I don't see why this is dying out. I know it's not the tech we have today. But you can't take your eyes off of these,regardless how old they are now. True craftsmanship.
It's not "dying out". It evolved. When everything is purely mechanical, it becomes more probe to wear and tear. It becomes less precise and more inefficient. It takes far more material and space. The only reason you like it is because these are rarer. If these are still being used today, most of you would ask why are these primitive things being used when there is modern tech available.
The short answer is the same reason mechanical watchmaking is a dying art. Everything has gone to programmable electronic systems (electronic quartz watches, in analogy) vs. the much, _much_ harder to do mechanical "programming". To achieve the same effects of a modern robot using traditional clockwork is a monumental effort requiring highly specialized niche skills.
@Zypher S. You're both right and wrong. Computers are not mechanical, by definition, but they do _simulate_ mechanical action. The point here is that it's much, much more difficult to do any particular set of complex automaton actions mechanically, vs. with modern computerized robotics. It's both very fast and very simple with modern computers to program movements for a series of interconnected servos to carry out. I'm no expert there, but I studied computer science and programming in school, and spent some time working in IT in the 2000s. It's quite something else in terms of time and skills to engineer the equivalent stuff 100% mechanically (including all the calculations and custom fabrication of parts; adjustments, etc). I've been a watchmaker for some decades now, I know what I'm talking about. Just as it's easy to produce all manner of complications in a watch with electronic quartz tech, and quite difficult -- or rather, very time consuming and requiring a set of highly specialized niche skills -- to accomplish the same things by purely mechanical means. Also why you can get modern quartz digital or analog watches with a million functions for dirt cheap these days, while mechanical ones of half the complexity are far more expensive to produce, repair and maintain -- and that's even when working off standardized plans with precision-made, mass produced parts you can swap in and out. Imagine automatons like this which are one of a kind and everything had to be calculated by hand, every part hand fabricated, hand fit, etc. To equate mechanical engineering in these fields of complex clockwork with computer programming, and to equate these clockwork automatons with modern electronic animatronics is kind of a fallacy IMO. There are very few people who can still do the classic kind of totally custom mechanical engineering. That's why it's a dying art.
This art deserves to come back. I love devices that fall under categories related to having complex moving parts to perform a task (mostly clocks, engines, and other devices and machines). Automata has a fascination of its own, since it's basically the earliest forms of robots and are completely mechanical. They're beautiful ⚙️
Just for your interest. 0:29 th-cam.com/users/shortsV9IaKZRGEy4?si=T0hPyNsdgpkaYAjf th-cam.com/users/shorts5Ja9BmU3gtw?si=uZPOLxQOdg0ubgG7 The Cutest robots I ever seen! The MaSiRo Robot Maids. Very creative! Some of the craft is slowly coming back in electronics and computers. I also love the old craft as well.
I tried my hand at making a simple sand powered automoton as my final project for high school shop class. My mom still has it on dysplay and it still works 36 years later.
I know what you’re saying but this isn’t the case. The narrator hugely simplifies the mechanics in this documentary. These things are WAY more complicated than a cog. Look at the structure underneath most of them. It’s a huge clockwork setup under there with cams, pushrods, custom stuff all over the machinery underneath the moving object itself (the characters, props, etc). These are amazing and terrifying at the same time. Absolutely awesome but really unsettling too.
Seriously? These things are incredible simple! You don't even need training to study this, just basic logic and understanding of the SIMPLEST mechanics. Developing programs and computers takes far more intelligence and effort. But I see people today are more "oooh moving parts! how cool! so hard to dooo"
Sometimes mechanisms with many animated parts can be surprisingly simple, like a wheel pulling at threads and things moved by pendulums at different speeds. E.g. there are wooden toys with many animated figures mounted on top of a board, and underneath dangles only a pendulum that pulls the bunch of threads by shaking the toy sideways.
Go look at a car camshaft. Then make it miles more complicated. Go look at one of those music boxes, they were still around in the early 90s. Now combine the 2 concepts.
The significance of the automata with swappable cams is very understated here, basically they're programmable machines. If you swap cams for code and the automaton for an industrial robot, it's basically the same principle.
I'm glad I saw this comment..finally someone who gets it ..I have multiple coworkers IV tried explaining this concept to, to no avail..modern tech has made many forget that all the modern stuff we have no are direct descendants of early machines and brilliance like this...sad but good to know theres still people out there who understand ; )
My hometown had 2 life sized hillbilly animatronics in the museum. When I was a kid one would still talk. I think they are still there, just not in working order. They were both creepy and cool. Especially for being in a tiny town with less than 2000 people
@@clydedenby1436 Lepanto, AR. I don't live there now of course. If you're into John Grisham novels they filmed "A Painter House" there... And a couple of miles down the road is the town Johnny Cash grew up in.
