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A Re-Imagined World

MAY 18, 2017
“The Voxter” Originally designed for RCA in 1964 “The Voxter” was an analog voice stabilizer and a possible remote broadcast location hub (for live action remote news and sports reporting}. It has recently appeared in Russian hands as a code breaker it seems it can easily be reconfigured to pick up random computer signals and cell phone calls. It has become heavily linked with the current cyber wars and email hacks in today’s current international political scene. This is a very rare case where old even past analog technology has been brought to the fore front of a modern technological world and society. What still lay’s ahead is still quite unsure, but this is a strong case for a lesson in which old school technology meets new school technology and old school still works. This sculpture measures two foot high by eight inch’s wide. Composed of wood ,metal, and porcelain.
The Planeteer, Designed by Westinghouse as well as commissioned for the 1948 movie company the very powerful Metro Golden Mayer. “The Planeteer Space Ray Gun “designed to be used in both in real outer space as well as for the wondrulful and very imaginative black and white outer space movies of the late forties and early fifties. This was actually a prop not a real working design prototype to be sent to the US government patent office for the then “Ray Gun Design Competition”. It did in fact appear in several of the Metro Golden Mayer science fiction space movies, during the forties and fifties. This sculpture measures three foot wide and measures eight inches in height and is removable from its marble base, composed of fine hard woods , fine metals, and porcelain. This one is old school Hollywood no plastic or composites on this baby.
The Head Lighter (Electric Hydrogen fired concentrated Ray Gun employing the use of a directed beam of energized light then the introduction of high voltage electric current that was passed through the beam onto the intended target. This concept weapon pre dated the Laser} This was Henry Ford’s submission for the US Governments Ray Gun Design Completion. Clearly this displays his use of automotive experience as well as well as his direct connection to best friend and a fellow inventor as well as a modern day industrialist Thomas Edison. This is a hand held Ray Gun of sorts. It would focus a beam of light on its intended target then with the flip of a switch increase the voltage to this selection transmitted via that light beam. This sculpture measures over two and a half foot in height and measures two foot wide. The Ray gun is removable from its all medal base, composed of wood , fine metals, and porcelain
Full Throttle Frank Folk Tales From “Tales of the Track” Full throttle Frank who unfortunally died in that very cold winter of 1958 Full throttle Frank on that faithful night hit over sixty-eight miles an hour. Frank had a bottle of fine old shine on that cold and windy night. And it was said that the moon itself shinned from within his cockpit by the engines fiery light. Burning hard coal number nine he snapped the main bearing and went a fowl. Careening down those silver lined rails with the horrible sound of both devils thunder and hells fire. But Frank was a good man and a man of steel man he never looked back. And sadly even to this this day he stills sits well Below in the outer Totenville Bay. Now just a passing memory of that faithful day that Frank lost his life As a steaming railroad runaway. {This sculpture measures over three foot wide and is a foot and an half high. It is composed of pure American Steel, US Iron, and several hard woods.}
Flights of Pure Fantasy Currently I have some flying metal sculptures hanging on he walls at FIT outside my office. The are lighter pieces more like sketches when compared to my metal pieces. But I enjoy these very much in the way they seem to effortselly comes together. The all-metal pieces are very nice as well but take much longer to compose ,cut, bind, and build. Shown here is the metal and wood Fantasy Flyer “Fantasy Fish”
1797 “The Elmsford” built by Robert Fulton , a marginal American artist but increasingly successful inventor living in Paris, offered to build a submarine to be used against France's British enemy: "a Mechanical Nautlius. A Machine, which flatters me with much hope of being Able to Annihilate their Navy." He would build and operate the machine at his own expense, and would expect payment for each British ship destroyed. He predicted that, "Should some vessels of war be destroyed by means so novel, so hidden and so incalculable the confidence of the seamen will vanish and the fleet rendered useless from the moment of the first terror”. This is a concept sculpture of Robert Fulton’s two-man concept submarine. On closer inspection of this rather complex art piece one can actually see Captain James Elmsford in the forward porthole and Robert Fulton himself in the rear porthole. Quite an accomplishment for its day most likely achieved with the use of early tintype photrophy. {This sculpture measures a foot and half across and is eighteen inches hight.It is an all American steel construction and it sits on a removable hardwood base}
1968 Westinghouse “Oscillating Overthurster” The working protoype title was “Oscillating Overthurster”, but this was just code words for the real concept design which was for a very early version of the first; “Lie Dictator”. It was designed to pick up the nervous vibrations omitted from the body when one was not telling the truth or simply lying. The second generation of development lead to the (Bullshit Dictator} as it was so crudely nicknamed, but this design along with the use of early transistors could pick up deviations in speech where non truths were being spoken and or mixed with real words. In repeated tests it did bring in some favorable results and could determine fact from fiction. But it was soon discovered that the truth hurts and the market for this machine vanished the market was non-existent, so it’s was never marketeded to the Courts and Politian’s as originally planned by Westinghouse and it was simply scrapped. This piece measures two foot high by eight inch’s wide. Composed of wood ,metal, and porcelain.
The Higgins Homebuilt Family Tractor August 14 1928 South Dakota Old man Higgins as he was affectioally called was a simple but not simplistic working man, A father of four he was as his grandfather had been a working farmer. That was until the great depression hit the nation wiping out millions of peoples life savings as well as their livelihood. Mr. Higgins was a man of his time he possessed a can do attitude and as such a make do and or simply do with out mindset. So when it came to a farm tractor he simply made his from scratch from the ground up. Parts were abundant ranging from old locomotive steam train parts to model Tee Ford parts. With the failed economy cars was left abandoned just about everywhere. However one very hot August afternoon after plowing since dawn Mr. Higgins ran out of patience. The Old faithful tractor just as himself were simply running out of steam .So in a moment of blind frustration Mr. Higgins grabbed a two gallon can of old model tee gas. And with a blur of furry and what can best be described as blind rage threw the gas into the main coal boiler of the tractor,OMG! (This sculpture measures two and a half foot wide and is twenty inches in hight.It is composed of US steel, brass ,copper, and fine hard woods} It sits on a removable display table created to show the piece This piece currently on display in France as part of a traveling museum tour called “American Past Technology Eccentricities”.
© 2024 Chris Spollen