Writing automaton from the 1700s

[J. Clarke]

This is really cool:

<http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton>

[Robert Bannister]

On 27/08/2015 8:21 am, J. Clarke wrote:
>
> This is really cool:
>
> <http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton>
>

It may not obey the Three Laws, but it really is astonishing.

--
Robert Bannister
Perth, Western Australia

[William December Starr]

In article <MPG.304822133...@news.eternal-september.org>,

"J. Clarke" <j.clark...@gmail.com> said:

> This is really cool:
>
> <http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton>

1. I'm really glad that the narrator told us that the doll was
supposed to be a boy.

2. Who is this guy, anyway?

3. "And the aim was, I think, mechanize reason and automate the
passions." Whereas I think the clockmaker was just showing off.

-- wds

[Scott Lurndal]

"J. Clarke" <j.clark...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>This is really cool:
>
><http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton>

Did you not see the excellent film _Hugo_ which features
an automaton that writes?

http://www.omgfacts.com/hollywood/11536/The-Automaton-from-the-movie-Hugo-was-real-and-actually-worked-ab630-1

[pete...@gmail.com]

I didn't know that. Looking further, though, it's not quite as impressive.

Here's how it actually worked.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/27/entertainment/la-ca-working-hollywood-20111127

TL,DNR: It's not CGI, but they cheated. The gear work inside the doll is
just for show, and does not contribute to the drawing. The pen and arm are
actually pulled across the paper by magnets underneath the drawing board, moved
around by X/Y stepper motors, like a conventional pen plotter.

The Pierre Jaquet-Droz automata (he actually made 3; a musician, an artist, and
the writer) OTOH, were fully mechanical, and operated by cams and gears inside
the bodies.

...and 240 years before the Hugo movie was made.

pt

[J. Clarke]

In article <EuFDx.1243$zJ1...@fx21.iad>, sc...@slp53.sl.home says...

Yes, I did, but this one is real.

[patmp...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 8:16:14 PM UTC-4, J. Clarke wrote:
> This is really cool:
>
> <http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton>

Automata are major characters in Girl Genius comics.

[Robert Carnegie]

Yeah - well... there isn't a dividing line there
between "unusually capable pocket-watch" and "cute
clockwork android that plays chess" and giant
terrifying war machine". Plus "artificial
intelligence".

However, we're told that the "games machine" has a
dwarf hiding inside to operate it. (Like "The Turk",
except dwarf.)

But it doesn't.