h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm thinking more of a rotary engine, with the string being the pull cord, and the feather being a fan blade. It would, admittedly, have to be rotating quite fast to provide enough updraft to keep the vase aloft.


Geggs

A yoyo?

Impressive thoughts both! But its neither a rotary engine or a yo-yo

How about a parasail?

If I remember right Leonardo Davinci had something similar that he called an ornithopter.

Not a parasail but have 6 shiny QI points for knowing about Ornithopters but it's nothing like that.

So lets invert this - what would stop it reaching the floor - something underneath it to cushion the landing - the feather on top as a drag to keep it the right way up, and some sort of collapsing support structure to prevent hard contact.

It's not something obvious like a shelf, is it?

B

Does something touch to vase to arrest it's descent, or is held up by invisible forces like, say, air pressure?


Geggs

G'day all

Some of the things said since I slept have put me off but then again some haven't.
Here goes...

The thing I'm to repair is called a flier.
It's wishbone shaped, approximately.
Driven by a string, it spins.
I didn't read up too much - just wanted the basics, so the feather has me stumped - but I'll bet part of the process is feathering or to feather.
The inventor? perhaps not Jacquard hisself, but of that ilk.



It's driven by a spinning-wheel and, like you, Clive, it spins a yarn.

Yay or Nay?

Oh, and perhaps a glass vase was used to wind the yarn onto (wide at the top & bottom, narrow in the middle) but not nowadays.

One thing Napoleon took to Egypt was a group of scientists and engineers, and so may be the small group referred to in the opening statement.

There is string, a vase, a feather and an engineering principle, but chemicals are not involved, so my next idea of a floating bomb is blown out of the air.

So to prevent the vase hitting the ground requires possibly one of the following:
Drag, so the feather could provide this.
Support, so something providing an equal upward force, to keep it suspended.

If it is something engineered, I would assume it is something light.

I must admit I was thinking of a floating bomb, but there is no chemical involved, so nothing ignited to provide lift, with the string and feather providing direction to the enemy... So that is out.

Unless, of course, the feather is not actually used. It could be the idea, or concept, of the feather that is used.

The engineering is a framework, utilising the string, so is the other requirement straw? Wood? Metal? I would imagine it must be light, but would it be based on a prior concept created by someone like da Vinci? Archimedes?

A feather is made up of the quill which is the stiff bit that holds the feather in the bird, biologically known as the calamus. The vane (vexillum) is the part of the feather that is visible on the bird, and is composed of the stiff shaft (rachis) which is often thought of as the quill. This supports the barbs (or rami) which, in turn, lead to the barbules which are held together by having tiny hooks on each. This provides the structure, and as each side of the feather differs, one side being narrow, while the other is thick, it provides a light, but solid structure.

So a light engineered frame could be used to support a parchment (?) vane, based on the feather design, with the vase suspended below by string.

I guess this could have a number of uses, from gauging wind direction (why not use a balloon), carrying items to the enemy, like flammable Naptha, to carrying items between forces.

But I'm still no further forward.

Unless it is the bottle / straw analogy.

How do you lift a bottle using a straw alone? Bend the end of the straw, insert into the neck of the bottle, so that the bent part flicks out, and lift. The bent section will support the shoulder of the bottle, making it secure.

Could the same principle be applied to the vase, or is it shaped more like an open vase than a bottle?

Now totally confused!!!

MMF

Btw, above feather info precised from The handbook of bird biology, one of many books I possess on birds.



MMF

"A soft fluffy cushion." - 5

but...

I think "the feather on top [acts] as a drag" is worth +3 so a net of -2.

No, Mu.

No the thing holding it up is quite visible.

>>One thing Napoleon took to Egypt was a group of scientists and engineers, and so may be the small group referred to in the opening statement.<< DGI +1

>>To to prevent the vase hitting the ground requires possibly one of the following:
Drag, so the feather could provide this.<<

Already gave the correct score for this, but yes.


>>Support, so something providing an equal upward force, to keep it suspended.<<

Well - let me ask, how many arms do you have?

If it is something engineered, I would assume it is something light.

Yup. light, but also hard - or soft, depending...

>>Wood<<

Parthly. DGI +1

? Where's the 'soft fluffy cushion' thing?

I never mentioned that, as we've already determined that there is nothing cushioning it's fall.

When I mentioned support, I was inferring something like an upward draft from angled feathers, like the wings on a plane, which is derived from feathers, with the narrow vein being the cutting edge of the air, whilst the broader vane is the rear. The vein creates a ridge on the feather, causing the air to flow faster below than above, giving lift. A plane's wing uses the same shape to keep a plane aloft, even more so in gliders, allowing lift.

So a little unfair to where there is no correlation to cushion, unless possibly perceived.

But you give, and you taketh away!

MMF

That klaxon was Mckay's for "cushion"