Wunderkammern: The Automatons Come Alive!

Automaton from Hugo

After my last post, I was intrigued and decided to do some research to find out more about automatons. They are so interesting and they have become part of my Steampunk Romance. Yes, they fit in with the genre in so many ways. Some may think they are a little creepy, but that's part of the appeal. These mechanical marvels are a cross between oddity, curiosities with intricate insides, I'm loving it. 

I find  their evolution truly fascinating. The steampunk connection makes it even better. How wonderfully odd it would be to own one. It would definitely be a conversation starter. Sweet dreams are made of these. These wondrous devices found a home in the cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammern of the princely courts of Europe. The Automatons, the wunderkammern in My Steampunk Romance. (which is also a book by Keith Newstead)

Wunderkammern: Automatons! (the nerd version)

The automata in the Hellenistic world were intended as toys, religious idols, or tools for demonstrating basic scientific principles, including those built by Greek mathematician Hero (Heron) of Alexandria. When his writings on hydraulics, pneumatics, and mechanics were translated into Latin in the 16th century, Hero’s readers initiated reconstruction of his machines, which included siphons, a fire engine, a water organ, the aeolipile, and a programmable cart.

There are also examples from myth: Daedalus used quicksilver to install a voice in his statues. Hephaestus created automata for his workshop: Talos, an artificial man of bronze, and, according to Hesiod, the woman Pandora. (see last post)

Solomon on his throne

According to Jewish legend, Solomon used his wisdom to design a throne with mechanical animals which hailed him as king when he ascended it; upon sitting down, an eagle would place a crown upon his head, and a dove would bring him a Torah scroll. It's also said that when King Solomon stepped upon the throne, a mechanism was set in motion. As soon as he stepped upon the first step, a golden ox and a golden lion each stretched out one foot to support him and help him rise to the next step. On each side, the animals helped the King up until he was comfortably seated upon the throne. 

In the mid-8th century, Medieval period, the first wind powered automata were built: statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad. The public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the 'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed. Also in the 8th century, the Muslim alchemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), included recipes for constructing artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans which would be subject to their creator's control in his coded Book of Stones. In 827, Caliph Al-Ma'mun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad, which had the features of an automatic machine. 

blikoton

There were metal birds that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim inventors and engineers at the time. The Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir also had a golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 915, with birds on it flapping their wings and singing. In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.

The Renaissance witnessed a  revival of interest in automata. Hero's treatises were edited and translated into Latin and Italian. Giovanni Fontana created mechanical devils and rocket-propelled animal automata. Numerous clockwork automata were manufactured in the 16th century, principally by the goldsmiths of the Free Imperial Cities of central Europe.  Hydraulic and pneumatic automata, similar to those described by Hero, were created for garden grottoes.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is renowned for his inventions that were often centuries ahead of their time, so it’s not surprising to learn that he was also active in developing automatons. Da Vinci sketched a more complex automaton around the year 1495. The design of Leonardo's robot was rediscovered  in a sketchbook around 1950. The robot could, if built successfully, move its arms, twist its head, and sit up. 

The Monk

The Smithsonian Institution has in its collection a clockwork monk, about 15 in (380 mm) high, possibly dating as early as 1560. The monk is driven by a key-wound spring and walks the path of a square, striking his chest with his right arm, while raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the cross to his lips and kisses it. It is believed that the monk was manufactured by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

A new attitude towards automata is to be found in Descartes when he suggested that the bodies of animals are nothing more than complex machines - the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with cogs, pistons and cams. Thus mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. 

mechanical duck

France in the 17th century was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution.The world's first successfully-built bio mechanical automaton is considered to be The Flute Player, invented by the French engineer Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. He also constructed the Digesting Duck, a mechanical duck that gave the false illusion of eating and defecating, seeming to endorse Cartesian ideas that animals are no more than machines of flesh.

In 1769, a chess-playing machine called the Turk, created by Wolfgang von Kempelen, made the rounds of the courts of Europe purporting to be an automaton. The mechanical hand moved the game pieces and the device’s cabinet doors could be opened to show a variety of complicated gears and other machinery. There was even a sliding seat that allowed the operator to stay hidden when the doors were opened for people to examine the fake machinery. The Turk was operated from inside by a hidden human director, and was not a true automaton.

Jaquet Droz

Henri Maillardet

Other 18th century automaton makers include the prolific Frenchman Pierre Jaquet-Droz. He created The Writer, The Draughtsman and The Musician, which are still considered scientific marvels today. The Draughtsman is capable of producing four distinct pictures, while the Writer dips his pen in the ink and can write as many as forty letters. The Musician’s fingers actually play the organ and the figure ends her performance with a bow. His contemporary, Henri Maillardet a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable of drawing four pictures and writing three poems The automation which illustrates and writes several verses in both French and English, was built in 1805. Over a century later, in 1928, it was acquired by Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. At the time, the object’s history was uncertain, however, once the automaton had been repaired and operated again for the first time in many decades, it wrote the words ‘written by the automaton of Maillardet’, thus solving the mystery.

Joueuse de Tympanon

The Joueuse de Tympanon was built in 1772 and presented to Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, then later restored by Robert Houdin in 1864. Houdin was renowned as an inventor, clockmaker and even as a magician, creating many mechanical marvels of his own. Some figures often simply mimicked the actions in time with a musical box inside the machine, but this automaton really plays the instrument. 

