So far on my Zero to Maker journey, I’ve spent a lot of time with the technical aspects of making, with a heavy emphasis on learning the necessary skills to help boost my robotics knowledge. However, this has caused me to overlook one of the most important groups of makers: crafters.
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Last month, we announced, here on MAKE, a contest I was running, with my publisher. The winners have been selected in Chicago Review Press’s Practical Pyromaniac Clerihew Contest. The Practical Pyromaniac is my latest book.
Admittedly the sign is no longer “floating,” but I modified last week’s Weekend Project, the Floating Glow Display, using an empty CD jewel case, and these are the results. I wanted to be able to swap out the “sign” element of the Floating Glow Display, so the flip-lid of the jewel case allows me to do this (CD covers and inserts are an industry standard 12cm x 12cm).
To celebrate the publication of my new book, The Practical Pyromaniac, the Chicago Review Press (my publisher), is sponsoring a contest to see who can write the most creative Clerihew about fire, scientists, and similarly geeky subjects. For the budding poet, writer, or wise acre with a scientific bent, it’s a great opportunity for creativity!
Based on the work of German quantum physics pioneer, Heinrich Rubens, I designed this flame tube so propane gas inside the tube flows through holes drilled along the top, and flames are then lit above. I send a sound wave into the tube with a loudspeaker at the other end. When the tube is driven at one of its resonance frequencies, flames form a visual standing wave pattern, as you can see in the picture. Vary the pitch and change the volume to get different patters.
Here at headquarters, we just wrapped up the newest issue of MAKE, Volume 27, the Robot issue. Look for it on newsstands on July 26th. While we were working on the issue, we were curious to see what kinds of bots our community members were making and thought it would be fun to host a little contest. The premise of the contest was simple: we were looking for bots with lots of character.
