Vespa, by Steven Parker and Anthony Lent is a prize-winning silver sculpture of a head whose eyes move in every directionĪs it looks for the sound of a wasp buzzing on its cranium. It was donated o the Institute of Sciences, and it escaped damage during the turmoil of the succeeding years. This exquisite sculpture is said to be a portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette, and was given to her by her husband, King Louis XVI, only a few years before they were both executed during the French Revolution. Sent me lovely photographs of its prize automaton, La Joueuse de Tympanon, or the Hammer Dulcimer Player, by David Roentgen and Peter Kintzing, and he and Jere Ryder helped me do the technical drawings and explain the movements. The Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, France, and its conservator, Jean-Luc Chazoule, We corresponded for months analyzing my drawings and preparing the explanatory text. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, allowed my to photograph the boy poet and draughtsman Automaton by Henri Maillardet, and its conservator,Ĭharles Penniman, helped immensely with the photography, and provided me with a detailed explanation of its movements. The Museum's conservator, Jere Ryder, provided beautiful photographs of the pieces, explained their mechanisms and corrected my drawings. Singing Bird automaton by Blaise Bontems. The Morris Museum in Morristown New Jersey, home of the world-famous Guinness Collection, offered the Flower Seller and Pig and Peasant, by Gustave Vichy The six Golden Age antique automata covered in Figures in the Fourth Dimension come from three main sources. While it would be impossible, in the space of the book, to offer detailed explanations of every kind of mechanism, several interesting ones are covered here,Īnd they solve the problems of mechanical movement in fascinating ways. So it is small wonder that to date, there have been no detailed analyses, technical drawings, or explanations as to how most of these automata functioned. The mechanical movements were hidden within pedestals or sealed into the bodies beautiful costumes and elaborate wigs covered the linkages in the bodies and heads. It is nearly impossible to obtain patent drawings for any but the simpler sort of figure.Įvery effort was made to conceal the mechanisms of these pieces. Patent drawings were rarely submitted, and when they were, they were incomplete and tended to misguide the viewer. So that access to them was possible only by forcibly breaking into the bodies and the backs of the skulls. Historically, automaton builders were notoriously secretive.Īutomaton studios, ateliers and factories often hid the mechanisms of the pieces they sold to the public by sealing them into the heads and bodies of the figures, With charm, verve and aplomb they did tricks, played musical instruments, They were exhibited to crowds of admiring and amazed viewers who paid to see these “androids” performing actions nearly identical to those of a real human being. The far more complicated “one off” pieces, like the works by Jacques Vaucanson, and later, Henri Maillardet, were toured widely, sometimes all over Europe, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The wealthy bourgeoisie, to delight their children and guests. The simpler automata of that time were intended as “jouets,” or elaborate and lovely toys, manufactured in quantity from proprietary designs, and bought by the newly prosperous middle class, Some were made as mechanical figures for clock towers, but as more and more fabrication shops opened, automata were made for collectors: Most of these beautifully crafted masterpieces were made in France, many were also made in Germany. These automata were mostly figurative, and imitated quite realistically the movements of humans and animals…and some animals acting like humans. Strong mainsprings turned the gears, cams and linkages created movement. Clockwork Automata: During the Golden Age of automata, mainly the 17th through the 19th Centuries, most automata were operated by clockwork.
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