Marble Machines are complicated but useless pieces of toy machinery that automate the process of playing with marbles. This automation could in theory lead to gains in productivity as people are now freed up to pursue more productive goals.
But as it turns out, it's even more fun to watch an automated machine that plays with marbles.
Modular marble machine
A marble machine / building block combination
Marble machine 2.1
A more refined redesign of marble machine 2
Marble run building blocks
Another set of building blocks for marble tracks
Seven amazing marble machines
Made by Paul Grundbacher, from Switzerland
Marble machine 1
My first wooden marble machine
Marble machine 2
My second wooden marble machine. Very loud.
Lego marble machine
My first marble machine - inspiration to build the wooden machines
Binary marble adding machine
A machine that adds in binary, using marbles
Michael Schultheiss's marble machine
A very complicated and elaborate machine!
Ronald Walter's marble machine
Motorized, with Lots of gears!
Ryszard's "Archimedes" marble machine
Inspired by Paul Grundbacher's machines
Ryszard's "Chaos2" marble machine
Inspired by Paul Grundbacher's machines
Marble run building blocks
An earlier set of blocks, a gift for my nephews.
Briand Sanders's machine
Brian Sanders's beautiful version of marble machine 2.1
Marble pump
An elegant little mechanism to push marbles up a column
Elevating wheel
A high throughput elevating mechanism that never jams
Flipflop
A way to divide the marbles into two equal streams