Original subtitles

- [Narrator] They're the strangest machines imaginable,

able to propel you up mountains like a superhero.

Generate fiery spectacles three stories high.

- It can burn the roof off the place

if I turn it all the way up.

- [Narrator] And send you hurdle through water and air.

- It's really like a cross between a boat and a plane.

- [Narrator] From bizarre vintage vehicles.

- These are not things you would see driving down

the street on your way to work.

- [Narrator] To electrifying exhibits of light.

You'll never look at regular machines the same way again.

On Modern Marvels

(upbeat music)

It's been said that necessity

is the mother of all invention.

But for some inventions, the necessity remains unclear.

For decades there's been a growing world of devices

resting on the edges of society.

The lone wolves of technology,

deviating from the norm

and all sharing a common attribute.

They're just a touch, strange.

We launch right out of the gate in Redding, California,

with a machine whose looks says it all.

If you've ever wanted to swim like a shark, or dolphin,

well, here's your chance.

Robert Innes and his team at Innespace Productions

designed the ultimate aquatic thrill ride.

The Seabreacher X.

This high octane machine was born out of Innes goal

to build an underwater jet ski.

- This boat is about the closest you're gonna get

to a sensation of a dolphin or a shark.

You go through the water, you jump over it.

You can totally do anything that you can imagine.

This one is our most extreme vehicle,

that puts out about 255 horsepower

is capable of about 50 miles an hour on the surface.

If you've got this much power, you can do that.

(engine roars)

- [Narrator] At the shop, the next fleet of custom made

shark and dolphin boats are on the line.

The shells and motors arrive prefabricated

and the work begins.

Welders machine every part

based on the specs of the ordered boat.

- That's pretty much where we do all the grinding,

our specific welding,

our, our beginning stages of the fabrication.

This is where it starts.

- [Narrator] All the main mechanical components

of the Seabreacher are made from non-corrosive

stainless steel or aluminum.

- We just chop it up, weld it up and boom, we got parts.

- [Narrator] With the base model starting at $85,000,

this is definitely not your family's first speed boat.

- You know we have a pretty diverse clientele

of people who buy these.

You know we have everything from wealthy Arab clients

to adrenaline junkies.

- [Narrator] To keep the customer safe,

the Seabreacher must remain buoyant at all times.

- So within the walls of the Seabreacher,

there's actually flotation, which is urethane foam.

So even if the whole cockpit fills with water,

the foam will keep you afloat.

So it's a safety feature built into the fuselage

so it can't sink.

Famous last words.

- [Narrator] Just because it won sink

doesn't mean it can't go underwater.

To replicate the movements of a marine mammal,

Innes had to utilize the mechanics

of aerospace engineering.

- What we do is we build custom built

submersible watercraft.

These are not submarines.

They fly underwater so,

it's really like a cross between a boat and a plane.

Now a regular airplane has wings

that suck it up into the sky.

So we use forward momentum and downwards facing wings

to suck it underneath the water.

If you push these both forward,

it's forcing the entire boat underwater.

It's giving negative lift.

If you both pull these both back,

it's actually bringing it up above the surface.

So at different speeds, you're doing different things here.

- [Narrator] The Seabreacher also requires complex

hand and foot coordination

to maximize the watercrafts potential.

- You actually do a lot of the controlling

of the Seabreacher with your feet here.

It's more like an aircraft.

You push the left pedal to turn left

right pedal to turn right.

You can also pitch the nose up and down

by pointing your toes forward,

that points it into a dive.

And when you push your heels like that,

that brings the nose up.

That's how you get the big jumps.

- [Narrator] But much of the acrobatics performed

by the Seabreacher, stems from a boat load of horsepower.

- This particular motor is a three cylinder.

It's a four stroke engine and it's it

it runs on regular gasoline.

Fire it up.

(boat engine roars)

You need a lot of horsepower

to get these things under the water.

Typical family ski boat is about 200 horse.

