If you’ve ever wanted a cabinet with secret compartments — and we’re talking about a lot of secret compartments here — then you’re going to like videos from the Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens exhibit that was at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 30, 2012–January 27, 2013).

One of the finest achievements of European furniture making, this cabinet is the most important product from Abraham (1711—1793) and David Roentgen’s (1743—1807) workshop. A writing cabinet crowned with a chiming clock, it features finely designed marquetry panels and elaborate mechanisms that allow for doors and drawers to be opened automatically at the touch of a button. Owned by King Frederick William II, the Berlin cabinet is uniquely remarkable for its ornate decoration, mechanical complexity, and sheer size.

In addition to the Secretary Cabinet above, there’s also a writing desk, a rolltop desk, and an automated Marie Antoinette music player.

via Doobybrain.

We love Rube Goldberg machines, marble roller coasters, and all kinds of wooden inventions that are fun to watch or are lovely to listen to. 

These seven amazing marble machines by Paul Grundbacher fit perfectly into those categories. Here’s another favorite: 

You can watch all seven machines (and find links to videos of the machines that inspired them) here on woodgears.ca

via Colossal.

From Science Nation, mathematician and mechanical engineer David Hu studies the design and movement of slithering snakes:

Snakes certainly make it look easy when they slither forward, leaving perfect S-curve tracks behind them, but scientists have long been puzzled by the mechanics of their locomotion. Now, after a series of experiments and some computer modeling, David Hu has cracked the case. With funding from the National Science Foundation, he is using math to determine how snakes slither and it turns out they move in a very different way than scientists have long thought.

Oh, the pitter patter of little feet… all kinds of feet! Watch this smooth-moving, life-like PhantomX Hexapod robot, invented (and recorded) by kinematics expert Kåre Halvorsen, as his kids play around with it.

via Kottke.

PS. More robots!

Le grand éléphant des Machines de l’ïle à Nantes in France. From wikipedia: 

In the warehouses of the former shipyards in Nantes, the Machines of the Isle is created by two artists, François Delarozière (La Machine) and Pierre Orefice (Manaus association), visualising a travel-through-time world at the crossroads of the “imaginary worlds” of Jules Verne and the mechanical universe of Leonardo da Vinci…

The mechanical elephant is 12 meters high and 8 meters wide, made from 45 tons of wood and steel. It can take up to 49 passengers for a 45-minute walk. It is a non-exact replica of The Sultan’s Elephant from Royal de Luxe, which toured the world from 2005 to 2007 (the main difference being that this elephant was designed to carry spectators).

More machines, more France, and more elephants from the archives.