A software simulation of this machine could serve as a very nice visual aid for people that are mechanically inclined that try to understand Fourier Analysis. Nice project for a little web app.
It's not quite what you're looking for (a simulation of the machine, which would be amazing to see in its own right), but according to this video [3], it looks like they've built a neat webapp for the purpose of having a sort of fourier synthesis playground.
Unfortunately, there's just the demo video, with no link to the site itself, and searching turned up nothing. They may plan to release it later on in the series.
[1] http://vimeo.com/engineerguy/videos
That version can run most processing apps within the browser with no plugins or setup, thus letting interested users just visit a link to use the app.