@@angr3819 The expensive automata often were fairground attractions for earning money like arcade machines. Others (often with precious materials) were made to entertain aristocrats and also costed as much as a house.
I'm someone who is immensely captivated by anything mechanical from antiquity and these astounding automata are some of the finest examples. I would love to own any one these from the 1920 and older.
I've been binging on automaton documentaries all day, and this is the best one I've seen yet! Truly stunning work... so incredibly complex and wonderful! Cheers from Louisiana, US!
Have you watched Clockwork Dreams? You probably have by now, but if not, then I suggest that you check it out as soon as you can! It's an amazing documentary that goes into the tiny clockwork machinery that they utilised back then about 300years ago. As well as the slave labour and the role these automata played in mocking the upper classes. "Vive la révolution"!
Wish this museum was still open. There's 4 automotan models in our local museum in Sheffield- Weston park. Also went to a great automotan travelling exhibition in Holyhead, Angelsey with a Terry Gilliam automata- excellent. I love them.
@@mattsmocs3281 A Japanese businessman literally bought the entire York automata museum and took it back home with him in 1996. The collection is now privately owned by the Hitachi corporation. I was crushed, it used to be a favourite place to visit.
I hate that I find these really cool because they absolutely terrify me but I'm just in love with the way it works and how they move. I'm sure if we made really cute versions it would be awesome! Like maybe a cute animal crossing characters doing their daily stretch would be adorable. The little lute is just the best. I want oneee
Not so sure, I've yet to see an in-the-round automaton or robot of the past several years that successfully blurred the line. At this point, more eerie (and troublesome) to me are video deepfakes.
@@hd-xc2lz in my opinion, things like deep fakes don’t give me as weird of a feeling as some of these. I can almost see them as real. The definition is literally “relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object.”
Truly magnificent. The Black Forest in Bavaria is (or-it--was) no fairytale. The magic and beauty of it - I don't think that any mere words can truly describe. When I think of atomata or 'animation' I can't help but think of my life there. The internationally famous 'Coo'Coo' clocks were just magnificent to shop. Just like the above examples of minute and intricate goings-on all surrounding a little medieval lodge or cottage were incredible. After I'd re- turned to the States, my father sent me an absolutely beautiful one. But unfortunately, I was always one of those kids that just had to know how things worked, - and yeah, like everything else I took it completely apart. It was probably 6 out of 10 things I dismantled that never got reassembled again. My clock sadly was not one of the remaining 4 😑. In this video, I'd have to say that I think I liked best the music boxes made in France that showed the little song-bird suddenly emerging and singing those delightful tunes, while dancing around, - then suddenly disappearing just as fast.
Simply incredible. The complexity of these automotons just blows me away! I guess you could say that these creations are the precursors of the robots we have today. Priceless artifacts of a bygone age. 🤗
I have always loved automata for the humor and emotion it can display. It takes one to a time of innocence, innovation and wonder. Thank you for posting this!
I have always been facinated by artificial means of motion - Animation in cinema, Automatons, Animatronics, Zoetropes and Kinetoscopes. The first time I can remember seeing a automaton was in the original 1972 film "Sleuth" with Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine and featured a laughing sailor automaton appropriately named "Laughing Jack" along with other nameless ones. I loved them then and still do. There is also an artist (can't recall his name) who makes these elaborate wooden structures that are huge, and beautiful and walk on the beach assisted by the wind.
These are wonderful! I love the style of the older French ones best. You have to be an artist and a mechanical engineer to make these. Not a usual combination of talents.
I may have made a mistake watching this as I lay here in bed about to sleep....... I've seen this pop up on my feed for a while now and of course I would choose now to watch it.
Fascinating!! I'm about to start watchmaking school and this gives me so many ideas to use the skills I learn there. I literally sat with my mouth agape during much of this!😯
Do now, learn later. My grandfather, now deceased, owned and operated a jewelry store from the 1950's to 2013. He died at 91 years and was repairing the inner workings of windup watches up to his dying day. Make this a lifelong journey.
@@atlantic_love I love this, thanks for taking the time to write. that is how I see this, a gateway into another world of creativity that will keep me learning for the rest of my life. I'm incredibly excited, it's only on the grace of a friend that I'm even able to move away from my current situation and start school. A life improvement a long time coming.
