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Undulator
Overview
Undulator with F1 Rosette
An Undulator is a reciprocrator "on steroids". The key difference is that one of the cams is replaced with another which is not round. There are many shapes, many with shapes like a rosette.
These cams are similar to the oddly shaped cams or gears in a Spirograph, and similarly amazing shapes can be thusly produced.
More Information
Published Articles
- English Mechanic and Mirror of Science, Volume 97.
A.S. Rogers published his articles about The Undulator, a derivative and improved device, adding a single-feature cam, inspired by Atkinson’s Reciprocator, combined with a spiral apparatus. These were in the newsletters starting on May 16, 1913.
Back in the day, the English Mechanic was a serial publication, and his article was followed with queries from readers and his responses as follows:
- No. 2512, May 16, 1913, p. 346 — The Undulator
- No. 2513, May 23, 1913, p. 371 — Cams for the “Undulator”
- No. 2515, June 6, 1913, p. 431 — The Undulator: To Mr. A.S. Rogers, from “Scotland" (reader query)
- No. 2516, June 13, 1913, p. 452 — The Undulator (reply to “Scotland”)
- No. 2517, June 20, 1913, p. 477 — The Undulator – To Mr. A.S. Rogers, from “Scotland” (another reader query)
- No. 2518, June 27, 1913, p. 497 — The Undulator – To “Scotland”, “…apparatus has been photographed to-day.”
- No. 2519, July 4, 1913, p. 520 — The Undulator – photo and description, conclusion of articles (that I am aware of)
The whole topic is clouded a bit as A.S. Rogers also semi-concurrently published the same article (reformatted) in the Scientific American Supplement, July 15, 1913, starting on pg. 14.
Thank you to Jon Magill for this summary, and also for providing this summary of those documents.
- The Society of Ornamental Turner’s Bulletin #92, March 1995. This shows photos of pieces made by Fred Armbruster using the undulator he made.
Books and Papers
- Hotzapffel, Volume VI by John Edwards. John compiled a great amount of information about this device, starting on pg. 521. The drawings of various cams and associated waves produced explain this topic far better than I could.
- The Society of Ornamental Turners provides an electronic copy of this book on their web site. It is available to members.
Presentations
- Scott Barrett gave a demonstration to the club about his undulator. The recording for this video is in the Ornamental Turners Int'l (OTI) member meeting videos, August 2023.
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