Paperback book shuffler.

Put paperback novels into a stack. The device cuts off the bindings, shuffles the pages like multiple decks of cards, and dispenses the randomly sorted pages.

A fragrance atomizer with tesla coils. Elegant tubes, mist, pleasant odors, arcs and sparks.

Edited by author 06-02-2007 09:44 AM
I'd love to see your version of a paper shredder.

Functional, beautiful, ominous, making satisfying/disturbing sounds.

SP coffee stein or thermos.

Surely there's a way of combining your, as you put it, "unrelated passion" for music with your designs (if you haven't already done so).

How about a gear-driven brass and/or wood percussion instrument, for instance? Maybe it creates a beat in various fractal-derived patterns. Perhaps you can invent a way to randomize the rhythm, I'm sure that would be challenging.

thinking hat, builds up energy somehow (leave that to you) enough to power the light bulb. May need hidden boosters, today's thinkers.. well..

Chris, You read my mind! A Kaden Harris/Brion Gysin/Ian Sommerville Dream Machine would be exquisite.

Too late... I've been doing Gysin devices for years; I actually documented a build as one of the projects in the book I wrote for the Make guys. (It's being edited by Tom Sgorous and Brian Jepson at this very moment).

I've toyed with selling them a few times, but since there's already a guy flogging the bejeezlies out of 'em on the net, it never seemed worth the effort.

I'll rethink that attitude.

Fully functinal steam punk dental operatory equipment (chair, drill, cuspidor, lights, mobile cart, stool)

A negative music box.

Something like... A wheel of bars spins around and strikes every note in a large music box simultanoutly. The player has keys they can press to press down to lower dampeners on particular notes and thereby suppress unwanted notes. Hence, the player does not play notes, but rather selectively suppresses them. Pressing up and down with a foot pedal, similar to an old-style spinning wheel, drives the drum and controls the speed of the notes.

How about a sundial that has multi levels that swing out to show the time in other parts of the world, or a peephole for the door that pops out and opens like an eyelid?-maybe add a control pad to move it around for a better view.

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I'm a rabbi, and I'd really like to have some ritual-ish items. Most things it's not possible, but how about a havdalah set? There must be some way to make it extraordinarily weird,a nd it has enough pieces that one could make it quite interesting.

Two items:

One, a decorative After Dinner Dispensary, such as would sit in the center of a fine dining table. This dispenser comes to us by way of a world that considers what anyone smokes, injects or ingests to be no right business of the State's.

Complete with organized and labelled racks holding tubes and pipes for smoking, humidor, spirit burners, a vial rack, a reusable syringe sterilizer, a blending kit, tincture and extraction set, and miniature scales this set caters to the taste of any guest.

The exterior is cloisonned, rich with vibrant motifs of The Orient, while the filligreed brass base has a small chamber designed to enclose our famous Suggestion Cards, with their recipes and combinations ranging from popular and time-tested to whimsical. (A bi-annual supply of new cards extending over three years' time accompanies this purchase.)

This well-founded introduction set is for the family wishing to provide the latest and finest in hospitality during the holidays, or everyday. Other, more substantial models, are available for the dedicated hostess. Also offered as a Travel Kit.

Two: A Lighted March of Progress World Map - an outline map painted on glass, framed in polished brass, this indespensible item harnesses the power of electricity and optics to allow manipulation of the focus of colored lights on different regions and countries. Some areas have permanent colors lights shining through the map, others are more mutable, changing as the forces of freedom or tyranny gain the upper hand.

From the Owners Manual: At the flick of a knob, a cheerful red lens gives way to the hated green one over Siam...another People lost to tyranny, while a promising neutral blue shines forth from Morroco.

O.K.....Anyway.how about something to hold all the loose change? Like a maneating flower made from spare parts of different degrees of shineyness and texture, with a pressure sensitive 'tounge' that drops away when you add spare change, allowing the money to fall down the stem into the flower pot.If this could trigger the petals to snap shut and somehow add a nice belching sound(a la Barney Gumble)that would just be splendid! P.S, don't forget a removeable plug for change retreival so no one has to lose a finger.

slippers