Since the Greeks first told the myth of Pygmalion , who wished the statue he have a go at it would come to liveliness , it seems man has been prove to build a unadulterated replica of himself . Some would say we ’re getting closer to that possibility as computer engineering science evolve and the first try at artificial intelligence are developed . However , the same thing was sound out hundred ago when clockmakers — using little more than cogwheel , spring , cams , and lever — built complex machines , known as automatons , that could mime the action of humans to a startling degree . Here are just some of these early androids ( and even one duck ) that convinced much of the world that the robopocalypse was just around the corner .
The Three Automatons
Pierre Jaquet - Droz , his son Henri - Louis , and their business partner Jean - Frederic Leschot were Swiss horologist of especial talent who sell timekeeper to some of the full-bodied noblemen in Europe in the late 1700s and other 1800s . But their repute did n’t always go forward them , so they created " The Three Automatons " between 1768 and 1774 , and tour with them to entertain and impress prospective customer . After touring for a ten , the three automatons were eventually sell for 75'000 francs to the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire in Neuchatel , Switzerland , where they are still displayed and operated to this day .
The first isThe Draughtsman , a vernal male child made from about 2000 parts that is able of drawing pictures with the graphite pencil in his hand . His drawings , including a weenie , a dancing nobleman and adult female , Cupid drive a chariot commit by a butterfly , and a portrait of King Louis XV , are directed by a series of River Cam — rotate metal disks that move levers at a predetermined sentence and direction . As if that was n’t telling enough , his eyes follow his hand as it draws , he sometimes switch in his chair , and he even occasionally clean up the pencil to blow graphite detritus from the Thomas Nelson Page .
The Musicianis a female automaton , made using approximately 2500 parts , that can playact five different songs on her customs duty - made organ . Although it would be well-fixed to fake this effect by having a euphony box play under her while her hands but hover over the keystone , the watchmaker have her actually wreak the piano , come across the keys with her severally moving finger to create the right notes . While she plays , her head and eyes move to follow her hands , her breast amplify as she " breathes , " and she even gives a civilized bow between each Song dynasty .
With around 6000 function , the Writeris not only the most complex of the trio , but it also perhaps the most astounding in that he can be " program " to write a usage phrase up to 40 characters long , including appropriate spaces between Holy Scripture . However , the phrase he is currently set to write—“Les automates / Jaquet Droz / a neuchatel”—has not been altered in quite some time since it takes about eight hours to change . Like the Draughtsman , the Writer ’s eyes also adopt along as he writes , and he even dips his quill into a nearby inkwell , shaking it off just before drop a line so as not to dribble on the Thomas Nelson Page .
Japan’s Gadget Wizard
The Japanese fascination with robot croak back to the late 15thcentury when religious stage productions have modest , clockwork actor entertained follower in elaborated outdoors festivals . Eventually , thesekarakuri(Japanese for " gadget " ) made their elbow room into the home and became novelties , similar to our mechanical banks here in the West , only much more advanced .
Perhaps the most celebrated designer of these domestickarakuriwas Hisashige Tanaka , also know as Karakuri Giemon ( " The Gadget Wizard " ) . At the eld of 20 in 1819 , Tanaka was already designing and buildingkarakurilikeMojikaki ningyo(The Calligraphy Doll ) , a young man that could write four Chinese persona with brush and ink . While there were other writingkarakuriat the fourth dimension , Tanaka ’s was the only one that moved with such fluid , living - like movement . Tanaka ’s best - known automaton , though , wasYumihiki - doji(The Archer Doll ) . This automaton was a young son , dressed in an keen kimono , sit on a platform with a curtain call in his hand , next to a thrill of arrows . Upon energizing , he would calmly reach over and take the first pointer , score it to the bowstring , pull back his bow , and fervor , rack up a separate mark some distance away.(Below , The Calligraphy Doll is shown on the left field ; the Archer Doll is on the right . )
While these appliance were incredible , Tanaka earned his other nickname , The Thomas Edison of Japan , by introducing many raw technologies to his countrymen . Among his most famous inventions is the first Nipponese steam engine , built primarily using a Dutch reference manual , followed soon by the first steam - powered warship . He also choke on to receive the first telegraph equipment company in Japan , which would later on become the global pot known as Toshiba .
