flying clothespins

Albuquerque Squadron

35mm

The first 35mm film was conceived of as a motion picture format in the labs of Thomas Edison. The format was put to use in a large number of miniature still cameras in the first decades of the Twentieth Century, including the Leica. The pre-loaded 35mm cassette was the invention of Dr. Ernest Nagel of Stuttgart who devised it for his Retina line of compact folding cameras. Kodak acquired the Nagel factory in 1931 and began marketing the Retina cameras and the film, which was designated as Kodak 135, in 1934.

The interactive 3D model is at the Warehouse.

jelly redux

In the Water Column

Busman's Holiday

I spent the afternoon today modeling these 120 roll film spools which came along with my two oldest box cameras. The cores of the spools are turned wood, and the end caps are stamped sheet metal.



I needed a break from working on my latest airplane. Some little alignment errors have proven difficult to correct, and I'm not sure if this one will ever fly. I did learn several new SketchUp techniques in the process, however, so I still feel the time was well spent.

3D Art

Came across a link to this 3D animation this morning at the Filmwasters site.
Pretty extraordinary work.



If you look at the Youtube page, there are a number of similar videos listed in the righthand column, many done by UC Berkeley students. I've been wondering how 3D design is being approached in schools, so was pleased to find these examples. According to the Filmwasters post, the Brownie Hawkeye Flash was done in Solidworks.

Thirty seconds over Alejandro

Our grandson's visit provided an opportunity to fly this Walmart micro helicopter, an Air Hogs Sharpshooter model.



I wasn't sure, judging from my own initial experience that the little chopper was a good choice for an impatient eleven-year-old. With just a little practice, however, he was able to fly the craft and control it much better than I. I was reminded of my own kids who, even when much younger, were out-performing me at Pac-Man in less than an hour.



The Sharpshooter proved to be a pretty stable flyer, though offering limited navigational control. It has taken a lot of hard knocks, but still gets airborne.

The charging port seems to have a short which turns on the motor unexpectedly, but that hasn't been a problem once you anticipate the thing trying to take off while you are in the process of connecting the cable. As I thought, the missle-firing capability proved to be an attractive feature. However, the craft flys poorly with the little plastic rockets in place. Small issues aside, however, it seems like a pretty nice toy at thirty bucks.