Superbe, magnifique, grandiose. Je suis émerveillé par ces petites machines construite avec génie. Je n'arrive pas à comprendre qu'elles soient devenues désuètes, les machines d'aujourd'hui ne sont pas aussi belle ni faites avec autant de minutie. C'est magique. Merci c'était passionnant.
That was so fascinating! I had no idea these pieces of art existed. I have always liked wooden and wind up toys. You don't need batteries to operate them, and they last longer.
As a connoisseur of old automatic mechanical music machines, I had my hands on restoring quite a number of these. my favorite was Dancing Albert a musicless mechanical epigene of Prince Albert husband of Queen Victoria in his Balmoral Scottish attire but Albert was missing pretty much all his royal regalia and his mechanism was stuck I removed his spring mechanism cleaned it and emerged it in thin oil for a day since nothing I did made it run but this did the trick then I re-married Albert with his box and mechanism and I started to fabricate all the regalia including a missing sporran for his kilt. I also had to glue fix and retouch his face with paint since it partially had flaked off. after that Albert went to auction and sold for 500 euros to a British buyer even though I bought him for just 10 euros at a flea market since he didn't work and looked awful.
I'm surprised this comment didn't find much attention. Props to you and your wonderful trade! That must've felt truly spectacular when you finally got it to run! You must have a multitude of talents to walk away with such a profit too. How did you fall into that trade originally?
This is what happens when more than one clockmaker are living in the same area. One of them flex's on the other one, out of spite, by making a mechanical thats so complex that other clockmaker is bound to move out from being defeated
Simply amazing....the fact some were made couple hundred years ago show the determination, and imagination of people with endless time on their hands unlike today.
When I was 13 , I took the cuckoo bird out of my dads cuckoo clock and replaced it with a tiny plastic dinosaur . About 3 weeks went by before anyone in my house noticed it !!! Lol
It is about set and setting. Nowadays people unfortunately barely see them in other places than horror movies, and that's how they are perceived. But windup toys or musicboxes with almost unwound spring sometimes start by themselves by a small jerk, which can be scary.
I'm simultaneously fascinated and terrified. Quite ingenious, but creepy too--I think it's that "uncanny valley" effect. Either way, very interesting. Thank you for posting this!
it definitely is the uncanny valley effect, the automatons are very similar to humans but also too different from us. to me it seems like many of the artists who constructed these automaton's didn't really quite get what it was actually about and ended up trying to recreate actual life with their machines instead of displaying mastery over mechanical engineering.
I actually learned about automata from my computer science course . In Fact the touring machine (our modern computers) has its origins in a simple automaton. I am very exited to learn more about their principles
The people that made these have to be pretty a pretty driven lot -- possibly as odd as their pieces. What were some of these people like, and what drove them to create in this way? Was it the mechanism and math, the journey of craft, a horrible spouse, bored in prison, a pub or pride bet, front for a secret spy-gadget business? I think there's an interesting people-story here.
2 ปีที่แล้ว +18
In the 19th century, automatons were fascinating animated sculptures that were exhibited in bourgeois salons.
And Dayton's in Minneapolis, to calm the children who were having their first hair cuts. I screamed my 2 year old lungs out. I could smell the moldy rust in them too. Even more horrifying were the JAMBOREE BEARS, who stood 10 feet tall, and reeked of mold. These are very unique. Thank you for this wonderful film!
Simply that they were intelligent and could make them. They sold for a lot of money. Also as the narrator said, some were prisoners who made and traded them.
I don't see this art form Dying, but its definitely Changed over to new technology. For Example, I believe Battlebots or motorized toys classify as Automata depending on what they are programmed to do. That being said, to see history in mechanical engineering is nothing short of incredible.
This is really amazing. A good book on the topic is "Edison's Eve", which gives some historical background. Basically, this was the AI of its day. The Japanese figures are known as "Karakuri Ningyo" i.e."Trick dolls".
Yes, I remember my Aunt & Uncle used to have this, Bartender, making cocktails automoton that was really cute and interesting, when I was a boy in the late 60's! Don't know what happened to it.
If anyone is interested in checking out a fantastic collection of automaton toys, coin banks, store displays, etc., look up The House on the Rock in Wisconsin. Thousands of them from the early to mid 1900's.
