Some Jerry Andrus Illusions

We're pretty much moved into the new shop although I have a bunch of work to do still. I have been playing with several things of late... My friend Jeanine oversees the estate of Jerry Andrus, a famous magician who lived in Albany, Oregon. That's Jeanine above, showing off the nuts illusion. She came over a couple of months ago and dropped off some of Jerry's optical illusions for me to get running so that they can be displayed in the Albany Regional Museum during the month of May. I really wish I'd know about Jerry, he was a fantastic and influential magician and loved optical illusions. There are tons of videos of him on Youtube. Also The Jerry Andrus Story Part 1 and The Jerry Andrus Story Part 2 on Vimeo.
This is the Parabox. It is a single element that’s repeated in the revolving blocks illusion below.

Spook Blocks.
You can see the nature of this type of illusion. Jerry’s calendar. This is what he used to keep track of appointments. It has seen better days. This video shows it, poorly.
The block illusion was fairly complete. One of the “blocks” underside. The illusion. They stick on the hub with magnets. The magnets are weak. The power cord had to go. As did the train transformer. Being a crazy hoarder I have a box of train transformers. The angle adjustment for the motor was nifty. “From 1 Rev 2 Sec to 1 Rev Ten Sec.” I added a switch that could be actuated remotely (if they end up putting it in a case.)

This is what it looks like in action. I also made that ring.

For the starburst I needed to get a motor working. The junkbox produced a suitable one. Some of the petals had broken loose from multiple repairs of epoxy and spot welding. I decided to use screws to hold the petals on. I made a hub that connects it to the motor. And bent up a little motor mount from sheet metal.

And here’s a short video of it in action.
Below are a bunch of pics of the calendar guts. I didn’t have enough time to get it fully working before the exhibit, there were many missing pieces, cut wires, etc. A pity, but I did get it cleaned up and it keeps time and date now. I completely forgot to take a picture of it all cleaned up. You’ll have to go to the exhibit, if they end up displaying it.