Outside of our industry, there's a whole slew of hobbyists working with gears to make clocks, art pieces, watches and all manner of bizarrely shaped gears (you know, all the people that usually end up featured right here in our Addendum section).

It's hard for me to think of a massive Christmas exhibit as being the fifth largest tourist attraction in the entire country. I mean, sure, it's still a tradition to show up at the local Macy's to check out the Christmas decorations, but for my generation, the idea that a Christmas exhibit could draw out 1.5 million visitors, more tourists than either Yellowstone Park or the Statue of Liberty received, is stunning. But at the height of its popularity, that's exactly what the Ford Rotunda was.

Having read about an automobile race in France, Kohlsaat decided he'd host America's first auto race in Chicago. The year was 1895 and automobiles were still a great curiosity. Kohlsaat, owner/publisher of the Chicago Times Herald, planned to exploit the growing interest in motoring by sponsoring a 54-mile race from downtown Chicago to nearby suburb Evanston, Illinois, and back. The match was open to all comers, foreign or domestic, whether powered by gas, electricity, or steam. The top prize: $2,000 (that's 50,000 2016 dollars).

We've been in the business of making things small and portable for a long time. But when it comes to shrinking things down, a team of scientists from Germany, Italy and Spain led by Roberto Di Leonardo decided to go big.

According to his official biography, Martin Molin specializes in vibraphone and music box as the ringleader of the band Wintergatan (Swedish for The Milky Way).

According to the U.K.-based WITT Energy website (witt-energy.com), "The WITT is the only device in the world that can capture energy from all movement and turn it into electricity. No other energy system can exploit the full spectrum of movement, enabling it to harvest power from water (sea, river or tidal), wind and human or animal motion."

Paul Nylander is something between an entrepreneur and a Renaissance man. He has degrees in engineering and physics, but he's also a creative artist who's put together sketches and 3D renderings alike. His website, bugman123. com, features everything from an in-depth explanation of a Tesla coil to 3D renderings of physics equations to an extensive library of fractal-based artwork. At first glance, one might find Nylander's many pursuits to be somewhat scattershot, but at their core, his works are tied together by his love for all things mathematical.

Square, rectangular, triangular, oval, even fish-shaped - Clayton Boyer's Weird Gears come in every shape except for circular, and they all work. If you're interested in giving them a gander, check out Boyer's Youtube video (just search "weird gears" and it'll be right there at the top) to see them in motion

Mekanizmalar. Ever heard of it? No, it’s not a lost password from 1,001 Arabian Nights. In fact it is a website — since 2004 — that employs the universally loved art of animation (Adobe Flash) to clearly explain the basic and not-so-basic workings of mechanisms — including geared, pneumatic, hydraulic and electronic components.

There’s a silly ongoing joke in the 2002 family film Spy Kids 2 (a movie that I’m admittedly not very proud I’ve seen, but hey, I was 12 at the time) involving a super advanced secret agent watch that does everything but tell time.