So here we have like a 16 foot canoe,

with 250 horsepower.

So obviously it's gonna haul.

- [Narrator] This fusion of throttle thrust,

foot pedal dynamics and horsepower

allows for a seasoned driver to perform jumps,

twists, and surface 180's.

- Coolest thing for me, it's just flying underwater.

I mean, things happen so quickly and people say,

you know, you're down there sight seeing can you see fish?

You just get tunnel vision

because everything is happening so quickly.

Kind of like strapping yourself to a torpedo.

- [Narrator] But the Seabreacher isn't

the only weird machine sending ripples

through the nautical world.

We head to America's final frontier.

Where a bizarre watercraft navigates

the frigid waters of Juneau, Alaska

- This craft is the Archduke Grand Excelsior

ruler of the high seas.

The Archduke was designed to be a all weather

go anywhere craft.

- [Narrator] Marine mechanic, Cal Giordano,

single handedly built the Duke in less than three months

in his garage.

- Just been one day I thought that you know there's

no reason why not I have the skills,

I work on normal boats all day.

They really don't interest me.

I wanted the boat to be unique,

have unique functions

and just be a, a different kind of boat.

- [Narrator] 32 Feet in length, the Archduke

is a hodgepodge of commercial and household parts.

A large buoy was chosen for the front of the boat.

A 500 pound propane tank was attached

to counter the weight in the back.

Its look is across between a civil war submarine

and a pirate ship.

Even donning a cannon on the bow.

To tackle a project of this scale,

one must acquire the right tools of the trade.

- Now this is what you need to build the Archduke.

You need a cotton torch, this is to cut the steel.

You need a grinder.

This is to grind the steel you just cut.

You need a drill.

This is to drill holes

in the steel that you just cut and ground.

This is a file, this is for everything else.

- [Narrator] With the haul in place.

Giordano went to work converting the commercial pieces

into a recreational vehicle.

- Now the Archduke is an unconventional craft

made from rather conventional items.

For instance, the buoy here,

this is a 58 inch diameter commercial buoy.

Now what I've used it for is my command module

or the cabin where I drive.

We have one inch thick tempered glass windows.

We have a Navy surplus hatch.

I can stand in the middle of this module

and turn 360 degrees for full visibility.

- [Narrator] A one man hub consists

of a small steering wheel

speed throttle and gauge.

A camera is mounted on top of the boat

and wired to a video monitor inside the cabin.

- This is the Archduke's video camera.

When the bows under,

it allows me to see and control the boat

when I can't see through the windshield.

It allows me to see and steer better in rough water.

It allows me to see and drive at night.

- The bow is able to dip under water

by using two front wings

added to mimic the physics of a submarine.

- Now this boat not designed to be a submarine,

but early in its construction,

I saw that it could easily have the capability

to be semi-submersible,

which means kind of go underwater.

What we do is we turn this crank.

Now we can see the wings are going lower.

Now with the wings in this position,

as the Archduke moves forward,

these wings dive, pulling the bow underwater along with it.

- [Narrator] The duke is propelled by

a single 90 horse-powered outboard engine.

Traditionally built for small speed boats,

bringing the boat to a top speed

of 12 and a half miles an hour.

But with any addition on a boat,

new weight should always be split in two.

- This is the Archduke's main gun.

This cannon is primarily used as ballast.

In that it counterweights the outboard engine.

They both weigh about the same

and that keeps the boat level.

(explosion)

- [Narrator] The cannon has never fired

a live round on the water.

Instead relying on a film canister of black powder

to simulate a real blast.

However, this be not be the Duke's most unique feature.

- One of the most unconventional features of the Archduke

is the axle underneath.

Now, the axle is used to move the boat without a trailer.

It's also used to beach the boat and keep it upright.

It allowed me to make the boat basically self sufficient.

It does not rely on a trailer to move itself.

