steam punkery nutcracker!

A while back I visited The Eden Project in Cornwall and in one of their exhibits, it featured how natural energy is formed and can be harvested for our uses. The whole exhibit is very steam-punk in vision, especially one huge metal contraption in the midst of the hall.

 This huge piece of fun machinery is powered by a giant handled cog the public hand turn and it sets a whole lot of parts in motion, parts spin, steam flies, cogs and chains turn, a metal water wheel cranks and a metal ball rises from the bottom up through this maze of parts to the top where it begns its huge journey downwards! Its so fun to watch and when the ball hits its target at the bottom, a loud horn sounds and water tips up to general a wave of energy and cracks a nut!

this bio-dome contains a little cartoon-est tree that is trying to capture little stars of energy to grow upon!

 Another dome contains the many specimens and species on this planet that live together and relies on each other to live. I loved this piece as it reminded me of those specimens boards one sees of butterflies and beetles! this dome slowly turns and lights up...i love the balance of science and technology!

 This bio-dome contains an animatronic that you power by cogs underneath this wooden man to swim as balls of energy rise and fall according to the amount used!

 And this little dome demonstrates how we taken inspiration from nature to design technology to for example, to fly! Again, you turn the handle to power the cogs underneath to turn the mini helicopter and sycamore seeds to spin!

This gives you an idea how things work, you turn the handle on many of the domes and you power the pieces and cogs to move the items inside the dome. in this case, you move the animals inside to move around and eat.

 This one demonstrates how weather can be harnessed to generate energy. The men inside move as the weather changes for the better and worst.

 All these domes are linked up to the giant dome in the middle where plants generate energy to provide lighting and power. I loved how steam-punky the domes look comined with the modern clash of technology!

here's another shot of the huge metal powered contraption! It is so hard to explain it but it is so amazing to watch!

And luckily i found a video where you can see this piece in action and hear more about it! what a wacky contraption!

what do you think?

Birdie love!
xxx