?
I would love to inspect this machine, and it would keep me entertained for hours. Thats more, than what my TV can do.
Terminator 15, the decline of the machines.
Ally Sloper I don't lol often but when I do..
+Ally Sloper Im dying
Spot on
Well said bro
This is what our tax code would look like if it was a machine.
@SBK Stóre Er, blod, sweat, and tears is more like it.
"we have a malfunction on it here, it isn't doing nothing the way it's supposed to"
+2421400215 +2464911920 +0091977215453443210+@+
in a thousand years it will be discovered and there will be all sorts off wacky idears about what it did
Antikythera mechanism of 21th Century...
Even tho it was made in the 20th
"It was most likely given to the human race by ancient aliens." - Kyle Broflovski of DeVry Institute.
Slap a Jesus sticker on it to save 950 years worth of research.
Some Aussie Guy,
Yeah and our future will say how advanced we were in developing something so complexed, then compare us to Egyptians and the Mayans.
2:17 guy with the cowboy hat did not get the joke
He will, eventually //-))
he looks like hes lost in thought
he is just a kid. it was not a joke for kids tho , so simple lol
He was not impressed.
Plot twist - The boy is a member of Congress and didn't laugh because he was deeply offended.
Reminds me of my mother in law. A complex association of parts that merge to do absolutely nothing.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
That's more like what they think of their daughter's husband.
😂😂🤣🤣
it has all the mechanisms of mechanical engineering in one machine.. such a marvel of mechanical engineering !!
This would be a brilliant piece to teach students about different gears and functions.
You need to make one of these secretly, bury it in the ground along with some artifacts and let the future people who find it mangle on what it was made for and what did it do!!!
sign a weird name under it so you stay in history!
like so many other things that historians dont understand, they will able it a "ceremonial object"
Andrew Kwasek
or an alien thing or someone who could predict the future (hears and stuff just predict future :D)
+Super Wig Maker mgk profile pic +1
Jordan Semmel
What does mgk mean?
They would probably think its an early sort of computer , were they don't have the who machine !
The kid in the hat just stood there the whole time with a blank look on his face. No curiosity. No look of boredom. No reaction at all. Was wondering what was going through his mind. Likely nothing.
I think you got it wrong. The kid was internalizing everything he saw. There wasn't time to waste on superficial emotions. This moment will inspire him to become a machinist, inventor, scientist or engineer.
He kept moving so that he could get a better view. Watch again. Maybe you were bored with this machine.
What a crazy, beautiful machine!
People who occupy their mind doing all this are very happy and contented persons.Brilliant in every way , Congratulations.
now in mental institutions
I have seen this machine before and I can categorically say that it definitely does both serve a purpose AND it works well. It is a lion and tiger repellant.
I’m very jealous of the free time the builder obviously has.
True :-)
I bet no one searched for this video ...
Hey I watch your videos .......
Never .
Just joking
I did actually
That meme is getting old.
if you need to remove your gearebox it's an really good walkthrough, and I searched for this video.
I searched mecahnics of machine and CZcams show this.
This machine definitely does something. It makes us to love or hate its complication and sophisticated technology. Very surreal and well...the most of the machines we own do nothing too...we just bought them for the pleasure of posession. All that useless technological toys we play everyday...we do not use even one percent of their real possibilities.
Go to bed u need some sleep
well, while i disagree with this beeing the idea behind this machine, i have to admit your point that we buy alot of useless stuff just because we can is actually valid. Think of smartphones or tablets. Sure they have some productive elements and features. but why do we need a fingerprint sensor? why do we need face recognition? A hardbeat sensor? just stuff to show off. that is also the reason, why we buy new smartphones every two years, because people around us are no longer impressed with the current technology, so we want to be the first ones, to impress them with something new we own. We don't need siri or google now, infact 90% of their uses are probably like "tell me a joke" or "how tall is barack obama", information we don't need.
If people didn't show off the new features and play with them then the phone makers wouldn't make any money. That is really the point of all of the little knick knacks. Also it is pretty amazing to see how far they can push the technology into such a small size. Just because some of it isn't useful right away doesn't mean it wont be in the future. GPS mapping for instance. I sure would be lost alot if I didn't have Google Maps.
Ecchi_Shiyouze Absolutely true, GPS is one of the Productive elements of a smartphone. Don't get me wrong, i have owned some smartphones and i carry a nexus 5 wirh me all the time. I also like to show google now to other people, and i also know it is incredibly stupid, still i do it.
muh1h1 A lot of the things you mentioned where invented for reasons other than to be included in consumer electronic products (smartphones and tablets, etc). Also, a lot of the tech development that goes into phones can be really useful in other areas too, like better touch screens, better and smaller batteries, better GUIs for other devices and machines. I totally agree with that new gadgets are mainly status symbols for regular people, but the technologies themselves are far from useless.
Glorious! A tribute to eccentricity :)
Whoever has created it, should be awarded noble prize.
Brilliant , excellent work
You can see those women thinking "So _this_ is why Bert wants a shed?"
How does a video like this get as many dislikes as it has? Are people so serious to really care about whether this thing does something or not? Anyway, I think it's a great piece of work and I enjoyed seeing it operate.
+MountainProspector It's youtube...you get used to it. :) The world at your door, unfiltered and unrestrained. :D
+MountainProspector A lot of people still think that clicking dislike will stop CZcams from constantly suggesting similar stuff you already hate.
Sadly this isn't Pandora, and even accidentally viewing a video for 3 seconds will make YT spam you with related garbage.
+Natural Philosopher Yes good point. Although its' a shame, I can see why that might be the case.
*****
Did you dislike it?
+MountainProspector Probably because this machine has so many malfunctions yet while it's on display at the museum of craftsmanship.
