A delightful seven minute film of tops spinning:
Filmed by Charles and Ray Eames. Soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein. From the Eames Office:
TOPS
Tops had its genesis in an earlier film produced for the Stars of Jazz television program in 1957. The Eameses decided to make a longer, color version in 1966, which they worked on in spare moments between other projects.
The film is a celebration of the ancient art and craft of top-making and spinning. One hundred and twenty-three tops spin to the accompaniment of a score by Elmer Bernstein. Using close-up, live-action photography, the film shows tops, old and new, from various countries, including China, Japan, India, the United States, France, and England.
Charles’s fascination with spinning tops went back to his childhood; in this film he found a perfect vehicle for demonstrating their beauty in motion and for making visual points about the universality of tops, the physics of motion (MIT physics professor, Philip Morrison, often showed the film to students and colleagues), and the intimate relationship between toys and science.
I used to have tops when I was a kid. I loved Gyroscopes. My Dad taught at University of Pittsburgh and in the lecture hall, they had a great gyro. It was a bicycle wheel with handles fastened to the axle bolt. You would sit in a chair that could spin, rev up the wheel with a motor and then, whenever you tried to tilt the gyro, you would precess around in the chair. If I was wood turning, a bunch of tops would make great Christmas gifts.
Charles and Ray Eames where amazing polymaths. Their film Powers of Ten is a stunning visualization.
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