I adore Automata! The watch/wind mechanism ones are my favorite. The human doesn't have to do much, except set the motion up and watch ! I cannot afford them, but some simple ones or kits would be a way. TY for posting ! 🤖🤖🤖🤖
Several years ago I visited the town of York, and my Danish ancestors. The body in the Viking Museum could have been me (same size, and Danish), but I never realized this Museum, close to the tower, which I did visit!
If you're hoping to visit this unique and wonderful museum, unfortunately you're about 28 years too late. It closed in 1996, and is now a pool hall, apparently.
Remember. This is basically how robots came about. It would be neat if the museum does a follow up to that showing how these lead into what we know today. Just more uncanny valley creations that can move about by themselves a bit
To be called an automaton, an old phrase, means in modern standards to not be able to step outside your programming. Unable to use critical thought in other words. So interesting where the words comes from and what it means.
I adore automata and kinetic sculpture... I paint watercolors and at 62 I finally have all the time I need ! Another fascinating area is jig dolls and primitive carved wooden toys..my love of simple automata began when my mother bought a carousel apparatus for my sister birthday cake that was moved by the lighting (rising hot air to a to mounted "wheel" at the top that caused movement from the riding heat of the candles to move the tin shapes below ..
04-23-2022 12:48 a.m. nyc Thanx for posting !! That was fun. My mom (age 94) has a 1901 Regina music box. And I was reminded of a trip ~52? years ago~ that included a visit to "Clark's Trading Post," (SC, I think) which had not only music boxes but also "orchestrons" that combined player pianos with automated drums, bells, trumpets and violins as accompaniment. It also reminds me of Scorsese's movie "Hugo," with *its* complex automaton serving as a bridge between 19th c. stage-magic and 20th c. early moviemaking via the work of George Melies.
2 ปีที่แล้ว +2
Hello, Thank you for talking about the film "Hugo Cabret" because our company provided automatons for the decoration of Georges Méliès' shop when he was selling toys in a Parisian station. We also loaned images concerning the Jaquet-Droz's androids for one of the bonuses of the DVD of this film.
Did you hear about the destruction and theft of countless ancient artifacts in Iraq by their own people? That's just one example. Yes these were extremist's but maybe if they were brought to the British museum we could still appreciate these items but these Babylonian treasures are gone forever. To me the protection of invaluable historical artifacts for the enjoyment of future generations is more important than who owns it or where these items are kept. At the end of the day we are all just care takers in this short life and I know that the British will take good care of these automatons so I don't worry about it.
What a wondefull upload! Facinating how Hero' was so advanced in Automatons, but why not? The Antikythera Mechanism was even older, I went to see it in Athens 2 years ago.
I don't see why this is dying out. I know it's not the tech we have today. But you can't take your eyes off of these,regardless how old they are now. True craftsmanship.
I feel like, with computers, they would be easier to design now. The parts could be made with a 3D printer.
It's not "dying out". It evolved. When everything is purely mechanical, it becomes more probe to wear and tear. It becomes less precise and more inefficient. It takes far more material and space.
The only reason you like it is because these are rarer. If these are still being used today, most of you would ask why are these primitive things being used when there is modern tech available.
th-cam.com/video/s4iBejhobAI/w-d-xo.html
The short answer is the same reason mechanical watchmaking is a dying art. Everything has gone to programmable electronic systems (electronic quartz watches, in analogy) vs. the much, _much_ harder to do mechanical "programming". To achieve the same effects of a modern robot using traditional clockwork is a monumental effort requiring highly specialized niche skills.
@Zypher S. You're both right and wrong. Computers are not mechanical, by definition, but they do _simulate_ mechanical action. The point here is that it's much, much more difficult to do any particular set of complex automaton actions mechanically, vs. with modern computerized robotics. It's both very fast and very simple with modern computers to program movements for a series of interconnected servos to carry out. I'm no expert there, but I studied computer science and programming in school, and spent some time working in IT in the 2000s. It's quite something else in terms of time and skills to engineer the equivalent stuff 100% mechanically (including all the calculations and custom fabrication of parts; adjustments, etc).
I've been a watchmaker for some decades now, I know what I'm talking about. Just as it's easy to produce all manner of complications in a watch with electronic quartz tech, and quite difficult -- or rather, very time consuming and requiring a set of highly specialized niche skills -- to accomplish the same things by purely mechanical means. Also why you can get modern quartz digital or analog watches with a million functions for dirt cheap these days, while mechanical ones of half the complexity are far more expensive to produce, repair and maintain -- and that's even when working off standardized plans with precision-made, mass produced parts you can swap in and out.