- [Narrator] By welding the axle directly to the hull,

it can be towed right out of the water

with nothing more than a small hitch and a chain.

Giordano relies on a semi to haul the duke around town.

- You don't have to worry about separating them.

It's very convenient knowing that the boat

can be hauled on its own.

I'm never gonna be captain of a real sub,

but that's not gonna stop me from making my own little boat

and then driving around.

And I just really, really enjoy it.

Strange machines are everywhere

and can arrive in any shape or size.

Some even show practical potential.

(wind blowing)

Scaling a mountain has become the metaphor

for taking on a nearly impossible task.

The slow difficult climb to an almost unforeseeable end.

Now imagine a device that replaces

the human effort completely.

Allowing you to literally dance up a rock surface.

Atlas Devices devices built a machine

enabling you to do just that.

(man shouts)

No bigger than a large shoebox.

The Power Ascender is a reverse repeller,

capable of hauling over 20 times its own weight.

- The easiest description for it is actually,

that's kind of like Batman's tool belt.

It's literally the part that pulls you up the rope.

We've got a big battery here,

motor in your gearbox and an electronic control unit

that controls the speed.

So I can just clip with any standard carabiner.

And I'm ready to climb.

So once it's threaded,

I can adjust the speed,

I can climb very, very slowly.

And then when I descend,

releases the brake,

if I let go, hands free anytime,

I'm gonna stay there in place.

If I want to go up,

I just adjust that variable speed trigger

and can go slow,

or it can move pretty quick.

- [Narrator] In 2004,

a group of MIT students who later started Atlas Devices

were enlisted by the army to build a new climbing instrument

for tactical missions that would allow for quick ascents

across the mountainous regions of Afghanistan.

- So they wanted something roughly

the size of a shoe box, weighs about 25 pounds,

to lift guys up and down in the air.

And this is that prototype that we've first built.

- [Narrator] The students developed a device

by following the mechanics of a common household tool.

- It's kind of inspired by a power drill.

There's a handle or a grip right here by my finger.

And when I squeeze this red button,

it turns on the system

and then it rides up and down the rope.

So instead sort of winding the rope

maybe like a normal winch would,

this actually goes up and down the rope.

So the rope becomes a highway.

- [Narrator] In addition to helping troops in the field,

the office of Naval research

also foresaw potential in the Ascender

for maritime and rescue operations,

by threading rope through a litter

and the harness of the rescuer.

The device can pull the weight of two people

out of a compromising area.

- So in other words

I can become a one man rescue operation,

where now we would have to use

two or three people in the same situation.

It can do the same thing from a helicopter.

(helicopter engine roaring)

- [Narrator] Traditionally heli rescue efforts

required aircrafts with specialized winches,

to airlift endangered personnel.

The Ascender has the potential to convert any helicopter

into a rescue vehicle

with its ability to lift hundreds of pounds at once.

At the Atlas headquarters in Chelmsford, Massachusetts,

the team conducts a weight verification test

to ensure its maximum weight capacity.

- Right now I have the Ascender

attached to 500 pounds of just pure weight.

And this is well above what it's actually rated for.

It gives us an opportunity to make sure

that the system can do not only what it's supposed to do,

but also get that a little bit extra

when the customer needs it.

- The reason the Power Ascender is actually able

to pull so much weight with a battery is

really due to a very highly integrated mechanical

electro mechanical design in the system.

- [Narrator] Beyond the proprietary design,

the power to mass ratio technology

enables a small battery to lift enormous amounts of weight.

The ability of a standard charge

depends on the weight being lifted.

As the pounds increase,

the length and speed the Ascender can travel, decreases.

The lesser the weight,

the faster you can skim up a rock surface.

- The Ascender weighs roughly 26 pounds

compared to 500 pounds, one 20th of what it's lifting.

It's pretty incredible.

So it's, it's quite a power tool.

- The sensation of moving upward

at walking to running speed along a vertical surface

is just it's really out there, very fun.