Karakuri Ningyo

Japan adopted automata during the Edo period (1603–1867); they were known as karakuri ningyō. Automata, particularly watches and clocks, were popular in China during the 18th and 19th centuries, and items were produced for the Chinese market. Strong interest by Chinese collectors in the 21st century brought many interesting items to market where they have had dramatic realizations.

Euphonia, by Faber

Euphonia, a machine that could mimic a human voice, was developed by Joseph Faber in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Using German accented English, it could read the alphabet, sing, whisper, laugh and even utter the words “How do you do, ladies and gentlemen”. Apparently anyone who inspected the Euphonia’s mechanical workings was convinced that no trickery was involved, such as Faber employing a ventriloquist.

The period 1860 to 1910 is known as "The Golden Age of Automata". During this period many small family based companies of Automata makers thrived in Paris. From their workshops they exported thousands of clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around the world. It is these French automata that are collected today, although now rare and expensive they attract collectors worldwide. The main French makers were Vichy, Roullet & Decamps, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou and Bontems.

A walking "Electric Man" was introduced in Strand Magazine of London by inventor Louis Philip Perew - and was demonstrated in 1900. In the late 1890's inventor Louis Philip Perew constructed an electrically operated mechanical man. It was completed in the early summer of 1900, and demonstrated for the world press in October of that year. (more info.)

Electric Man, by Perew

Contemporary automata continue this tradition with an emphasis on art, rather than technological sophistication. Some mechanized toys developed during the 18th and 19th centuries were automata made with paper. Despite the relative simplicity of the material, paper automata require a high degree of technical ingenuity.

In the 2011 film "Hugo", the title character, Hugo Cabret, must fix a "mechanical man" automaton, which he and his father tried to fix, believing it holds a secret message from the latter before his untimely death. Near the end of the film, it is revealed that the very same automaton was created by the character of George Méliès, which he later donated to the museum where Hugo's father worked, after he could not fix it himself.

Noble Studios, Mechanical Beetle

In England, the famous astrologer and mathematician John Dee designed a wooden beetle in 1543 that could actually fly. Noble Studios produced a modern steampunk version of a mechanical beetle. 

Radio Police Automaton, Gernsback

Radio Police Automaton from the May, 1924 issue of Hugo Gernsback's Science and Invention. Such a machine would seem to be exceedingly valuable to disperse mobs, or for war purposes and even for industrial purposes. Note the built-in tear-gas tank. Also the "loud-speaker used to shout orders to the mob." Mr Gernsback notes, "They will be well-nigh irresistible." (more info)

It is known that radio can be used today to produce mechanical effects at a distance. This new art is known as radio-telemechanics. Many years ago it was already possible to start and operate vehicles and machinery entirely by radio. The United States Navy a little over a year ago operated the warship "Iowa" entirely by radio. The firing of the boilers, the steering of the ship and all the controls were entirely effected by radio.

The Radio Automaton can be constructed by any one with means available today.The Radio Automaton contains the machinery which comprises a gasoline engine, a radio control cabinet, a telegraphone, a loud speaker, a gyroscope and other auxiliary apparatus. (more info)

Hugo Gernsback contributed significantly to the advancement of new technologies, such as Automaton and Robots. He was responsible for some of the greatest technical magazines published, and published many articles himself.  

Another such radio man was created by August Hueber, shown in Popular Science Magazine in April 1939. “Radio Man” WALKS, TALKS,AND YODELS.

Radio Man, Popular Science 

TOWERING seven feet high, a strange “radio man” has just been completed after ten years of arduous work by August Huber, a Swiss engineer. Beneath its jointed steel body, the gigantic mechanical man is a maze of automatic switches, relays, and other controls. Microphones within the automaton’s’ ears pick up spoken commands and carry them to an intricate system of twenty electric motors that make the fantastic creature walk, talk, sing, or yodel at the will of its master. Power for these various activities is supplied by batteries concealed in the ponderous legs. When this modern monster talks through the loudspeaker installed in its chest, its lips move in time with its speech. An ultra-short-wave receiver installed in its torso enables the “radio man” to follow orders transmitted to it by radio from remote points.

Today’s rapidly changing technology is set to transform the way we live in unimaginable ways, we should also remember that people thought much the same thing in earlier centuries - whether in the time of the clockwork revolution in the eighteenth century or as a result of the scientific advances of the Industrial Revolution in the Victorian era.

Efforts to imitate life by mechanical means fostered development of mechanical principles, which led to the production of more complex mechanisms. Today we build and program computers to perform even more amazing tasks.  In its own time, Automatons were a wonder that helped pave the way for the greater technological wonders that amaze us today.

Automata is its own culture.  The Automata Blog, has posts about the latest in Automata old and new, books, links, and wooden, paper and metal Automata by Doug North that can be purchased and made.(blog.dougnorth.com) Automatons can be purchased on Ebay. There's a lot to discover about these mechanical marvels and my cabinet of curiosities is fueled by the research nerd in me to gain the facts about my curio-ed obsessions, (hence the title, nerd version). To my delight, all this information and so much more about this is found online as my sources are sited below.

wooden pig

Catch up with what I'm doing with my artwork that's not automata related, but STONE, on my Facebook page "Stonewomynart". See my work in person in the member shows at the Touchstone Gallery, in Washington, D.C., and Glenview Mansion Arts Center in Rockville, MD until September 4, 2013.


Sources: Wikipedia.org Automaton;  Dark Roasted Blend Amazing Automatons; Cyberneticzoo Radio Police Automatons; bigredhair.com The Automatic Man; Modern Mechanix; Yesterday, Tomorrow,Today Radio Man.



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