An Elaborate Chain-Reaction Machine Exists Just to Unzip a Jacket
This Complicated Machine Was Built to Do One Surprisingly Simple Thing
A Rube Goldberg machine sends balls, levers and other mechanisms through a long chain reaction before a wooden hand finally pulls down a jacket zipper. After all of the staged motion, the final task is simply opening the zipper on a piece of clothing.
The machine was created by Steven Price of Sprice Machines, a builder specializing in chain-reaction contraptions.
A zipper normally takes one quick hand movement, so the machine supplies an entire roomful of cause and effect instead. The journey has become much larger than the task.