Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Eeek! Giant mechanical spider!

From National Geographic comes this striking picture of a giant mechanical spider in the streets of Liverpool during the recent Capital of Culture celebration.

The spider, dubbed La Princesse, was created in France by a crew working under the artist Francois Delaroziere.
It weighs 41 tons, stands 50 feet tall and is operated by twelve people strapped to the spider's belly.
It's also really cool. I saw it back when I was in Nantes getting a test run at Machines de l'isle workshop.

These are some of the pictures that I took back in Nantes. They specifically asked us not to publicize pictures of the spider, which is why I didn't post them here. But, now that the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, I figure it's okay.

Basically, the spider is made out of steel and poplar, and each of the people strapped to the frame controls one leg. The person on the top controls the "jaws".
Like I said before, Delaroziere is creating some of the coolest stuff in the history of ever in his workshop.

1 comment:

Brian Dunbar said...

A 41-ton mechanical spider?

"Where is my rocket launcher?"


What does the motor run on - batteries? A diesel in the thorax?