Need This? Vodka-based Musical Machines

by Luke McKinney

Our Guest Blogger, Luke McKinney , investigates science, gadgetry and alcohol - frequently simultaneously. He has written for Cracked.com, the Creative Science Quarterly and CRAM Teen Science magazine, among others. Luke wanted to share his latest funny invention finds with the readers of InventorSpot.com.

Here's his article:

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We've all been to a wedding reception, a business dinner, or a family gathering that's gone on a little too long. We've all seen someone who insists on making music out of wine glasses, not content to have a single but drunkenly trying to set up a whole scale of glassware. But what if they were never stopped by natural causes - no passing out, being taken home, or being thrown out for breaking too much glassware? What if they worked for a vodka company and never had to sober up?

The result would be the Absolut Quartet, a fantabulous contraption that wouldn't look out of place in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. A huge scale of variously-full wineglasses provides a musical scale, but that's only one of several nifty features. In true drunken logic, the makers decided to combine an army of fragile glasses with a device that hurls projectiles, constructing what can only be called a "Ballistic ping pong marimba", and rest assured that's the first time that phrase has ever been typed, said, or even thought of.

The result is spectacular, and an extremely clever case of subliminal advertising. You watch the amazing device play (or even interact with it online), and think "Wow! How could they think of such a thing?" Then you realise, "Oh, right. Alcohol."

Truly, an inspiration for the inventor in us all.