The following was sent in and I'm posting it here so all can check it
out. Highly reminescent of the TOMI and the SMOT with some new twists.
====================
Anyone researching the pre-history of modern devices based on
magnetic ramps with accelerated steel balls may find David M.
MacMillan's Rolling Ball Web page of considerable interest.
The URL is
http://www.database.com/~lemur/rb-index.html
It presents a wealth of information about rolling-ball clocks,
rolling-ball sculptures, and rolling-ball perpetual motion
machines. For example, it discusses the work of Johannes
Taisnier (a.k.a. Taisnierus), a Jesuit Priest of the sixteenth
century. He designed a device in which a steel ball ascended a
magnetic ramp, fell through a hole, and returned to the bottom
of the ramp to begin the cycle anew. Whether he actually built
such a device is not known.
-- Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science" Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187