Thesis (M.S.Ch.E.)--University of Toledo, 2007. / Typescript. "Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Master of Science in Chemical Engineering. " Bibliography: leaves 134-142.

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Len Lye was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1901. Lye was an avid enthusiast of kinetic sculpture and experimental film. In 1965 Lye built a prototype for a kinetic sculpture called Blade that he intended would be a much larger work. In 1996, Dr. Shayne Gooch of the University of Canterbury embarked on a research contract that saw the fruition of Lye’s Blade at a scale previously unachieved. This work was given the name Big Blade. This thesis provides a study into the maximum realisable scale of Blade using technology and materials available today. A new pivoting clamp design is tested and assessed using a small scale Blade sculpture built at the University of Canterbury and used as a test rig. Advancements in technology, material availability and manufacturing techniques lead to a comprehensive fatigue study of the new clamp design. Stresses are measured at the critical stress location in the blade material and a new maximum economic scale of Blade is suggested. The new sculpture requires a blade material that measures 10024mm x 1080mm x 22mm. The visible blade length is 8424mm. The new sculpture is called Giant Blade. A critical aesthetic component for Len Lye’s performance of Blade is the mode shapes formed by the blade material. Specifically, the second and third bending modes (Lye’s single and double harmonic) and the first torsional bending mode (Lye’s shimmering frequency). These frequencies are calculated using the new pivoting clamp design to ensure that these sections of the performance are maintained in Giant Blade. An important requirement of the new sculpture drive mechanism is the capability to reduce the amplitude of shuttle oscillation dynamically during Blade performances. This capability allows bending stresses in the blade material to be reduced in the third bending mode of vibration without halting the performance to adjust the shuttle oscillation amplitude. Four dynamically adjustable variable stroke mechanisms are presented and compared using the methods of Pahl and Beitz. A suitable mechanism for Giant Blade is selected and a proposed arrangement for the new sculpture is provided. An embodiment design is presented for Giant Blade. This embodiment design consists of a new pivoting clamp design and the proposed variable stroke mechanism. Further work includes the design of a mechanism to support the ball and wand assembly.

Im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit stehen sieben Flügelretabel, die nach ihrer Entstehung um das Jahr 1500 als Hauptaltarretabel in Dorfkirchen im Umkreis der Hansestadt Rostock sowie auf der schwedischen Insel Gotland fungierten. Ausgangspunkt der Dissertation ist die T­hese, dass diese Retabel, die heute sehr unterschiedliche, teils fragmentarische Erhaltungszustände aufweisen, in ein und derselben spätmittelalterlichen Werkstatt in Mecklenburg entstanden sind. Um die These zu belegen, wurde gemäß des kunsttechnologischen Forschungsansatzes eine systematische Befunderhebung der Flügelretabel durchgeführt. Umfangreiche kunst­technologische und dendrochronologische Untersuchungen sowie naturwissenschaftliche Analysen liefern für die sechs Retabel und ein Madonnenfragment zahlreiche holz-, schnitz- und fasstechnische Befunde, auf deren Grundlage sich Erkenntnisse zur Datierung und der Herstellung der Retabel, der verwendeten Ma­terialien und Techniken ableiten lassen. Den Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bildet der Vergleich der kunsttechnologischen Befunde. Die dabei heraus­gearbeiteten Übereinstimmungen sind geeignet den Werkstatt­zusammenhangs zu belegen. Für den Nachweis werden, erstmals in der Kunsttechnologie, die Vergleichsmerkmale kategorisiert und Befundüberein­stimmungen in Anlehnung an die Methode der „qualitativ vergleichenden Analyse“ (QCA) mittels Vergleichstabellen dargestellt. Mit dem Nachweis des Werkstattzusammenhangs für die Retabel­gruppe lassen sich Charakteristika dieser Werkstatt, deren serielle Arbeitsweise und allgemeine Werkstattorganisation aufzeigen, die den derzeitigen kunsthistorischen Wissensstand zur mittelalterlichen Werkstat­ttätigkeit in Mecklenburg sowie zur Kunstverbreitung im Ostseeraum erweitern. Die Verortung der Werkstatt in die Hansestadt Rostock ist nach kunsthistorischem Forschungsstand wahrscheinlich, lässt sich jedoch anhand der kunsttechnologischen Befunde nicht belegen. / Seven winged retables dating from around 1500 that served as main altarpieces in village churches around Rostock and on the swedish island Gotland are the focus of this work. The dissertation proceeds from the thesis that these retables – which are in differing, sometimes only fragmentary, states of preservation today – were all produced in the same late medieval workshop in Mecklenburg. In accordance with the art technology-oriented approach used to prove this thesis, a systematic analysis of findings on the winged altarpieces was carried out. Comprehensive art-technological and dendrochronological investigations as well as scientific analyses of the six retables and one Madonna fragment provided numerous technical findings regarding the wood, the carving and the paint. These were the basis for deductions concerning dates, materials, techniques and the production process. The main emphasis of the dissertation is a comparison of all the findings. The affinities identified among the retables are suitable evidence for proving the thesis of their connection to a single workshop. For the first time in art technology, the line of argumentation uses a “qualitative comparative analysis” (QCA), which makes it possible to depict the frequency of common factors in the findings. Based on evidence connecting the retable group to a s­ingle workshop, it is possible to establish characteristics of the workshop, its serial methods of work, and its general organization, thus furthering the current state of art historical knowledge of medieval workshop activity in Mecklenburg and of the dissemination of art in the Baltic Sea region. Art historical research makes placement of the workshop in the Hanseatic city of Rostock likely, but it is not possible to prove the workshop’s location on the basis of the art-technological findings.