The ‘Westmoreland’ Marble Maze

One of the more obscure things I’ve ever been asked to make- a marble maze, controlled by the steering wheel of the Thames barge ‘Westmoreland’. I made this for the Chatham Reach festival- they wanted something that would allow people to get the feel of steering a big boat and turning the heavy wheel, so I made a frame, fitted a couple of pillow blocks and added a brake so that nobody’s bones could get broken- as this is a monster wheel, weighing the better part of 40kg, and once it gets going it would probably eat your arm quite happily. Having made all this, I gave it a spin, and satisfying as it was, it got boring quite quickly.

So, we decided- why not add a maze? One sheet of MDF, an acrylic disc, some sprockets and a bit of chain later we ended up with this thing. I boxed it all in so that no one could get their fingers in amongst the mechanics of it, and then packed it off to sunny Rochester. This, along with a big A-frame used to demonstrate the mechanical advantage that can be gained using pulleys, was a small part of a lovely event which will hopefully be going ahead next year.