DYNAMO
formerly entitled "L.E.D. Cascade"
1987
19 inches high x 24 inches x 16 inches
Dynamo is currently in the collection of the Artist.
"Light-show prayer-wheel, or wheel of fortune, from a kid’s bicycle, in bright Indian colors. Hand-cranking the pedal turns the wheel bearing magnets, which travel within the circumference of bundled wires and generate electricity. Tiny multi-colored lights flicker in sequence around the rim." - Clark Poling, 2014.
Dynamo is a little hand-powered generator made from a bicycle wheel, magnets and wrapped, copper wire. The electricity illuminates the little lights (light emitting diodes -LEDs) that are arranged around the piece.
The red and silver flat disks attached to the tricycle wheel are actually ceramic magnets. The hoop that surrounds the wheel has been wrapped with many yards of copper wire.
Believe it or not, when a magnet moves past a coil of wire it magically creates electricity within the wire.
Spinning the wheel generates electricity by moving 36 flat magnets past the thousands of coils of copper wire wrapped around the outer frame. Integrated circuits mounted on the base pulse the current and send it to the individual lights.
