harmonograph

This is a 4-pendulum harmonograph that I built for the 2010 East Austin Studio Tour. After the event I added an additional pendulum to provide x and y motion to the paper as well as the pen. This is a temporary set-up clamped to my work table.
The harmonograph was invented in the 19 century and was popularized as a parlor amusement in the 1890's. It is still fascinating to watch.

[@jackiereini9867]

This is so relaxing....I could watch this for hours.

[@rogersweb5323]

In the late nineteen sixties we had a utility room at the back of our house in Belfast. This room doubled as a workshop. I remember very quickly putting together a simple machine that included a small drawing board to which a heavily weighted rigid pendulum was attached on the underside. Paper was placed on the top surface of the board and the tip of a lightly weighted pen rested on this. The pen was held by a light arm and a second heavily weighted pendulum pushed the pen backwards and forwards along the paper. While the pen motion was restricted to one axis, the table moved in two axes. I still have my drawings!

[@psycox8758]

Beautiful! these pendulum based machines have a quality of completion and decay which you don't get with gear based ones. I wish I had the space to build one !

[@alanthomas2403]

i'm thinking of building a small one over the summer i'll let you know how I get on

[@violetssm]

I really appriciate the work thats gone into this The fact that I;m amused and fascinated by 'old parlour curios from the 1800's..funny, typical! I think I will have to make do with my 'spirograph' as the video presenter makes it look doable... but I'm seeing a precision instrument.. with wonderful tech graphic results.. art in itself!

[@cohall46]

Very interesting.

[@valveman12]

Very beautiful designs. Each one unique. I love it!

[@Cocothebastard]

Takes me back to my childhood and hours spent playing with Spirograph. :)

[@bernardocosta5281]

Totalmente excelente!

[@flamme78420]

You could optimize the machine by putting a vertical pole somewhere close to the center of the table and then thread a string through a loop at the top of the pole, attach one end to a peg on the table and the other to the two arms that hold the pen. It will lift the pen of the table, giving you the ability to manipulate the movements of the pendulums without having to hold the pen off the paper.
Tell me if it helps. ;)

[@benjaminwilliams1502]

That is so friggin' cool!

[@akhalafaou]

Interesting. Thanks for your great video.

[@michel-ange357]

🇫🇷 Bonjour,
Extrêmement intéressant ! Rendu esthétique…
Cela m’offre des idées pour une réalisation ludique, et didactique, aussi.
Cordialement.
M.

[@Gairlochan]

Beautiful!

[@photonflood]

Yes, it happens. When getting the pendulums swinging we take care that It does not go over the edge. It's not a big problem.

[@meinereiner7777]

sau geil! noch nie gesehen so ein Teil, echt toll!
Gib es ein Beitrag wie du das gebaut hat oder wie es ein anderer baut?

[@flamme78420]

By the way you harmonograph is beautiful, I wish I had one like yours!!!

[@Shlantybreakoff]

Incredible.

[@tonyscolerio711]

One of a kind image's and a earthquake detector.I want one.

[@williamhuang5329]

Hanzhen harmonic gear ,
robot joint ,
strain wave reducer,
over 30 years experience

[@MissMwahaha]

That's really beautiful

[@marjamada]

Excellent demo, thank you. It appears that, as the paper platform has considerably more weight than the pen, it either requires a heavier pendulum weight or one simply accepts that the paper will slow down faster and stop before the pen. The energy of the pendulum is exhausted by having to push then pull its controlled object - pen or paper board - and this consumes much energy. Would it improve performance to make a rigid foam platform to replace the wood one, keeping the sheet metal for hard surface, but thereby lessening the load of the paper-moving weights and pendulums? Or are we talking about simply lessening the gap between each line and the one before and after it? Obviously, if neither pen nor paper slowed down, there would not be a gap, the pen would follow the same path, or with slight variation. Your thoughts?

[@freescape08]

That man just drew a 4D figure-8 on a 2D sheet of paper?

[@surfskatemedicine]

beautiful

[@GeminiDolly52951]

That is so cool !!! I would love one of those. Do you sell them or the instructions on how to make one? Thanks for showing this.

[@nevenification]

excellent machine

[@48sharksOfficial]

2:24
I can't help but to hear "started from the bottom now we're here" when you say "started with a rubberband, now I have a clamp." Sounds like you even had a flow in it too haha

[@bintangraihan8062]

Goodyear Man

[@strated9654]

brilliant!

[@jnevins]

Bravo!

[@javier230525]

That's cool.

[@jonathannlcolson1700]

try one one a ball then never stop till its finished theme on a Spirograph

[@sylvaingady6834]

super, bravo

[@fueg31]

magnifique !

[@BLODSHED]

the pen sure useful for me to write essay..what brand is it?

[@zol404]

we call it the Drawinator.

[@davidparsons8218]

What kind of pen did you use? It's tough for a lot of pens to keep up with that speed of ink flow

[@sethbarry8811]

Try a fountain pen

[@markgearing]

I know this isn't the point, but software to generate the same output would take about 20 mins to write.

[@photonflood]

Mark Gearing
You are right and lots of people have written nice simulations of harmonographs.
I think people enjoy building their own and people enjoy watching the complexity of the drawings that arise from such a simple device.
Here is a nice link to some history.

[@markgearing]

Yes, I can see that the journey is as important as the destination here. The program would be fun to write as well, of course, and I can imagine it would be nice to see the pattern change in realtime as you played with the settings.
An interesting addition to this device that you might consider would be to add a slow paper-roll feeder to the table, which would give a kind of time axis to the decaying patterns formed.

[@ferenckarvak]

bio-natural plotter :)

[@ArmtekGizmos]

Making one out of KNEX right now

[@nevenification]

Armtek 2012 what is knex? did you made it?

[@photonflood]

I hope that's a good thing...

[@MCspid]

Piękne

[@IROCZ28PHOENIX]

Earthquake detector XD

[@chabanmenia2380]

wawwwwww

[@duckhunter711]

I would sell them on ebay for 50-100$. Quack.

[@zachcurtis4352]

I just realized, this is technically making fractals, isn't it?

[@nevenification]

Zach Curtis not really, more like 3D black holes created gravity we can not see because it's 5D

[@Khamomil]

How do you start the action?

[@pabloarvelo5969]

The Matrix

[@andrewlee999999999]

how worm holes are made