I was saying earlier that I often create things inside my head. One of the latest was port Xapien.
Inside the entertainment area of the airport is a ball fountain. It is a large cascading slalom of flumes and ridges that channel ball bearings from the top to the bottom of the waterless fountain. It is located at the entrance to the aquarium. The interesting problem regarding this feature is how to get the balls to move to the top of the fountain without scuffing or grinding up the balls and how to do it efficiently.
This may seem like a simple thing but it is not because there is more than one solution and it is hard to tell which one is best and you could keep finding more ways and find they are more efficient and reliable. Obviously, you can't use turbine blades or anything like that because they would strike the balls and chip them.
The way I thought of, is to use a cylinder with a screw embedded inside it. The cavity of the screw would be half that of the balls but in the space between the cylinder and the balls is a flange that forces the ball to ride up the screw as it turns. That would probably work but the leading edge of the screw piece would occasionally catch on the balls.
The other way is to have a pipe that is only slightly wider than the balls and a cam that pushes balls into the pipe, the ball that is pushed into the pipe would push all the balls that are already in the pipe.
The other way I thought of is to have flumes that are arranged like stairs. Mechinical fingers would push the balls to the next step. The flume on each step is tilted downwards so the balls roll over the finger in each phase of their assent. This device would work much like the circling penguin toys that are sold on the street.
There are so many ways to pump small balls to the top.
