A member of parliament at work - you cannot blame him for falling asleep during the sitting. Just in time he realizes that the voting process has begun, in the parliament in the state of Bremen in Northern Germany, even a bell calls the representatives back from the cafeteria for the voting.

Paper automata
Author: Walter Ruffler
Difficulty class: difficult

Published by: Walter Ruffler Papiermaschinen

Paper automata

In Pharaoh´s times: The Egyptian peasant eagerly lifts the water from the Nile to his high-lying field, while the crocodile is attending its chance. A wall painting of this shaduf can be visited in the tomb of the noble Ipui in Theben West, 1240 B.C. Nowadays they mostly use motor pumps.

A sledge pulled by reindeers is  no longer up-to-date, the global way of life has some consequences also for Santa Claus. Time is money and the motorization cannot be stopped - despite rising prices for gas and increasing pollution: it´s Christmas time.

The angler has caught a big fish and with great effort he tries to get it out of the sea - will he succeed? The next turn of the crank will bring a surprise.

The Pirate's Bride critically sizes up her perspective grooms as she glances from man to man. Who is the right one? Obviously they want a decision. But often there is a third way.

The horse rears and the knight raises his sword ready to fight - until the crank is turned.

The Chinese Dragon looks very impressive with his tactile hairs, his beard, his antlers and his mane. Chinese dragons differ from Western dragons in that they have no wings and exhibit a feathered tail. In the Far East dragons are treated respectfully while in Western culture they are chased and slaughtered. Many Chinese feasts are unthinkable without dragon dances.

The Japanese Samurai were the knights of the Far East. Like their counterparts in Europe they lived off the earnings of their peasants' labour. Symbols of their status consisted of two swords, a long one and a short one. In contrast to the heavy armour plates worn by the European knights, the samurai wore armour made up of small varnished tiles of steel tied together. This made the armour worn by the samurai light and elastic.

It was unknown for a long time: The matriarchal organized ancient people of the Amazons mastered in a perfect way the fighting methods of the Far East. With a standing jump the female warriors threw down their male adversaries who were helplessly left to their mercy.

In the Middle Ages the miners extracted the ore by a windlass.

A medieval miner is sawing off a beam for supporting a tunnel.

Seit dem Mittelalter wurden Pochwerke eingesetzt, um das Erz vom Gestein zu trennen. Ein Wasserrad dreht eine Nockenwelle, deren Nocken eisenbeschlagene Stempel anheben, die beim Niederfallen das erzhaltige Gestein zertrümmern. Georg Agricola beschreibt im Achten Buch seines epochalen Werkes "De Re Metallica Libri XII" - "Zwölf Bücher vom Berg- und Hüttenwesen" Aufbau und Funktion eines Pochwerkes.

From a standing position the jumper will make an immense leap, she will throw her arms and legs to the front, then she will land again in her first position.

With the cutout "Crank Mechanisms" you can assemble four devices: ordinary crank motion, oscillating lever with connecting rod, oscillating lever with enlarged hole, crank slider.

This watermill was built in the 13th century in the town Syke - Barrien, South of Bremen in Northern Germany. Now it is classified as an historical monument. In the inside you will find a complete pair of millstones. When the water wheel turns it produces electricity without any pollution for the café and the inhabitants of the mill.