Make Fair

Last Saturday my family went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. This fair includes many people who make anything from steam-punk bicycles to hand-made clothes to lightning timed to music.  A few of the things there were useful and beautiful, others were slightly odd, and others were... just strange. Some of the most interesting things were steam-punk style bicycles, the Sound Cave, and the erector set electric motorcycles.

Steam-punk bicycles 

The steam-punk bicycles (though they had more than two wheels) were all powered solely by the pedaling of the riders. All of the pedals were hooked up by gears and chains to the front wheels. The wide wheels were made using pieces of thick plastic with flattened bike tires screwed onto the outside.

Pierces' favorite was the erector set motorcycle. It was powered by electric batteries, behind the paper and behind the orange straps in the pictures. The way that the metal bars and plates were set up made the motorcycle height adjustable, and made it easy to build.

My favorite was the Sound Cave. It was a wooden box about 5ft by 5ft by 5ft with one narrow opening which was used to enter by. The strings and frame of pianos attached to all the inside walls and the ceiling. The piano strings are played by tapping or plucking like a harp. Because it was inside of a closed, hard space, the sound echoed over and over (thus the name Sound Cave). If you just listened to the music, you would guess that the instrument was a lot larger and complex than it was in reality.

Lauren Ashley