World Machine, Kinetic sculpture in Edelsbach bei Feldbach, Austria.

The World Machine is a kinetic sculpture built by Franz Gsellmann from 1958 to 1981 on his farm near Kaag in Edelsbach bei Feldbach. About four metres long, one metre wide and three metres high, it assembles roughly 2,000 parts, among them a porcelain eagle, 64 bird whistles, 200 light bulbs, 14 bells and a toy rocket ordered from Japan, driven by 25 electric motors. In the photograph, a large wheel with a red hub and blue, yellow and green spokes sits at the centre, with a blue arm ending in a green disc frame above and a blue cutout panel holding a clock face beside teal and blue gears.

Construction began in 1958 when Franz Gsellmann was inspired by the Atomium he saw at the Brussels World Exposition. The artist devoted more than two decades to bringing this mechanical vision to life before completing it.

The name "World Machine" was not Gsellmann's own; he answered questions about its purpose evasively, so the term serves as a makeshift label. The writer Gerhard Roth compared the work to Jean Tinguely's contemporaneous machines made from similar materials, noting that Gsellmann's lacks Tinguely's ironic distance. Gsellmann, a devout and modest man, attributed the realization of his dream to God. Visitors and admirers have come mainly from urban intellectual circles.

The World Machine is not outdoors: it stands in the former farm of Franz Gsellmann near Kaag, in Edelsbach bei Feldbach, as the centrepiece of the family's private museum. It is a protected monument, and the family reports almost 10,000 visitors a year. The machine is about four metres long, one metre wide and three metres high, so it is viewed from close range; the 25 electric motors drive its moving parts.

Franz Gsellmann kept the machine behind a locked, curtained door and showed it to his family only after eight years of building. Neighbours watched him haul finds home by wheelbarrow or ox cart, and he ordered a toy rocket from Japan for it.