Machines · Study 070
Engine Room Gauges
Three brass engine room dials for pressure, speed and temperature, with needles that overshoot and settle like sprung mechanisms. Click to open the throttle.
What you're looking at
Each needle is a small physics simulation. A target value wanders slowly, and the needle is pulled toward it by a spring and held back by friction. When the target jumps, the needle swings past, comes back and settles, which is the behaviour that makes an analogue dial feel alive.
The idea behind it
Most mechanical pressure gauges still use the Bourdon tube, patented by Eugène Bourdon in 1849: a flattened, curved tube that tries to straighten as pressure rises and turns a needle through a small gear. The red arc at the top of each scale marks the range the operator is supposed to stay out of.
Try this
Click or tap to surge the throttle and send all three needles toward the red.