- [Narrator] Since their founding in 2005,

Atlas Devices has developed a series of ascenders

and other ergonomic products

to help not just the army,

but first responders and even utility companies.

And while the Power Ascender's goal

is to alleviate vertical obstacles,

the next mechanical oddity

is destined to ease the efforts of everyday life.

What could be weirder, yet more appealing

than to have your own personal robot.

At your service to greet you with the door.

Open a window.

Even fill in as a workout partner.

Though this futuristic automaton

may not be ready for domestic use.

It does have a special role

within the realm of the U.S. military.

Developed at Vecna Technologies, BEAR

or Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot

is a 21st century night in shining armor.

Designed to engage in casualty rescue, bomb disposal,

and perform all around workhorse tasks.

This robot demanded an extremely robust operating platform.

A tall order made possible through a complex

electrical and hydraulic system.

- The BEAR is the Hercules of humanoid robotics.

The way hydraulics works

is it takes electrical energy and turns a pump.

That pump builds up high pressure,

hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure.

And then we use valves to release that pressure

to all the different joints.

- [Narrator] The system creates so much strength

that each finger alone can lift over 100 pounds.

Beyond its brute force the hydraulics

provide the joint articulation

needed when transporting humans

or handling complicated bomb removals.

- The BEAR arms each have six degrees of freedom.

We have a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist.

Each of those can move in two different ways.

That gives us a lot of flexibility on

how to pick things up.

There's not just one way to reach out

and grab onto an object

There are multiple ways.

- The idea is that the BEAR has to be very, very flexible

because you don't know what you're gonna run into.

Doesn't know what obstacles are going to be in the way.

It doesn't know what objects it's going to have to move.

So the goal was to design something that's very capable.

- [Narrator] And BEAR's look is fashioned

to also enhance that capability.

In a rescue situation, assessing the mental state

of the victim is imperative.

Vecna designed the face

in a way to exude a calming sense, even provoke laughter

to ease a victim's agitated condition.

Cameras within the eye sockets

are designed to take commands from hand gestures

as well as record information for future analysis,

an invaluable application for combat extractions.

The team behind the BEAR robot

has its sights beyond tactical command.

Slowly gaining traction to one day becoming

a household fixture.

- When the word robot was invented, it was invented to,

to describe a general purpose worker.

I believe that the future will be a feature full of robots.

- [Narrator] Today the lines between humans

and humanoids are increasingly blurred.

As robots assist with a wide range of tasks,

from delivering packages to space exploration.

And while robots may help simplify our lives,

there is one machine built to do just the opposite.

By converting a simple task into a highly complex one.

Since their debut over a century ago,

Rube Goldberg's cartoon still inspire

the engineering world today in no fewer than 10 steps.

Los Angeles, California.

In 2011, the rock band OK Go

crafted its "This Two Shall Pass" music video

based on the popular invention cartoon series.

(indistinct conversation)

- If you want the smaller one, you got smaller.

- No, this is perfect. - Yeah.

- [Narrator] The video treatment called for

a massive chain reaction sequence to be constructed,

better known as a Rube Goldberg machine.

- Does it always jumping in?

- It seems to be, seems to be jumping

on this area not up here.

- A Rube Goldberg invention is something that's important

because it's not important.

It's a device that takes something that is really simple,

really easy to do in your everyday life

and make it really complex.

- [Narrator] For example, here is a Goldberg machine

that was built especially for us

to power up a television.

The rat trap knocks the wheel forward,

sending the CO2 rocket into the pendulum,

which travels down and closes the pyramid,

forcing stonehenge to rise, pushing the mallet

to fall on the spatula that pulls a string,

activating the gumball machine,

kicking a tire that rolls to the cannon

shooting the shot foot which funnels down the catcher rig

depressing the hand,

completing the task of turning on the TV.

- What if this quick release were on a,

on a pole here or something.

- [Narrator] For the band building a Goldberg machine

was one facet of a larger vision.

