"Slowpoke" Gets Guinness World Record

"Slowpoke" Gets Guinness World Record AG WORLD 29-3-23 T.J. Bivins built what he calls the "Slowpoke." It has a 10-in. dia. steel disc that started rotating 6 years ago and will finish its first rotation in about 3.8 billion years. "It's the only machine I know of that if it worked any better, it would do even less," jokes Bivins. He says he has assembled the ultimate gear reduction machine. It consists of a glass case with two parallel rows of 8 shafts, each turning a sprocket and all powered by a 120-volt motor. The shaft on the motor turns at 815,000 revolutions per year. Each of 16 sprocket/shaft combinations reduces that speed by factors of 10. It is the final gear reduction that really slows it down by a factor of 300 to 1. "If you reversed the gears, the final gear would travel the equivalent of going round the earth several times per second," says Bivins. Engineers at Kansas State University have verified the speeds. With proof in hand, Bivins and his wife Pat were finally able to get into the Guiness Book of World Records. Bivins says since reports on the machine have gone out, he has received plenty of attention, with calls from coast to coast. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, T.J. Bivins, 500 E 6th St., Wellsville, Kan. 66092 (ph 785 883-2970).

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