In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of "The Rig," which was realized in prototype form as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could wear on their shoulders.

If he followed the steel contraption, they would be at once face-to-face, and her survival would hinge on her ability to thrust the shard of glass into one of his eyes in the instant of his surprise.

The trader haggled cheerfully over a down payment, then strapped the hulking steel contraption to the young man's back.

These days, Bramble builds the 32-pound aluminum and steel contraptions in a converted woodshop behind the two-story home that he built for his parents in Cape May Court House, N.J., before the accident.

A man in a crisp white shirt stands in the center, working a stainless steel contraption of pipes and tanks, one tank for coffee and one for milk, kept warm by a bath of hot water.

In a voice that has been described as "Jimmy Stewart from Mars", he rhapsodises about the "old, large, stainless steel contraption" with which Dr Chin holds his "super-sharp needle.

His youngest daughter, Michelle, 4 years old, has a spider-like steel contraption holding her left leg intact, after an operation earlier this year to correct neurofibromatosis that erupted in the bones.

If the top kill fails, the company may try to use another giant steel contraption known as a containment dome to trap the spewing oil.

The starting gate was perhaps not even a memory anymore, although if he had been placed in that steel contraption he would surely have had some vestigial impulse to barrel out of there as fast as he could.

However, the steel contraption required oiling and overheated when the oil dried, thus limiting Goebel's ability to play a complete game in 1922.