Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506050054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BREEA WILLINGHAM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was "cool," it was "neat," it was "amazing." It was, of course, John Schofield's Ball Machine, a big metal rainbow of loops, twists and turns that sent colorful billiard balls sliding through the loops, bouncing off wooden trampolines or spinning on the Ferris wheel.
Schofield's audio-kinetic sculpture, which took him more than a year to build, made its debut Saturday at Festival in the Park. A couple of features were affected by the soaking the machine took in Friday's rain, but it functioned well for the most part, Schofield said.
Crowds of adults and children watched the colorful contraption for hours, mesmerized by the machine as if it were magic.
"This is way cool," some kids shouted. Others climbed under the yellow tape barricade and tried to grab the colorful balls - while their parents tried to grab them.
The machine's trampoline is the contraption's most popular feature, Schofield said. A ball bounces off a green wooden trampoline onto a metal pan and through a little hole, then bounces off another wooden piece before sliding down purple twists of metal.
Other favorites include the "rock-backs," two orange claws that rock the ball back and forth then send it down a yellow ramp before it finally walks down musical stairs.
Then there's the school bell that rings when one of the billiard balls bounces onto a metal lever, sending a yellow golf ball up to ring the bell.
While the ball machine was cool and amazing to some, 10-year-old Catherine Finkler said the loops, twists and turns were "confusing because it looks all tangled up." She thought it was fun to watch anyway and her 8-year-old brother David just thought it was "cool."
The ball machine brought out the kid in some adults. Peter Brandt said he was having so much fun he had to "keep out of the way so the kids can see."
"It's wonderful. It's the best thing I've seen at the fair for years and years and years," Brandt said. "I'm an engineer, and I could watch this all day. This is the second time I've been here today."
Sitting on a nearby bench, brothers Melvin and Leon Hooper admired Schofield's invention.
"It's a mighty good item. We've been here about an hour just looking at it," Melvin said. "This could sit in any museum around the world. After building this, he shouldn't have to work anymore."
Even Schofield enjoys watching his invention. "I watch this at night rather than TV, even though I know what's going to happen." Schofield added that his five children don't enjoy the ball machine as much as he does, because "it's not interesting to kids who live with it."
by CNB