Mr. Simon Johnson, who lives in Plymouth, United Kingdom, has sent me photos of his nice model interpretation of the Time Machine he constructed in 1996 using electronics parts and 'junk'. The wheel does turn at speed controlled by the control knob and the lights at the front flash counting sequentially; there is a bistable circuit under the base of the model. The lamp and red LED glows too. This model is similar to the little Time Machine model used in the 1960 George Pal film, but this one has an unique design with Zodiac signs on the wheel.

Click on the images to enlarge them

And here is an e-mail from Mr. Simon Johnson, sent October 21:th:

Once upon a time the machine ran by itself as there's a rechargeable PP3 9V battery located in the centre section of the model and the LCD 'clock' worked also which was just an old digital LCD watch; its lithium cell also located at the machine's centre has long depleted its energy, fortunately, when I was making the decorative wire scroll work, I incorporated this as part of the battery circuit so I am able to power it from an external supply. The wheel is in fact a replacement I made last year as the other one got removed and used for another 'electro-model' I made of an eclipsing binary star for an astronomy course project, it's just an old CD cut down in diameter. There was no drawing from which I built this model, it was totally 'improvised' and built as I went. It makes a great dinner conversation piece,

And here is a short movie of my working Time Machine model:

Sandra Petojevic, Master of Arts, October 20, 2009 (updated October 25, 2009)

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