Before the advent of the DVD of "The Time Machine" it was thought by most that the lever was made primarily of Brass, Marble and a Crystal. Now, however, those concepts must be re-examined.

One aspect of the lever which was really difficult to determine was " is there a fitting holding the crystal to the neck of the lever?"
I had always thought that the Marble section was not in reality real Marble, this was built as a prop after all and I saw some Marble topped tables at the MGM auction which turned out to be only an applied marbleized paper.

Now after careful examination of various screen shots taken from the DVD by Chris Perrotta, myself and other interested parties, I feel we can safely come to the following description of the lever.

The main body seems to be of aluminum with a marbleized paper or perhaps vinyl covering. The neck appears to be made of copper with a raised ring around the center and a pointed and pierced fitting to hold the crystal. The lower section which inserts into the console is stepped and the end is conical. There are also nibs which create a bayonet mount locking the lever in the console.

This photo clearly shows the fitting
which supports the crystal. The fitting may be only painted on as it seems to have flatter luster than the neck.

Compare the brass light cage color with
the neck section in this photo and you can see
that the neck section is distinctly more red than the brass, most likely copper or a high copper alloy content

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Chris Perrotta's research
Drawing by Chris Perrotta & Don Coleman

In this photo you can see that the bottom edge of the marble has been forced upwards creating wrinkles in it and exposing the aluminum at the bottom.
This photo shows the marble has been forced downwards exposing the aluminum near the top.

In this photo it appears that the marble has split and is exposing quite a bit of the underlying aluminum.

This photo shows the step down on the bottom end of the lever

Another view showing the step down

 

Krell Technology? or rapid prototype?

It may indeed seem like science fiction but in reality it's Stereo Lithography .
Program in a set of dimensions and in about 6-12 hours or so you get a dimensionally correct hard copy of your product. That's what Chris Perrotta does at his place of business. In this case he programed in the dimensions for a Time Machine control lever.

The Stereo Lithography machine.

Draining off the excess material.

The finished parts prior to the final
curing process.

One of the levers under going the final UV curing process.

 

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The Time Machine Project © 1998 Don Coleman
Web Site © 1999 Don Coleman
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