Imagine automatons like this which are one of a kind and everything had to be calculated by hand, every part hand fabricated, hand fit, etc.
To equate mechanical engineering in these fields of complex clockwork with computer programming, and to equate these clockwork automatons with modern electronic animatronics is kind of a fallacy IMO. There are very few people who can still do the classic kind of totally custom mechanical engineering. That's why it's a dying art.
watching this with a cold before i go to sleep its fever dream time
im here with a flu too
That’s what’s up
This art deserves to come back. I love devices that fall under categories related to having complex moving parts to perform a task (mostly clocks, engines, and other devices and machines). Automata has a fascination of its own, since it's basically the earliest forms of robots and are completely mechanical. They're beautiful ⚙️
pinball................. late 80s 90s
@@raymondo162emotion has that effect, it seeps through even vast layers of veneer until seeming at odds with its environment.
Just for your interest.
0:29
th-cam.com/users/shortsV9IaKZRGEy4?si=T0hPyNsdgpkaYAjf
th-cam.com/users/shorts5Ja9BmU3gtw?si=uZPOLxQOdg0ubgG7
The Cutest robots I ever seen! The MaSiRo Robot Maids. Very creative!
Some of the craft is slowly coming back in electronics and computers.
I also love the old craft as well.
th-cam.com/users/shortsGEZ3t48IaBQ?si=FN9L6fh6hBpnn_h1
I tried my hand at making a simple sand powered automoton as my final project for high school shop class. My mom still has it on dysplay and it still works 36 years later.
I still can't wrap my head around how those complex movements are guided by uniquely shaped cogs
That's because you're just a fish.
I know what you’re saying but this isn’t the case. The narrator hugely simplifies the mechanics in this documentary. These things are WAY more complicated than a cog. Look at the structure underneath most of them. It’s a huge clockwork setup under there with cams, pushrods, custom stuff all over the machinery underneath the moving object itself (the characters, props, etc). These are amazing and terrifying at the same time. Absolutely awesome but really unsettling too.
Seriously? These things are incredible simple! You don't even need training to study this, just basic logic and understanding of the SIMPLEST mechanics. Developing programs and computers takes far more intelligence and effort. But I see people today are more "oooh moving parts! how cool! so hard to dooo"
Sometimes mechanisms with many animated parts can be surprisingly simple, like a wheel pulling at threads and things moved by pendulums at different speeds. E.g. there are wooden toys with many animated figures mounted on top of a board, and underneath dangles only a pendulum that pulls the bunch of threads by shaking the toy sideways.
Go look at a car camshaft. Then make it miles more complicated. Go look at one of those music boxes, they were still around in the early 90s. Now combine the 2 concepts.
Exquisite craftmanship,&masterpieces...❤
The significance of the automata with swappable cams is very understated here, basically they're programmable machines. If you swap cams for code and the automaton for an industrial robot, it's basically the same principle.
I gots to get me one of those dope smoking monkeys
I'm glad I saw this comment..finally someone who gets it ..I have multiple coworkers IV tried explaining this concept to, to no avail..modern tech has made many forget that all the modern stuff we have no are direct descendants of early machines and brilliance like this...sad but good to know theres still people out there who understand ; )
My grandma used to have a little music box that had an automaton bird that would dance. I loved that little bird.
They are truly amazing. What happened to it? If you search for Bird automaton you will see some amazing ones. Worth quite a lot of money too.
My hometown had 2 life sized hillbilly animatronics in the museum. When I was a kid one would still talk. I think they are still there, just not in working order. They were both creepy and cool. Especially for being in a tiny town with less than 2000 people
I'm intrigued. What town?
@@clydedenby1436 Lepanto, AR. I don't live there now of course. If you're into John Grisham novels they filmed "A Painter House" there... And a couple of miles down the road is the town Johnny Cash grew up in.
I never get tired of watching Automatons they were fascination as a child and still are.
They were so expensive they were for the amusement of adults. Children were not usually allowed to touch them in case they overused or danger them.
@@angr3819 The expensive automata often were fairground attractions for earning money like arcade machines. Others (often with precious materials) were made to entertain aristocrats and also costed as much as a house.
There's a doco on TH-cam of a young woman who RESTORES ones bought by wealthy American collectors.
I'm someone who is immensely captivated by anything mechanical from antiquity and these astounding automata are some of the finest examples. I would love to own any one these from the 1920 and older.
I've been binging on automaton documentaries all day, and this is the best one I've seen yet! Truly stunning work... so incredibly complex and wonderful!