Each step had to coincide with particular song cues

throughout the four minute running time.

- The line that is sung in there-

- Yeah.

- Is not gonna happen till ting, ting, ting, ting

is done no matter what.

- [Narrator] And of course the fate of their performance

rests on the machine smooth operation

captured in one continuous shot.

Strange machines are often the result

of an imagination run wild.

And though many inventors build machines to solve problems.

Rube Goldberg was an expert at finding

new ways to complicate them.

After graduating with a degree in engineering in 1904,

Rube Goldberg quickly changed gears

to pursue a career in cartooning.

He soon began penning comics for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lampooning the changing times of early 20th century life.

In 1912, he debuted his satirical invention series

greatly influenced by his engineering background.

Goldberg described his inventions

as symbols of man's capacity for exerting maximum effort

to accomplish minimum results.

A typical invention consisted of several household items,

including animals linked together

to accomplish a common goal

such as a haircut or self operating napkin.

- His cartoons were particularly popular

during the machine era where lots of people

were going out and trying to invent machines

to solve any problem they possibly could.

So Rube Goldberg was really making fun of the fact that,

okay, we can design all this technology,

but does it really make our lives simpler?

That's left up to the reader.

- [Narrator] During his 70 year career,

Goldberg produced over 50,000 cartoons,

but his legacy will always be linked to his strange machines.

Inspired by these challenging mechanics,

engineering students across the country

compete in Purdue University's annual Rube Goldberg contest.

It's a celebration of gadgetry

with students concocting the ultimate Goldbergen machines.

- So the competition has a certain set of rules,

which everyone has to abide by.

Some of it is the machine has to be built

six foot by six foot by six foot.

No live animals can be used in the machine.

No dead animals can be used in the machine,

no fire and no explosions

and nothing is allowed to leave the machine.

Other than that, as long as

you don't injure or hurt anybody, have fun.

- [Narrator] The same task is assigned to each team

such as cracking a walnut.

Or frying some eggs, to be done in no fewer than 20 steps.

Known as the Engineering Olympics of America

these Goldberg machines now incorporate

over 200 separate steps.

- We work 2000 hours on these machines.

And right down to the minute before we run it,

these things might still be finicky.

Luck, the humidity, the given day, where the sun is aligned,

everything plays a major factor in how these things operate.

- [Narrator] Ironically, over the 50 years

he drew the invention cartoon,

Goldberg never constructed one himself.

- Rube Goldberg never built his inventions

and really he never intended them to be built.

His goal was just to draw cartoons that were funny

and would help people laugh at their everyday lives.

- Everybody go.

- [Narrator] Back in Los Angeles,

the OK Go video crew has gone through several takes

of their Rube Goldberg machine with little success.

- I'm hoping we can get past the verse,

15 seconds of the song. Ok, I gotta go.

- 3, 2, 1 Action

(upbeat gentle music)

- Ball.

- Ball

- Ball still got caught.

- [Narrator] Anything a fraction of an inch off

can bring the entire machine to a screeching halt.

- Sets the halt.

- [Narrator] Closing in on their 85th tick.

The production team believed they problem solved

every bug out of the machine.

- 3, 2, 1 action.

- [Narrator] A tap of a domino ignites the chain reaction.

Cueing the music along the way.

by the end, OK Go's Goldberg machine included over 50 steps

to accomplish its task.

Each band member appears at four separate locations

throughout the single take video.

(upbeat rock music)

The sequence unfolds over two levels of the building.

(upbeat rock music)

And in the final seconds of the song,

a fusillade of gadgetry rips across the room.

(upbeat rock music)

And all of this, built to trigger

a firing range of paint cannons.

(audience cheering)

What constitutes a weird machine?

Is it the shell of the device

or the function underneath?

Steampunk is a sub genre that believes it must be both

fusing sculptural design with mechanical engineering.