Besides my son this is the most amazing do nothing machine I've ever seen.
What do you mean a do nothing machine....it stole my heart.
I have a fruit fly problem and your fly on your avitar looks the same on my screan as them little basterds😠
lmao I was expecting it to start lagging when he switched it on
Things that spin have been entertaining people forever.
That is the most apt, concise and conclusive comment I've heard about this machine. One person remarked that [paraphrasing] "...people from the distant future will come upon this thing and wonder what its purpose was." This would also be true for a lot of other things like a "merry-go-round" or Ferris Wheel ride. One might ask, "What is the purpose of a machine that spins you in circles?" The purpose is for something called "entertainment." Art is also a form of entertainment and the "Do Nothing Machine" is another work of art. When we look back to pre-historic man we find the remnants of pig bladders that they inflated with their breath until the balls were tight and round and then sealed the ends with knots. Was there any so-called "utilitarian" purpose for making the balls? No. Early Man made balls filled with air just for throwing and catching or kicking around -- for fun and entertainment -- which evolved into all the 'ball' sports activities we have today. Please see my "The Headache Machine" animation on my channel.
Excellent video.
In Argenzuela (ex Argentina) there was a cartoonist whose nickname was Osky.
He had a habit of drawing very strange machines in his comics quite similar to the one we see in the video.
A time machine to the present time. Amazing!
I wonder how many times sound recordings of these machines were used in audio tracks of films and even music?
How my brain works (it also does nothing)
Now *This* is Epic!
This is pure art.
Incrível máquina 👏👏👏👏
it print out "Hello World"
That's funny.
cafeta yeah, after 5 years
only programmers get it lol
That's hilarious.
Gears always mesmerise me... Its beautiful =O
That's what I was missing in my life. Will start working on second one soonest possible
A look at the internal workings of a federally funded government program. It is very complicated, takes a lot of work to keep it running and when it doesn't run right it takes a massive amount of effort to correct the problem.
"..and accomplishes nothing"
“Gives me job security”
Beautiful. A perfect metaphor for the intricacy and pointlessness of life, albeit massively scaled down in complexity.
this isn't craftsmanship this is a work of art
Muito bom, exelente.
2:17 my favourite part
👍 the perfect machine of all time.
my cat would love this ^^
This machine is in some kind like my live!😂
"The Do Nothing Machine" wow, a mechanical version of the Australian Government, I am impressed!
That is a work of art!!!
there can be a 2 hour video of this oscillator and people will still be satisfied and watch the whole thing
So this is whats inside a iphone...
interesting.
Seems legit....
I need to have this in my home when I do nothing so we could do nothing together 😏
😂😂😂
A true piece of art
Just found your channel and Subscribed. Very nice work. Interesting
It reminds me of some of the levels in Castlevania III.
Yup, the Clocktower, where platforms you stood on 10 seconds ago suddenly cease to exist when off-screen. Good times =P
Beautiful piece. So how much BTU will the do nothing give off?
Wonderful settings
'
very beautifully machine with chains / gears
Congress it is.
so what did YOU make after being there for seven years?
"i made a machine that does NOTHING!"
**sigh**
We don't need another congress.
c keg app
But, it still functions.
That thing is amazing.
This thing is going to capture this planet someday!
it's a work of art. I hope you guy's look after it.
You could only call that machine "congress" if it sucked all the money out of your pockets and grew on it's own to supplant the building containing it.
Amazing ideas
Excellent
Well technically it is doing something.
So that's more than we can say about Congress.
but if it is broken for some reason...then it will do something
Impressive !
Wow so beautiful 💖
come on now I think your being a little to harsh that machine almost certainly does more than congress
Is there anything that doesn't?
This is how the modern economy works - so much work, and the result is zero!
That is the coolest broken thing I've seen.
"Something coming out of alignment down here, but that gives me job security", lol.
wow it is agreat machine ... Where is this museum ???
+Mahmoud Essam See the title at the beginning of the video. It is in Carlsbad, California, USA.
CaptainHarlock999 Thank you
um this show is um!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mahmoud Essam
watching this thing in motion is like porn for engineers
Meh- more like porn for steampunks. It doesn't do anything which irritates the engineer in me- so much wasted motion and inefficiency through mechanical loss. But can you still call it inefficiency when it wasn't supposed to do anything in the first place?
rasvial this is engineer porn for me because it demonstrates many diffirent functioning examples of gear mechanisms at the same time. and all the mechanisms somehow power all the other mechanisms and it just operates smoothly. its like an engineering porn ORGY
This is the kind of things engineers would make if it wasn't for accountants lol
...a veritable orgy of gears - meshing, rocking in unison...where's the lube? Lol.
@@wompstopm123 Its a case of simple things please simple minds:-))))))) The chap who built it wasted his time and now he is wasting ours, not me I stopped in the first minute!!!!
Excellent skill
2:19 The little circular silver thing closest to the power switches, one of the names for that mechanism is "Kentucky Do-Nothing".
It doesn't do nothing. It rotates.
well, technically that's not nothing
Odey Tayem that to show you wat it does it gives porpoise so it not for nothing.
AC 計算機 AC Calculator and goes tap tap
AC 計算機 AC Calculator hjgffjfcgjfckccc
It's the philosophy of the F-35 but in material form...
You win the internet today LOL!
Rubertoe
Still more reliable than F-35...
Kancho Haha you win again sir😂
It looks alive, true masterpiece
Holy moly that's neat
Reminds me of our Government,a lot of action with zero achievement
parttimetourist you can’t steal the joke from the actual video and pretend it was an original thought.
That kid was thinking :"...just like me :( ..." ..
Moving works of art are sometimes more beautiful than a painting or sculpture.
What a great a metaphor on the meaning of life.