4% - Sunday, December 12, 1993 ~ North Shore News

Tinkerers needed for fantastic, gooty, and enthralling machine

CALLING ALL eives. Actually, that’s not really the case. Who I'm calling are some rather particular elves,

THE VINTAGE YEARS

They'll qualify if they are, well, mature, meaning they have spare time, and also if they have a lively. imagination and a sense of fun... -

A tall order? I don’t think so. There are pockets of such

- chaps all over this North

» Shore, And it’s such a special project. Listen.

A man named Harry Burgess died a few months - ago: He’d had a full, rich life - because he was a geiierous-

hearted man with the kind of .

‘mind that loved a puzzle.

He invented stuff, some of it - to do with his work — he was ‘a machinist by trade —- and

» _ some for-his own amazement.

«.. He and his wife had.a nice -Httle house in Lynn Valley. ‘Bought it years ago and had enough room to keep chickens d to tinker... “He founda use for’ everything — you know men

“ylike’that, and his family and -

-; friends and certainly the ‘neighbors all knew enough to . Show him before they threw’ anything out!

‘An later. years his wife devel- 7

oped arthritis and was unable. to negotiate.the stairs down to -his workshop in the basement...

They both hated that, so he .

contrived a device, using a

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water-pump and a cylinder, and cut a hole in the kitchen floor so she could still come down to help him play with his inventions. .

The laundry was down there too, eh?

When she died he simply had to find more ways to keep himself busy, so he set to work on what was to become his Jolly Ball phenomenon.

And that.is the burden of my refrain.

He’d seen something in Ed- monton Mall that triggered

_ this vision. To describe it to

you is a bit of a challenge, but

think of a large piece of

plywood, at least 10 feet long, six to seven feet high.

Now think of an installation of baskets, trays, pulleys, tracks, both vertical and hor- izontal, of a dinky water- wheel festooned with tiny, Christmas lights.

- Add a toy truck and 16 red billiard balls.

Look — there’s the pump from a discarded vacuum cleaner, the little cups on the water wheel are ice-cube

. moulds, he used plastic kitchen

funnels for flippers — you wouldn’t believe. On the back side of the plywood you’ve got the works. There is electrical circuitry going up and down and side- ways; don’t look at me, I don’t know what it does. All 1 know is that when the juice is applied those 16 balls start the liveliest careers you can imag- ine.

They go across, they go up and down, they reach the

,,water wheel and set it spin -

ning, they plop into the loading-end of the truck which immediately heads for the up- per reaches to make delivery, and by.this time you’re laughing so hard you don’t know what’s going on.

It’s just a fantastic, goofy,: enthralling machine. * But right now it’s under threat of. extermination. |

The little old house has been

“sold, you see. The family

members are cleaning out the rooms, but nobody can take

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44 But right now it’s under threat of extermination. 99

on the Jolly Balls. That’s what he called it. And nobody can bear to think of its being trashed.

Science World longed to have it. It cries out for children around it. But it would never pass their Stringent standards.

But what fun it would be for Children’s Hospital or Canuck Place, a constant source of wonder and amusement.

This is where those elves come in.

It needs some sprucing up, to start. Since Harry Burgess died it’s had some pushing around and of course no one’s visited it daily to keep it up to snuff.

No member of the family has the space for it, and their fervent wish is that a few peo- ple with love in their hearts will take on the job of grooming.

That’s how the idea arose of, five or six elders full of know- ledge and with the tinker-time, who would truck it off to:a workspace somewhere and get it going smoothly again. Then it could be offered to a suit- able site.

We're all hoping that some- one will have a solution, will know just the place for its in- terim restoration, will be able to gather the needed help.

‘And, of course, there are the new owners of the house, who are being very helpful in that’

‘they aren’t pressing for oc-

cupancy, but would be happy -

to get the “all clear’’ signal. Think we can pull it off? ’

You can surely call me at

984-6246, or you can calla

family member, the chap who showed me this extraordinary entertainment machine. Ron’s number is 980-1604.

Oh, E hope you’ll rally round. ©

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