A question about this that people often think and sometimes ask is, “Why
do this?” My answers are as follows:
I like machines. I like to see machines run. The rhythmic music
they make has always made me feel good. I first experienced this when
I worked on the large Ingersol Rand gas engines at the Harmattan Gas
Plant in a summer job when I was in University. Any of these slow speed
large reciprocating machines make this kind of music, it always makes
me feel good when I am around it, sort of primordial.
I like old stuff, the more intricate the better. My other collections
include Art of Metalworking in
Africa, a virtual museum of tools, weapons, jewelry, masks, musical
instruments and other items made and used in Africa, from 1100 to the
present day. My Book Collection
contains old and new books about machinery, architecture, and other
topics I'm interested in.
There is a connection between people and machines. I think we
can experience a connection with the people who regularly used the machines
and tools we collect today, especially if they are well worn and handled.
I always like to touch things that have been heavily used by others,
especially anything that has been used in work. I think machines, the
people who built them and their evolution is intrinsically interesting
and worthy of study and understanding. I have tried to build many machines
myself and know, first hand, how difficult it is to get them to work
properly, while at the same time making money from the process. I admire
anyone who can do it, they are a rare breed.
This area is populated by characters and I want to meet
as many of them as I can. You can’t find them unless you have
a magnet, this is it.
I like building the place to put them in.
Finally, its my way of leaving something behind that is both intellectually
useful, and a marker of my life.
