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Hardly
that the loved Tv-screen had become dark, I started with my work. With
the possibilities of a 7-year old, I began to make my dream real. The
computer-model on the right comes close to this first attempt. It
was followed by different versions from cardboard, plaster,
aluminum-foil and all, that lay around in the house of my parents. The only one, that has survived the years and recently came into my hands while I cleared away, is to be seen below, (at least the pieces of it) |
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In
order to build an exact model, the possibilities were missing to me a
long time. VCRs to watch the stills were far in the future and pictures
extremely rarely to find at that time. In
the beginning of the 80th, the magazine CINEMA brought out a
special-book with the topic „special effects“, where the original
blueprints of the MGM Artdirectors William Ferrari and a film-report
were printed. Now
I was able to make the first exact drawings for my model. |
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Unfortunately
the chair used in the film was not portrayed, they used an original
barber chair that already
existed as a prop , so they had not to build it . I was forced to
improvise a little. I
had to take the colors and patterns on the dish and the different
individual parts, as far as possible from the movie and miscellaneous
illustrations. |
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click on the picture to enlarge |
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click on the picture to enlarge |
click on the picture to enlarge | ||
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The
original Machine was mainly built from materials like wood, fiberglass,
steel and plastic instead of copper for the dish, brass for the rails and
glass for the cones. This
might be the best for the dish, because the mechanism would hardly have
the capacity to carry the weight of copper with this size and to spin or
brake it again. Of
course it was also a question of the cost. I
wanted to use as many " real " materials as possibly for my
model. There was no weight-problem with a 145 mm - copper-dish
anyway. |
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The
dish is driven by an electric motor in the pedestal. Flashing lights
simulate the days, months and years at the time travelling. An integrated
mini - loudspeaker simulates the increasing travel-speed by an ascending sound frequency. The
machine was shown from the 9. until 11. May 1997 at the FEDERATION CON V in
Bonn. This
photo was taken at the show >> |
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To
get the machine in action every 10 minutes during the show, I integrated
an electronic time – control in the pedestal. One after the other,
illumination, disk-rotation, blinking and sound were started. After 2
minutes the machine comes back gradually to the start condition again. The
figure of the time-traveler was made by my brother of a standard modelling
material. |
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