From light fixtures and small hot engines to cars

and even provocative gas masks.

Steampunk brings history, art form and moving parts

all into one strange piece.

The term steam is used to pay homage

to the look and mechanics of the steam engine

during the Victorian era of the 1800's.

A time known as the age of invention

While punk symbolizes the lone wolf

do it yourself engineer.

- The importance of the Victorian era Steampunks

is that the Victorian era had

all the famous scientists and inventors.

They were creating everything from gramophones

to locomotive engines, to the electric light bulb.

- [Narrator] Today's Steampunks utilized oil, propane gas,

and even the heat of candles to fuel their machines.

Much of the metal is conditioned to appear aged

as if it came right out of Thomas Edison's workshop.

Artist and engineer Jon Sarriugarte

has found his niche in the Steampunk world,

at his Oakland, California based company Form and Reform.

He specializes in the ultimate punk machine.

The Art Car.

- These are weird machines.

They're these are not things you would see

in the shopping mall or, or driving down

the street on your way to work.

- [Narrator] One of his largest pieces is the Golden Mean,

for the onlookers the Snail Car.

- This is the Golden Mean.

It's a giant iron Snail Car

made on a 1966-67 VW bug.

This was a, a honey do project for my wife

who wanted a giant snail.

- [Narrator] Built to California

Department of Motor Vehicles standard.

The Golden Mean is street legal

with a top speed of 55 miles an hour.

Oh, and one more thing, it breathes fire.

Starting with just the chassis and engine of the VW bug.

Sarriugarte built the snails frame and custom designs.

To gain the look and feel of a true Steampunk aesthetic,

he went back to a traditional form of metal working.

- I incorporated a lot of blacksmithing

into the work that I do.

I like the organic feel that it gives a hand touched.

You can tell that it's not just come out

of the processing machine.

It gives my work an edge, it is not just fabricated.

There's also some really great canned work in it.

- [Narrator] In total, Sarriugarte added

over 2000 pounds

of new sheet metal and steel to the existing chassis.

The Snail Car was outfitted with an air ride system.

A flip of a switch will raise or lower the car

to adjust to the number of passengers.

- Depending on how many people I have in here.

I've had up to 19 people.

I can turn up to 120 PSI and still maintain suspension.

- [Narrator] And about those flame throwing eyes.

- Fire.

One of the big features of the Snail Art Car

is fire come out of its eye socks.

We have a liquid fuel propane source.

This fuel is boiled off at room temperature

and converted to gas, which we're storing inside of here.

I have a valve that I can control that

gas when it comes out

by pulling on that, it releases gas out the top.

I have a separate system that's feeding the,

the pilot light that's up here,

a needle valve to control how much of gas

I want out of that.

- [Narrator] The tank is housed in the neck of the snail

with leather reins attached to the gas valve.

- Pull on these.

(canon explosion sound)

We got fireballs.

- [Narrator] This rig launches fireballs

up to 16 feet in the air,

a Steampunk's visceral load

to the legendary machines of yore.

And almost every year since 1990.

Art Car's such as the Golden Mean make a pilgrimage,

to the vast open roads for burning man.

Nestled in northern Nevada,

the 10 day retreat unfolds within the Black Rock Deserts

400 square miles of arid hardened dirt.

The burning man project has become a mecca

for the weird and creative.

Allowing for tens of thousands of people

to showcase their strange toys and machines.

Artists arrive with their latest performance vehicles,

weird cars and art installations.

The enormous desert backdrop serves as the ultimate arena

to celebrate these gargantuan machines.

And when the sun goes down,

another strange machine emerges

to captivate the burning man audience.

(electric spark sound)

California based performance group.

Omega Recoil has plugged into the high voltage converter

known as the Tesla coil

Born from the genius mind of Nikola Tesla in the late 1800's

this electrical oddity still baffles its audiences

over 100 years after it was invented.

The device acts as a transformer.

