This large rolling ball sculpture is hand operated. So, step up, grasp the handle, and start turning. The handle directly turns the helical lift, which raises the marbles to the top with a 4:1 ratio. One by one the marbles are released onto the track.
There are 4 different tracks that the ball can travel on. The track that comes from the lift feeds directly into a track switch. The ball can go left or right.
Lets start with the ball going left. The ball goes into another splitter, again directing the ball left or right. If the ball goes to the left it drops into a loop d' loop track where the ball rolls quickly through the twisty upside down track, then shoots the ball into a small spiral where it spins around before dropping through the center and going back to the lift.

If the ball goes to the right, then it enters the longest of the 4 tracks. This track sends the ball down and through a small series of loops, along a track that goes down, back up, down again, and up over a jump. Then drops with a spin onto a lower track, reverses direction, and then rolls down to it's last large loop with 2 inversions, and is sent back to the lift.

When the balls leave the lift, they enter the track splitter. The above description describes the marble going left at the first track splitter. Lets explain what happens when the marble gets sent to the right.
The marble is directed into another track splitter. Sending the ball left or right. Lets start with the left direction first. This marble gets sent through a large loop d' loop track. Rolling upside down several times the ball is going pretty fast when it hits a line of stationary marbles. The energy of the rolling marble sends the end marble rolling out, then back. The original marble, the one that went through the loops, rolls back and drops into the large spiral at the bottom going around and around before falling though the middle.

Now to the right. This marble is sent into a ball collector. When there are 4 marbles on the collector it's full, and it tips letting all 4 go at the same time. These 4 roll through a drop, two spirals - one large and one small. After the small spiral, the marbles are going very fast! These 4 fast marbles are shot into another track that is sloped directly into the large spiral at the bottom of the sculpture. These 4 crash loudly and are rolling very quickly into the spiral. It can take 20-40 seconds for these marbles to finally drop through the center of the spiral and roll back to the lift.

Whew! If you read this and watch the video it should make a whole lot more sense! -Matt
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