A machine that ties a tie

The wonderful contraption pictured above can do it.

562 is a lot fewer than it would take me, since I never learned to tie one.

My tie - I only have one - was tied the day I bought it by the guy who sold it to me.

I then had him take it off by carefully loosening it just enough to slip it over his head without destroying the knot.

I took it home, perfectly tied, and hung it over the top of a hanger.

On those very rare days when, for one reason or another, a tie is required, I loosen the knot and slip it over my head, and I'm good to go.

The three-foot-tall tie-tying machine, called "Why Knot?", was built by retired biomedical engineer Seth Goldstein in his basement in Bethesda, Maryland.

It holds a tie mounted on a stand, surrounded by motor-driven levers, gears, and rollers.

The machine goes through its paces, then unties it, straightens it, and does it again, until you turn it off.

Goldstein built it to illustrate the complicated processes behind daily tasks.

Well, he's sure convinced me.

No wonder I couldn't figure it out when people tried to show me how. But I digress.

Next year, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is going to put the machine on exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute.

A can't-miss attraction for moi when the bookofjoe World Tour hits the City of Brotherly Love.

[via Wired Magazine]