Using magnetically resonating coils

as energy is transferred from a primary to secondary coil,

the voltage is multiplied

causing extremely high voltage bursts of electricity

to emit from the discharge ring.

John Behrens of Omega Recoil helped build a mini Tesla coil

to better demonstrate how it works

and to study the behavior of electricity.

- In an essence we're simulating lightning

by using the Tesla coil to create a high enough voltage

that it will jump through the air.

The effect of the arc that we see is electrons

trying to find their way to ground.

And in the process of that,

ionizing the atmosphere and creating little arch trails.

- [Narrator] The coils potential can be best demonstrated

using a simple fluorescent tube.

- Usually you have to have this connected

to an electrical circuit.

The coil itself creates a field.

(electric spark sound)

That just causes it to light by the proximity of it.

- [Narrator] With this strange machine,

Tesla believed he could wirelessly

transmit power globally

using the earth as the conductor.

Though the plan was never fully realized

the coil did lead to wireless radio technology.

And today it lives on in a brilliant spectacle of light.

Behrens and the Omega Recoil team

bring theatrics to Tesla's invention using nine foot coils,

producing 14 foot arcs,

that range anywhere between 500,000

and 1 million volts of electricity.

- How does a guy end up in this situation?

- [Narrator] A performer wears a Faraday suit,

which is made of steel and copper.

This conductive shield allows for the electricity

to skate across the top of the metal, as it heads to ground

leaving the performer unscaved.

Anything that is not metal

or a poor conductor of electricity will burn

or catch fire as the current passes through it,

The result a symphony of electricity

and a fitting tribute to a man's dream

of illuminating the world.

Eccentric machinery takes many forms,

some of which are a playful

mix of creativity and practicalty

deep in the woods of Durham Town, Georgia.

A unique set of wheels is shredding up

the back country trails.

The Motocrossboard or MXB, is a hybrid breakthrough

that allows you to ride the dirt trails

with a gliding elegance of a snowboard,

yet fueled by the grit and power of a dirt bike.

The MXB is the brainchild

of extreme sportsmen and inventor, Andy Keel.

- With the background in in snowboarding

and Motocross racing

I was able to pick out the most interesting

and best parts of those.

I realized that I could create a vehicle

that was extremely lightweight,

that could be maneuvered like a snowboard,

and have the suspension of a motorcycle.

- [Narrator] The board rests on two custom-built

aluminum wheels.

The frame is composed of tubular aircraft steel.

Coil Springs are used to absorb

the shock and the rough terrain

and foot platforms allow for the rider to easily balance on.

The handheld throttle includes a brake lever

and a small thumb throttle

allowing you to regulate the speed.

The fuel tank holds enough gas

to produce an hour's worth of riding time.

It took Keel several years to develop a motorized board

that could be controlled without a steering wheel.

And his eureka moment,

came from a trip down the grocery store aisle.

- I was pushing a shopping cart in the shopping center

and the wheel was swiveling on the front.

For some reason, I picked the back of the shopping cart up

and put a little bit of angle in that castor

on the front of that shopping cart and it stopped wobbling.

So I realized that if this thing has got a,

you know a little bit of angle on it,

it, it becomes more stable.

So I began to think, how can I have this castor like design

and not have it in front of the wheel.

And the solution was to sort of reinvent the wheel.

- [Narrator] Keel took the shopping carts

outer castor design and conformed it

within the circumference of the MXB wheel.

This allowed for a 60 degree angle needed for lean to steer

leaving the driving to the shifts and the rider's weight.

- The first one I had built in my basement

on a budget of about $300.

So I took bicycle parts that I found

a BMX bike at a thrift store for $5.

And I found a small two-stroke engine for 60 or 70 bucks

and ordered some steel tubing and welder and,

and started putting it together.

And the first time I stepped on it to try it

it actually worked.

- [Narrator] And according to Keel,

the most novice of riders can adopt to his off-roader

in a matter of minutes.

