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Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, was presented with this mechanical marvel in 1785. It’s a machine in the form of a lady playing a dulcimer. The lady isn’t just decorative, but an essential part of the musical performance. Be sure to watch the whole video to see other amazing automatons from the same time period.
Sometimes, tapping your fingers in bored frustration doesn’t really seem to make time more forward at a faster clip. This hand-cranked automaton by Etsy seller automatonman will probably help. Link -via Technabob
This is a truly amazing work of art and machinery. Built in Geneva by Rochat around the year 1820, these two pistol-like objects are actually tiny music boxes. When the user pulls the trigger, a tiny, realistic mechanical bird pops out of the end. It dances as the musical components play what sounds just like bird whistling.
This video from the auction house Christie’s shows how devices work, including internal diagrams. You can skip to 1:45 in the video to see them in action.
For all of you who’ve experienced storm in a teacup (or tempest in a teapot for us Yanks), you have John Lumbus’ sympathy. The automata specialist has created a clever kinetic object out to mark your plight. Behold, Storm in a Tea Cup:
Video clip after the jump: more …
Sculptor Keith Newstead made this lovely brass pegasus automaton. He writes of its metal work:
As they had been cut from 1mm brass they were quite heavy and I was worried that the whole brass horse would be too heavy for the crank to lift it.
I made up the base , fitted all the parts of Pegasus together, fitted Pegasus to the base and joined up all the connecting wires.
As soon as I connected the wings I realised that because of the way they were set up they were actualy lifting the rest of Pegasus, in effect making it lighter.
YouTube user Mechanical Sculptor created this mechanically exploding and retracting picture frame. His channel is filled with videos of similar works.
via Make | YouTube Channel
The Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey has a permanent display called “Musical Machines & Living Dolls”, featuring over 700 antique automata, including quite a few fancily-dressed mechanical monkeys from France.
Though largely lost on passing schoolchildren and tourists at the Morris Museum, these monkeys were once a scathing critique on French aristocracy. There is a monkey on a early sort of bicycle called a velocipede, a monkey harpist, a monkey violinist, two small monkey musicians, and an incredible monkey dandy under a large glass dome. All are dressed in fine silks with hair done up in the style of French Royalty. These automata were a post-French-revolution joke on the former rulers and current dandies of France. So popular was the theme of foolish aristocratic monkeys that it was common in French homes, and whole rooms were decorated around the theme.
Read more about the mechanical monkey fad at Curious Expeditions. Link