The Digesting Duck
Plagued with digestive problems for much of his life , Jacques de Vaucanson used automatons to not only entertain , but also to aid further the sympathy of bodily functions . His enthrallment with mechanical men start out at a young years when he built a group of androids that were able to serve dinner and remove the table as a peculiar treat for a church building panjandrum visit the monastery Vaucanson attended for school day . While the dignitary was first impressed by the motorcar , he by and by call them profane and ordered Vaucanson ’s shop be destroyed . Not surprisingly , Vaucanson soon left the order and impinge on out on his own to continue his research into the compounding of piece and political machine .
The first automaton that really put him on the map wasThe Flute Player , build in 1738 . Not only was the shape unusually tall — spirit - sized at 5'6"—but it could actually recreate its instrument . Nine Solomon Bellow hooked to three separate pipe leading up into the chest , all joined together to make a central pipework that was connect at the mouth , actually " breathe " into the flute . The three exercise set of bellows even had specially calibrated weights attached to help produce the right amount of air needed to make dramatic changes in book . Furthermore , the lips could open and close , and move backwards and forwards , to utilise dissimilar location to the flute to provide even more personality to the line . lastly , thin leather encased seven severally moving fingerbreadth that shroud the correct holes to encounter the 12 songs it recognise .
But Vaucanson ’s chef-d’oeuvre , the complete combination of his fascination with bodily map and mechanically skillful life , wasThe Digesting Duck . build in 1739 , the duck’s egg was an golem roost atop a magniloquent pedestal ; it could squish in water , quack , undefendable and close its wing , and , when a grain of barley was offer by a human hired man , could stretch out its neck and take the seed . It would then swallow the barley and , a few moments subsequently , expel what appeared to be the digested source out its tush . While there are some who conceive this was a magic — there was a second sleeping room in the duck ’s bowels that was filled with compressed grass clippings — others believed the duck unfeignedly did digest its meals .
Only a few years later , Vaucanson trade off his automatons to focus on his new career as the point of silk yield for King Louis XV , a production he revolutionized thanks to his design for a mechanical loom . unhappily , this career change means the fate of his automatons have been lose to chronicle . There are now and then some Digesting Ducks that crop up with owners claim them to be the echt item , but upon examination they are find to be cagey copies by contemporaries of Vaucanson . The original Duck is plausibly cash in one’s chips forever .
Here ’s a video of a written matter of the Digesting Duck to give you some estimation of how it might have worked :
“Monkbot”
In 1562 , 17 - yr - old Don Carlos , the successor apparent to King Philip II ’s throne , fell down a flight of stairs and sustained a severe head wound . bottom - ridden for month , the young man suffered seizure and encephalon swelling and was even strike blind before finally falling into a comatoseness . Philip II call in the best doctors from across the country , who offered up the well - known remedies of the day . Nothing worked , and it appear the young prince would die .
heroic , Philip promise for a monastic name Diego de Alcala ( who would subsequently be the namesake of San Diego , California ) . This was an strange request , since Diego had been dead for about 100 years . However , it was believed that this holy humankind ’s cadaver could execute healing miracles , so Philip decide it was worth a endeavor . When they laid the Thelonious Monk ’s consistence in the bed next to Don Carlos , Philip asked God for a miracle and , in exchange , forebode to perform a miracle of his own in God ’s laurels . The next morning , Don Carlos arouse up , reporting that a monk had come into the room and speak to him in the night , guarantee him that he would recover .
To honor his agreement with God , Philip commission a illustrious clocksmith , Juanelo Turriano , to create a wind - up automaton in the form of Saint Diego . The 15 - inches - tall wood and iron android in a fabric robe could take the air , change state and crouch its foreland , raise a cross in one hand , beat its pectus with the other , while the mouth opened and closed as though say " mea culpa . "
It ’s moot if this was , in fact , a miracle , rather than just good quondam human cleverness . But what is a miracle is that the Monkbot has survived . It has been stored at the Smithsonian Institute since 1977 , though it rarely makes public visual aspect anymore . Unfortunately , Don Carlos ' fate was not as cheery . Despite waking up and seeming to make a full recovery , the head hurt changed the already badly - tempered prince for the worst . Carlos became completely mentally mentally ill , to the point where his own male parent locked him away six year later ; he died in lonely lying-in .
