The Watering Machine: The 47 Steps

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DRAWING NO. 1 SHEET 2 OF 3
THE 47 STEPS
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Here is the whole machine, in order, the way it ran on August 29. For each step there's what happens and what that sets off next. Station letters are in the headings. The names in capitals are what we call the parts out in the garage, so if you read the Failure Log and it says "the Gate" or "the Dump Tub," this is where to look.

VALERIE: I typed most of this. Dad did the parts about the duct.

NO.	WHAT HAPPENS	WHICH SETS OFF
STATION A: THE BENCH (Valerie's)
1	THE START. The operator pulls the start string, which slides a nail out of a hole in the top ramp.	The nail was holding back the steel ball.
2	THE GUTTER. The steel ball (out of a dead blower motor bearing) rolls down four feet of aluminum rain gutter.	It drops off the end into the Zigzag.
3	THE ZIGZAG. Six pieces of 1/2-inch PVC, cut in half the long way, switch back and forth down the pegboard.	The ball shoots out the bottom piece.
4	THE DING. The ball hits an old bicycle bell screwed to the bench. DING.	It bounces off the bell onto the workbench.
5	The ball rolls across the bench between two strips of cardboard.	It taps the first domino.
6	THE LONG ROW. 96 dominoes fall along the front edge of the workbench.	The last one knocks over the first paperback.
7	THE BOOKSHELF. Nine garage-sale paperback westerns, standing on end, fall like big dominoes.	The ninth book lands on the yardstick.
8	THE SEESAW. A yardstick balanced on a pencil. The book lands on the low end.	The high end flips up.
9	The end of the yardstick bumps a marble off the bottle cap it sits on.	The marble drops into the Corkscrew.
10	THE CORKSCREW. Clear vinyl tubing wound around a broom handle. The marble spirals down five turns.	It comes out at the top of the marble run.
11	THE MARBLE RUN. Jason's plastic marble run, the one from the rainy day, all four levels.	The marble drops out the bottom into the paper cup.
12	THE COAT-HANGER BALANCE. A paper cup (with a clean sock in the bottom) hangs off one arm of a bent coat hanger. One marble is just enough to tip it.	The cup's arm sinks and the other arm rises.
13	The rising arm pulls up on a string.	The string is tied to a popsicle stick.
14	The popsicle stick pulls out from in front of the yellow die-cast car.	The car starts to roll.
STATION B: THE FLOOR (Jason's)
15	THE BIG DROP. Orange plastic track runs from the edge of the workbench down to the floor.	The car picks up speed for the loop.
16	THE LOOP. The car goes all the way around a loop-the-loop. JASON: the worst step. but the best step.	It comes out onto the floor track.
17	The car runs nine feet across the garage floor on more track.	It bumps the first domino of the Snake.
18	THE SNAKE. 140 dominoes in a big S across the floor.	The last one falls against the golf ball.
19	A golf ball sitting on the edge of a brick gets pushed off.	It drops into the mouth of the Duct.
20	THE DUCT. Six feet of 8-by-4-inch rectangular sheet-metal duct, propped up on paint cans and a stack of magazines. Leftover from a job. The golf ball rumbles down it, which is very loud.	The ball rolls out the end toward the mousetrap.
21	The golf ball rolls onto the trigger of the mousetrap.	The trap goes off.
22	THE MOUSETRAP. SNAP. The bar flips over. It has fishing line tied to it.	The line yanks on a clothespin.
23	The clothespin opens. It was holding the Wrecking Ball pulled back.	The Wrecking Ball lets go.
24	THE WRECKING BALL. A tennis ball hanging on fishing line from a rafter swings across like a pendulum.	It hits the Tower.
25	THE TOWER. Five empty cereal boxes stacked on end tip over, top first.	The top box lands on the Gate.
26	THE GATE. A paint stirrer standing up in a slot, holding back the skateboard. The box knocks it flat.	The skateboard is free.
27	THE SKATEBOARD. Valerie's old one rolls down a plank propped on a cinder block, between two rails of paint stirrers.	It's tied to a rope.
28	PULLEY #1. The rope runs from the skateboard up over a pulley screwed into a rafter and back down the wall.	As the skateboard rolls down, the other end of the rope goes up.
29	THE ELEVATOR. A green plastic strawberry basket with a marble in it rides up the wall, about five feet.	At the top it catches on a bent nail.
30	The basket tips against the nail and the marble rolls out.	It lands on the Shelf Track.
STATION C: THE SHELF (Dad's)
31	THE SHELF TRACK. Eight feet of 3/4-inch PVC, split, along the shelf over the freezer, sloped just enough.	The marble rolls onto the xylophone.
32	THE XYLOPHONE. Jason's baby xylophone, propped up on one end with cardboard rails on the sides. The marble rolls down the bars and plays eight notes, high to low.	It drops off the bottom onto the Plinko board.
33	THE PLINKO. A piece of pegboard with golf tees stuck in it (named after the game on The Price Is Right). The marble bounces down through the tees. Every path ends up in the same trough at the bottom.	The marble drops into a cup on the Teeter.
34	THE TEETER. A ruler on a nail with a bottle cap cup at one end. The marble pushes that end down.	The other end lifts a string off a hook.
35	THE DRAWBRIDGE. A strip of stiff cardboard on two hinges made of duct tape, held straight up by that string. It falls down flat across a gap in the shelf.	The far end of the bridge lands on a little lever.
36	The lever lifts a stop out from in front of the green car.	The green car rolls.
37	THE GREEN CAR. Rolls down a short ramp and right across the drawbridge.	It hits the bowling pin.
38	THE PIN. A plastic bowling pin from a toddler bowling set falls over.	It lands on the lip of the Dump Tub.
39	THE DUMP TUB. A margarine tub on a dowel, loaded with 43 marbles and balanced so it's just barely level. The pin tips it.	All 43 marbles pour out at once.
40	THE CHUTE. The marbles thunder down a piece of vinyl gutter off the end of the shelf. Best sound in the machine.	The whole pile hits the first 2x4 block.
STATION D: THE FERN (everybody's)
41	THE LUMBER DOMINOES. Seven blocks of 2x4 standing on end, from about 2 inches tall up to about 16, each one about half again as big as the last.	The big one falls against the Slide Card.
42	THE SLIDE CARD. An old license plate that covers the mouth of an upside-down 2-liter bottle full of dry sand. The block knocks it out.	The sand starts to pour.
43	THE SAND. It pours from the bottle into the bucket for about forty seconds. Longest step. Everybody holds their breath.	The bucket gets heavier and heavier.
44	THE BUCKET. A sand pail on a rope. Once it outweighs the watering can, it starts to go down.	It pulls the rope.
45	PULLEY #2. The rope goes up over a second pulley on the rafter and down to the back handle of the watering can.	The back of the can lifts.
46	THE WATERING CAN. A plastic one on a board above the step stool, with a block nailed in front so it can't slide. It tips forward.	Water comes out the spout.
47	FRANK. About a cup of water lands on the fern.	THE END. Everybody hollers.

Reset order. If you build something like this, set it up from the END backward. Fill the watering can, hang the bucket, load the sand, then work your way back toward the start. That way if somebody bumps something while you're setting up, it only knocks over what's already downstream. We learned this the hard way (Run #23).

JASON: also set the mousetrap LAST. with the glasses on.

VALERIE: Jason is right, which I don't say very often.

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