Rolling ball sculpture

People watching George Rhoads' rolling ball sculpture 42nd Street Ballroom (1983) in the north building of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, New York City

A rolling ball sculpture, sometimes referred to as a marble run, a ball run, a gravitram, or a rolling ball machine is a form of kinetic art – an art form of that contains moving pieces – that specifically involves one or more rolling balls. Rolling ball sculpture art typically includes rails or tracks made of metal or wood, and one or more balls or marbles that travels down the tracks. Ball types include, but are not limited to, steel, acrylic, wood and glass. Rolling ball sculptures are often described as being both busy and soothing at the same time. They are an artistic form of mechanical motion.

The largest rolling ball sculpture in the world, at 22 metres (72 ft) tall, is said to be the Energy Machine, located in the Hong Kong Science Museum in Hong Kong.

There are some commercial rolling ball sculptures such as Spacewarp from Bandai, Techno Ball and Chaos Machine. Some hobbyists and artists also enjoy making the sculptures by themselves using wood, metal or plastic.

Rolling ball sculptures rarely use circular-cross-sectioned tubes for the runs; tubes can induce balls to spin in ways that can introduce unpredictable delays; because of this most sculptures use guides on either side of the ball.^[1]

See also

• Bruce Gray (sculptor)
• Rube Goldberg machine

References

Notes

1. ^ "MythBuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures"

External links

General sites History of Gravitram The Swirling Brain Rolling Ball Sculptures Compendium of Rolling Ball Sculptures, etc. Large list of Rolling Ball websites and examples

Specific creators Mark Bischof Eddie Boes Didier Legros Steven Fleury Charlie Francus Matthew Gaulden, with a section on building RBS Stephen Jendro Jason Mellard George Rhoads Jeffrey Zachmann