Friday, August 09, 2013

Sepia Saturday 189 : A Fine Sepia Contraption


Our Sepia Saturday theme prompt this week shows an early motor car and is entitled "what an amazing contraption". And it sent me off searching through my various archives for a matching amazing contraption. I eventually found one in a strip of colour negatives I shot back in the early 1980s. But having scanned it and printed it, I was left with the question - what on earth is it? I looked at it one way, and then looked at it another. I rotated it, flipped it, bent it, and squinted at it. And then I slowly began to understand it. The more I concentrated, the more all the individual elements of this most extraordinary contraption became clear in my mind. It might not be high-tech, it might not be digitised and miniaturised - but it contained all you needed to create a weekend of interest and enjoyment. What I had photographed all those years ago - without knowing it at the time - was a Sepia Saturday machine. All you require is a little explanation as to the component parts and you will instantly see all the beauty of this fine sepia contraption.


Clicking the image should make it a bit bigger. My apologies to all those Sepians who I have missed from my listing - but as with all machines, some of the most important bits are hidden from view. You can see the machine at work by going to the Sepia Saturday Blog and following the various links.

29 comments:

  1. Alan, my first thought was that you had been out photographing my brother's shop!! But then your explanation made all the sense (Sepian-wise) in the world. Thanks for a great weekend's pleasure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm honored to have the Black Mountain tube named for me. Now I wonder if you expected some moonshine to come out of these hills into the great machine/contraption. Maybe, may be.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love it! Love it! Absolutely love it!! What a marvelously delightful imagination you have. It doesn't matter what it used to be. It is now & forevermore shall be known as the Sepia Saturday Machine! Great post! :))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks great in Sepia with the labels. It reminds me of the books for children that have the pictures labeled.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great! I've been hoping someone would post a picture of the Jollett Clamp. Many people think it's a medical disorder, but no. You've displayed it in its glory.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks like junk to me. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. How clever..... Love it
    Jackie
    Scrap

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looks like my Dad's back yard by the shed back in the 60's!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Now you've really got me wondering. It's a series of non related pieces of junk but I can't identify any of them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. An inspired discovery, Alan. I think it may be an early analog device for long distance communication. British of course, so the controls are on the right, (and it usually leaks oil.) It predates the old DOS era BBS services and was not always reliable on 1200 bps modems. But if you shouted loud enough into the speakerphone, the inner tubes might carry your message halfway around the globe. But no further.

    ReplyDelete
  11. And I thought it was an old air conditioning unit. But in fact it is a blog-conditionging unit. Oh Alan - you have brought tears to my eyes...I'm such a sook! Well done. You get my vote this week :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very clever! Hopefully we don't all end up on the scrap heap soon. The Adventure Line is still working fine.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Contraption is the word - I had no idea what it was from your first photograph. Very inventive!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Amazing bit of work there, Alan. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  15. If you look under the bonnet of my Skoda things look pretty similar there (although my timemachine only ever seems to get me as far as Lancashire......)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gave me a good chuckle. What a clever idea. Good work!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, I'm honoured Alan. You must have had this up your sleeve all along and managed to keep it a secret even from your co-admin! I've been dropping hints about a few changes, but do you think this will start a trend? Wendy's comment made me spill my Pimms I was laughing so much. John thinks it may be a compressor of some sort and has promised to examine it more closely later.

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a spectacular post! Nice to see so many familiar names up there (some of you are becoming so familiar to me now...). Great work, Alan!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I think I could build something similar with my husbands collection in the garage right now.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Truly inspired, Alan, and I'm honored to have an eponymous lever!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous8:29 AM

    My vote goes to Alex and her blog-conditioning unit. Hilarious.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You've made my otherwise dreary day, Alan. So pleased to have a 'needle' in your contraption. You are a very funny man.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I do hope it's been carefully preserved, now that we know so much about its functions.

    ReplyDelete
  24. A new Sepia Saturday logo perhaps!?

    ReplyDelete
  25. This makes me laugh because my father and I both took photos at a railway crossing in Austria back in the early '70s. We piled out of the car taking pictures of what to us was very bizarre. To this day we look at the photos and cannot find anything odd in them. It remains a mystery.

    And your contraption makes me think of the donkey engines I saw this weekend at the local fair. They were all up and running with knowledgeable fellows available to explain how they worked as they bounced and whirred.

    ReplyDelete
  26. So, I'm colourful, eh?!?...
    ;D~
    HUGZ

    ReplyDelete
  27. Brilliant! It would have been OK until the wheels fell off!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Ha Ha Ha.

    Well Done. Very enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Oh I loved this one your very own Sepia Machine:)

    ReplyDelete

11 March 2024 : Paper Hanging

  Some people read the paper, some try and understand the meaning of life, George II and Elvis Presley both died there .... and photographer...