Professor Shannon had a whimsical side and developed a juggling machine, rocket-powered Frisbees, motorized Pogo sticks, a mind-reading machine, a mechanical mouse that could navigate a maze and a device that could solve the Rubik's Cube puzzle. At Bell, he was remembered for riding the halls on a unicycle while juggling three balls.
Shannon's interest in juggling was not purely practical; there is apparently a seminal article on the theory of juggling in his collected works (something else I learned from a Dyson article, see here). I have tried and failed to find this online. And Shannon is also reputed to have built an Ultimate Machine that he kept on his desk:
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