#16 Falling Finger
In this invention from Abbey Junior, Funkie Fred stops playing his saxophone in order to pull the trigger string, resulting in the blade chopping off the finger which lands on the piano! This was supported by the University of Cambridge.
Ronan’s design is very dramatic, but a bit bloodthirsty! We weren’t sure the audience would really want to see the hand being cut-off. So, instead of that, we’ve tried to develop Ronan’s idea into a hand that falls vertically onto the piano and can then be pulled back up by a string. It’s obviously important to guarantee that the finger falls on exactly the right note. So, we’ve provided a linear guide rail to make sure it slides up and down precisely. The string pulled by Funky Fred is quite high up, and to allow this we’ve mounted two pulleys on a tall frame. However, we’re a bit worried that the frame might fall over sideways… we’ll have to ask Funky Fred to play rather carefully!
