Magnificent contraption: vacuum-cleaner/foam-ball particle accelerator

Cory Doctorow 9:00 am Fri Jul 4, 2014

Niklas Roy's DIY particle accelerator contraption is based on vacuum-cleaner-powered pneumatic tube technology, installed in a beautiful glass pavilion located in the middle of a roundabout in Groningen, The Netherlands.

The installation is live until the end of September. It's a beautiful piece of interactive kinetic sculpture, echoing the action of the mighty particle accelerators of Groningen and CERN. Roy's page for the project includes sourcecode for the controller that runs it all.

We've featured some of Roy's earlier pneumatic installations, like the SUCK THE BALLS machine at Kraków's Goethe Institute and the Ping Pong Ball machine at Lille, France.

This time round, Roy sent a miniature camera through his series of tubes, and the result is nothing short of psychedelic:

Don't miss the gallery of photos from the machine's construction.

Pneumatic Sponge Ball Accelerator

(Thanks, Niklas!)

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