
Pipe Organ desk - acjohnson55
http://www.kagenschaefer.com/pipeorgandesk.html
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tectec
This is a demonstration of it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5tenq55VPA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5tenq55VPA)

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HCIdivision17
It's a real shame the croud is a bit... unsophisticated. The machine is an
utter work of genius. People have made video games that revolved around less
sophisticated and featureful puzzle boxes. And it's made entirely of wood.
It's got logic gates. It plays music. It has tons of puzzle locks. It's
_gorgeous_.

I think it's entirely fair that he claims on the site that it's the coolest
desk in the world. I would love just to see all the things it can do - heck
I'd pay for that short video.

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CaptSpify
Why would you say they are "unsophisticated"?

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HCIdivision17
Certainly not everyone, to be sure. Really, I'm sorta griping about that lady
who's like "But can it play other songs?" It seemed remarkably ungracious. A
lot of the crowd jokes were kinda lame, but that's my projection of an overly-
reverential attitude about it.

My comment really does a disservice to the useful comments/questions. Like
"why try to build a pipe organ?" which honestly I think we all wanted to ask.

And - full disclosure - I would have totally wasted my chance to ask something
meaningful, as I woulda gone full stupid basking in the presence of it.

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sailfast
This seems like something I should have found in the original Myst. What an
awesome thing to have. The wood grain alone without all the contraptions looks
amazing. Incredible piece.

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pierrec
And not just the original Myst, the elegance and engineering plausibility of
the puzzles were also beautifully achieved in other parts of the series. Very
similar to this, for sure. The difficulty has tended to decrease slightly, but
damn, Riven was _hard_.

I'm sure many puzzles in the series could be used as templates for very
entertaining real-world puzzles. Just imagine an escape room based on Exile's
Amateria:

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/113350/Analysis_Puzzle_De...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/113350/Analysis_Puzzle_Design_in_the_Myst_Series.php)
(some spoilers in that article)

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vlunkr
What an amazing skill set this guy has. Woodworking, puzzle design, and
programming(with wood!). I'd be interested to know who commissioned it and for
what purpose.

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jacquesm
That is absolutely amazing. It reminds me of this table (though that's not
really a woodworking project, more of a metal working project that is clothed
in wood):

[http://fletchertables.com/](http://fletchertables.com/)

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walshemj
Reminded me of BS Johnsons inventions from the disk world

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waterfowl
Organist here, the best I have is a dresser with stop handles as the drawer
pulls.

This is awesome.

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baldfat
Goonies -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_3XaaeRXI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_3XaaeRXI)

If the organ's secret tune is the same as the puzzle in Goonies that would
take it over the top!

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mkesper
It's programmable.

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garyrichardson
Put this in the column of "Stuff I can't own because my small children would
destroy it."

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kej
This seems like something Donald Knuth would own.

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justinator
I know the artist who made this. It was a commission for Darren Aronofsky.

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amwelles
Reminds me of Grand Piano.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Piano_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Piano_\(film\))

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ghubbard
Can anyone reccommend any resources for learning about pnumatic memory?

I tried googling various combinations of (pneumatic|air)
(logic|memory|circuts) without much luck.

I'm familiar with how logic / electronic circuts work, but I'm interested in
the magic required to make it work with air/fluids.

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metasean
A quick DDG [1] turned up this -
[http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/200/TechZone/PneumaticValves...](http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/200/TechZone/PneumaticValves/Article/False/6455/TechZone-
PneumaticValves) which looks like the first chapter of an entire html book on
the topic [http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/ebooks/fluid-power-ebook-
flu...](http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/ebooks/fluid-power-ebook-fluid-power-
basics) (and the site also has a "Learning Resources" tab that looks like it
will have even more for you when you're done with the ebook ;-) ).

[1]
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%28pneumatic+OR+air%29+%28logic+OR...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%28pneumatic+OR+air%29+%28logic+OR+memory+OR+circuts%29&t=ffhp)

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Animats
Now that's fanatical woodworking. Even the screws and air pipes are made of
wood.

There's a long history of pneumatic logic in pipe organs. Older large pipe
organs have wooden switching units the size of an upright piano. But they're
not 100% wood; they have flexible bellows and rubber or lead tubes. Doing it
entirely in wood is impressive.

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jonah
Just beautiful. I have a friend who does incredible marquetry and builds pipe
organs but I don't think he's combined the two.

[http://schurchwoodwork.com/](http://schurchwoodwork.com/)

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FrankyHollywood
reminded me of
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5_6I8Z_LA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D5_6I8Z_LA)
(creating a wooden marble track)

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ChuckMcM
Oh I would love one of these. That is a desk with panache.

