Marble machines are the kind of useless mechanisms that everybody loves. Their sole purpose is to route marbles through different paths for your viewing pleasure. They can be extremely complicated ...

This article was taken from the September 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content ...

For his entry in a cake decorating, sugarcraft and baking expo, engineer Martin Raynsford decided to make an edible version of his laser cut marble machine kit. The contraption had to be scaled up and ...

He added: ‘You put a lego technic nail into the 32 bar loop grid and every nail drops one marble. There are 22 tracks for the nails and the marbles.’ ...