In 1588, Italian engineer Agustino Ramelli published a book that included an illustration for an invention that he had in mind. He wanted to be able to easily consult multiple books at a time, so Ramelli thought it would be possible to build a geared wheel that would let him easily flip between eight books.
Ramelli never built his bookwheel, but Matt Nygren and Maher Abdelkawi, students at the Rochester Institute of Technology did. Atlas Obscura describes their project:
Today, one wheel resides at the Melbert B. Cary Jr. Graphic Arts Collection at RIT’s Wallace Library, and the other at the University of Rochester’s Rossell Hope Robbins Library. Each weighs about 600 pounds and has room for eight books; users can take a seat and spin the wooden cases, which are carefully weighted to avoid unintended movements. It’s also worth getting close to observe the core mechanism: a complex, epicyclic gearing system that consists of outer gears rotating around a central gear, much like planets moving around the sun.
-via Bookshelf | Photo: Mireya Salinas
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I've seen a few of these other places. http://myhlc.org/antique-multi-book-research-carousel-or-ferris-wheel/
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