- Even my 73 year old dad has a mastered the Motocross board

It didn't take him more than five minutes

before he was actually riding it on his own.

And I don't believe he would ever be able

to learn how to snowboard.

- [Narrator] The MXB can be geared

to reach up to 50 miles an hour.

At this speed many riders would prefer to be strapped in

to closer mimic the carving techniques of a snowboard.

- This version is equipped with the

intuitive release binding system,

which allows the rider to be either free from the board

or to be clamped in securely

the way they would on a snowboard

by squeezing this lever on the back of the control handle.

When this lever is closed,

the bindings shut down on the boot

and the rider is completely secure.

It has a lot of control the way they do with snowboard.

And then when the rider decides to get off the board,

an intuitive motion allows the rider to open the bindings

when the handle is released,

the binding's open and the rider is able to

to get off the board,

unlike with snowboarding,

where you're always secured to the board.

(upbeat gentle music)

- [Narrator] From the grocery aisle to the muddy paths,

this mean little two wheeled machine

blazed a whole new trail in the X games world.

- I don't know what the people in the grocery store

were thinking when I was

maneuvering that shopping cart around,

but I'm, I'm certain they weren't thinking

that I would come up with an idea like this from it.

- [Narrator] Strange machines and head turning creations

are often by products of the prototyping business.

Standard metal products,

a machining business in San Francisco

walks a fine line between making the practical

and the bizarre.

- So I'm often asked what I do I I,

and I'll usually just look on the table around the shop

to see what's in here to answer that question

because it's that diverse.

But in the past year,

I have repaired a sauce pan handle

in exchange for two cookies with an 85 year old woman.

And at the same time,

I was prototyping a wind tunnel model

for a super-sonic wind tunnel test for NASA.

- [Narrator] Kevin Binkert special set of skills

is constantly enlisted to tackle an array

of off-kilter projects,

Such as the Spirit of America Three,

Craig Breedlove sound barrier breaking jet car.

In 1996, Binkert machined the parts

for the car's third incarnation.

Which reportedly reached speeds up to 675 miles an hour.

But the prototyping business

can also pose many smaller challenges.

- Here's a, an example of a one of a kind,

this is basically demonstrating

that a straight object spinning through space,

counterintuitively does not trace out a cylinder.

It actually traces out a hyperbolic shape.

So we prototyped this

with the idea that it could be a, a ride.

Someone would get into this contraption

and their straight body would go through

a curved slot in the wall.

- [Narrator] However, SMPs most outrageous invention

was formed from a vision right out of a subconscious.

- This is the flame tornado.

It's a, it's a piece that I made

after having a powerful dream of a, of a fire vortex.

And it can be small or it can burn the roof off the place

if I turn it all the way up.

- [Narrator] By using aluminum blades,

a 20 gallon propane tank,

a small 1.5 horse-powered engine and a single match

Binkert is able to create this massive tower of fire.

- Well, it works a lot like a, a regular tornado

we're pulling air in from the bottom.

So the simple answer to what's happening here

is that we've got a series of blades

that are creating a, a rotating column of air.

You want laminar flow so there's not a lot of chaotic air.

And as the air rushes in convection is pulling it up,

and it's a self perpetuating vortex of flame.

And ideally the neighbors don't call the fire department.

- [Narrator] The result, a spectacular cyclone of fire

reaching up to 40 feet in height.

The flame tornado has become a fixture at SMP,

but the neighborhood is yet to embrace

its entertainment value.

During this demonstration,

the San Francisco fire department was called,

not the first time for Kevin Binkert

The matter was quickly resolved,

but not before Binkert showcased his latest gorter valve

fabricated for the city.

However, the moral of the story,

this towering inferno should not be tried at home.

These strange machines symbolize

the very nature of who we are

and mark how far we've come

capturing the likes of Jules Verne,

R2-D2, Batman and even James Bond

while showcasing American ingenuity at its finest

and nuttiest.