continuous conveyance, 11-point stellated multilevel
336 views · Published 26 April 2011 · 4:02 · Indexed 4 November 2026
Channel: sgcollins · 2011 · Education
here's an illustration of a continuous transport loop to serve multiple levels in a volume space, such as a building or arcology. the main idea is this: if you draw a star whose number of points is a prime number, then any regular way of connecting the dots (a line to every third, every fourth etc) will give you one continous path. if you then raise the nodes to regularly ascending and descending levels, then you get a looping track through space with no level crossings. in this example there's an 11 point star, with links to every fourth node. larger intervals would give deeper (ie less peripheral-hugging) stellation. the highest point is node 6, after which the path descends to half-levels between the first five rises before rejoining node 1 at the bottom. for simplicity this example uses circular 'floors' for node placement, but there's no reason why the star pattern can't be distended to irregular or 'organic' shapes. in other words, the environment served needn't be cylindrical. these configurations could apply to baggage belts, freight conveyors, trash removal, people-moving sidewalks -- or maybe even a tram system. or depending on building dimensions, it could just be a nice bicycle path through the city. i'm thinking it's a chain conveyor, with gears and sprockets, kinda like a double funicular or a continuous elevator. there's a drive shaft somewhere in the line, taking its power from any mechanical energy source. to some extent the counterweight of the descending payload would minimize the force needed to lift the ascending payload. somebody please steal this idea and build it into your next city.
