ThingamaBob Creates Contraptions and Explores Inventions

What would you make if you had had inner tubes, toy helicopters, and a roll of coins? That’s the challenge that inventor Bob Partington takes in the premiere of his new H2 series, ThingamaBob, a show that’s two parts making and one part history of innovation. In each episode, Bob creates inventions that use three mystery items. For instance, in the first episode, he creates a pickle slicing machine using the toy helicopters and a catapult for an 8-foot foamcore airplane (the inner tubes are used for the catapult and the coins weigh down the nose of the airplane). All three of the mystery items together are clues for something significant in America’s history of innovation. I won’t give this one away—you’ll have to watch the show for the answer to that.

ThingamaBob-2-up

It’s a show I think makers will enjoy. You can catch it on Saturdays at 10pm on H2 or watch it anytime online. This weekend’s episode features a hotdog crossbow and a tuba keg!

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Matt Richardson is a San Francisco-based creative technologist and Contributing Editor at MAKE. He’s the co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi and the author of Getting Started with BeagleBone.

View more articles by Matt Richardson

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