The Buzz: A Simple Toy from Antiquity

Beek, Gus W. Van

doi:10.2307/1356880

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Pierced items drew particular att ention in the site report for the contemporary AngloSaxon sett lement at West Stow, Suff olk, where it was noted that 'no function can be put forward for the twelve bones pierced either in the centre of the shaft or at the distal end' (West 1985, 125). Some of these pierced bones are exactly comparable to 'buzz bones' found in Viking contexts and are functionally related to the pierced discs found in ancient and modern contexts throughout Europe and beyond and used by children (McAlister 2008, 308;Van Beek 1989). Though there has been some discussion as to the use of buzz bones as musical instruments and in relation to ritual activity, Medieval examples have been found in direct association with children (McAlister 2008, 309).…”

Section: Identifying Play-related Object Depositionmentioning

confidence: 83%

The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the 'Biography' of Objects

Crawford

2009

Childhood in the Past

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Toys -objects that we can recognise and confi dently assert were toys, either through specifi c association with children, or through comparison with objects that we 'know' were toys in other periods -are absent in the sett lement archaeology of most pre-and proto-historic periods. There is good reason to argue that children played with things, so why is it so diffi cult for archaeologists to recognise things that children played with? This paper argues that being a 'toy' is a potential characteristic of all objects within a child's environment, and that this transient 'toy' stage is not irrecoverable and invisible in archaeological terms if the role of children in the depositional pathway of objects into the archaeological record is reassessed within a child-centred theoretical framework.

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Section: Identifying Play-related Object Depositionmentioning

confidence: 83%

The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the 'Biography' of Objects

Crawford

2009

Childhood in the Past

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“…This ancient 5000-year-old toy rotates incredibly fast in the blink of an eye. 22 To test this hypothesis, Bhamla et al measured the rotational speed of the whirligig using high-speed video and mathematical analysis. 23 A new device, called a "paperfuge", was designed by using a similar design approach but with a capillary tube attached to a paper wheel with strings passing through the wheel and wooden handles at the ends (Figure 3).…”

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consider another toy that is existed for thousands of years and uses a supercoiling string to convert linear motion to ultrafast rotations: a whirligig or button-on-a-string. This ancient 5000-year-old toy rotates incredibly fast in the blink of an eye …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frugal Science Powered by Curiosity

Byagathvalli

Challita

Bhamla

2021

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

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More than 60 years ago, Richard Feynman gave a lecture titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics”, where he called on others to join the then-nascent field of nanotechnology. In a similar spirit, we wish to invite chemists, biologists, physicists, bioengineers, educators, high school students, and inventors of all backgrounds to join us in the emerging field of frugal science. In this Review, we define frugal science and use six case studies to describe the broad applications of frugal science, from synthetic biology to disease diagnostics. We conclude by establishing an argument for curiosity-driven research through frugal science to enable broader access in chemical and bioengineering research and drive innovation.

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“…Buzzer or whirligig, an ancient mechanical device dating back to more than five thousand years ago 1 , is usually constructed by hanging the perforated rotator at the midpoint of the string, which is made of two flexible threads with the ends tied together (Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-speed spinning disks on flexible threads

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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A common spinning toy, called “buzzer”, consists of a perforated disk and flexible threads. Despite of its simple construction, a buzzer can effectively transfer translational motions into high-speed rotations. In the present work, we find that the disk can be spun by hand at an extremely high rotational speed, e.g., 200,000 rpm, which is much faster than the previously reported speed of any manually operated device. We explore, both experimentally and theoretically, the detailed mechanics and potential applications of such a thread–disk system. The theoretical prediction, validated by experimental measurements, can help design and optimize the system for, e.g., easier operation and faster rotation. Furthermore, we investigate the synchronized motion of multiple disks spinning on a string. Distinctly different twist waves can be realized by the multi-disk system, which could be exploited in the control of mechanical waves. Finally, we develop two types of manually-powered electric generators based on the thread–disk system. The high-speed rotation of the rotors enables a pulsed high current, which holds great promise for potential applications in, for instance, generating electricity and harvesting energy from ocean waves and other rhythmic translational motions.

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The Buzz: A Simple Toy from Antiquity

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the 'Biography' of Objects

The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the 'Biography' of Objects

Frugal Science Powered by Curiosity

High-speed spinning disks on flexible threads

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