Take hold of the crank (C) and turn it. drag on the handle, or scroll the page to apply torque.
C ā Crank. Input. Rotation here is, by all rights, the cause of everything else. The reader is invited to verify this.
Gā ā Driven Gear, 24 teeth. Meshed (visually) with the transfer pulley P via a belt that crosses itself once. Turn it clockwise; observe what doesn't.
P ā Transfer Pulley. Couples Gā to Gā across the belt. Note: the belt is one continuous loop with no twist, yet drives both pulleys in the same direction. Do not stare at this for long.
Gā ā Output Gear. Rotates at ratio 1 : Ļ (the golden ratio). Its phase is irrational; it will never return to where it began.
F ā Flywheel. Turns at constant Ļ = 2.40 rad/s. It receives no power. It has not stopped since 1887.
E ā Escapement. Beats once per second. Drives nothing. The tick is the thing.
Ī£ ā Subject of Calibration. A single shilling. As the crank turns, the shilling disassembles into eight tributary shards. As the crank reverses, it reassembles. Mass is conserved over the long average.
T ā Vent. Emits steam. The steam moves inward toward the apparatus. The vent does not exhaust the engine; the steam is the engine. (See appendix Ī³, omitted.)
Ļ ā Reality Calibration. Drifts as the engine runs. At 100% the user is invited to consider the result a proof. At 0% the user is invited to consider the result a confession.
The closed loop, lower right. The gear that turns the gear that turns it. The illustrator declined to draw the third gear, on the grounds that it would be redundant.