Cheers from Louisiana, US!
Hello, thank you very much for your comment.
Cheers Lu!
The swan at the Bowes Lyon museum in the U.K is just incredible to see it in person.
Have you watched Clockwork Dreams?
You probably have by now, but if not, then I suggest that you check it out as soon as you can!
It's an amazing documentary that goes into the tiny clockwork machinery that they utilised back then about 300years ago. As well as the slave labour and the role these automata played in mocking the upper classes. "Vive la révolution"!
@@nickthelick thanks for the recommendation!
The laughing man towards the end made me think of the laughing lady outside the fun house at Lakeside Amusement Park. I was terrified of her.
Hey that’s cool I remember that lady, wow what a flashback thanks
Wish this museum was still open. There's 4 automotan models in our local museum in Sheffield- Weston park.
Also went to a great automotan travelling exhibition in Holyhead, Angelsey with a Terry Gilliam automata- excellent. I love them.
Its gone?
@@mattsmocs3281 A Japanese businessman literally bought the entire York automata museum and took it back home with him in 1996. The collection is now privately owned by the Hitachi corporation. I was crushed, it used to be a favourite place to visit.
@@tommcewan7936 I went there in the early nineties. Absolutely fascinating collection. Sad to hear about it not being there now😢
@@tommcewan7936 How sad is that. Something as wonderous as automata needs to be shared with everyone from every walk of life, not just by the rich.
I hate that I find these really cool because they absolutely terrify me but I'm just in love with the way it works and how they move. I'm sure if we made really cute versions it would be awesome! Like maybe a cute animal crossing characters doing their daily stretch would be adorable. The little lute is just the best. I want oneee
As much as I love these things, you have to admit that we’re deep in the uncanny valley.
Not so sure, I've yet to see an in-the-round automaton or robot of the past several years that successfully blurred the line. At this point, more eerie (and troublesome) to me are video deepfakes.
@@hd-xc2lz masks also
Yes indeed, this helps stock up the deep realms of the brain for future nightmare imagery.
@@hd-xc2lz in my opinion, things like deep fakes don’t give me as weird of a feeling as some of these. I can almost see them as real. The definition is literally “relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object.”
Lisa... uncanny valley 👍🏆
Truly magnificent. The Black Forest in Bavaria is (or-it--was) no fairytale.
The magic and beauty of it - I don't think that any mere words can truly describe. When I think of atomata or 'animation' I can't help but think of my life there. The internationally famous 'Coo'Coo' clocks were just magnificent
to shop. Just like the above examples
of minute and intricate goings-on all surrounding a little medieval lodge or cottage were incredible. After I'd re-
turned to the States, my father sent me an absolutely beautiful one.
But unfortunately, I was always one
of those kids that just had to know
how things worked, - and yeah, like everything else I took it completely
apart. It was probably 6 out of 10
things I dismantled that never got
reassembled again. My clock sadly was not one of the remaining 4 😑.
In this video, I'd have to say that I think I liked best the music boxes made in France that showed the little song-bird suddenly emerging and singing those delightful tunes, while dancing around, - then suddenly disappearing just as fast.
Simply incredible. The complexity of these automotons just blows me away! I guess you could say that these creations are the precursors of the robots we have today. Priceless artifacts of a bygone age. 🤗
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
I have always loved automata for the humor and emotion it can display. It takes one to a time of innocence, innovation and wonder.
Thank you for posting this!
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
I have always been facinated by artificial means of motion - Animation in cinema, Automatons, Animatronics, Zoetropes and Kinetoscopes. The first time I can remember seeing a automaton was in the original 1972 film "Sleuth" with Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine and featured a laughing sailor automaton appropriately named "Laughing Jack" along with other nameless ones. I loved them then and still do. There is also an artist (can't recall his name) who makes these elaborate wooden structures that are huge, and beautiful and walk on the beach assisted by the wind.
I have the phobia of these so this documentary was deeply unsettling but even despite that I can appreciate the engineering in them 😊
These are wonderful! I love the style of the older French ones best. You have to be an artist and a mechanical engineer to make these. Not a usual combination of talents.
I may have made a mistake watching this as I lay here in bed about to sleep....... I've seen this pop up on my feed for a while now and of course I would choose now to watch it.
What a wonderful mechanical engineering without electricity. I love mechanical engineering and it's craftsmanship. Amazing.
Fascinating!! I'm about to start watchmaking school and this gives me so many ideas to use the skills I learn there. I literally sat with my mouth agape during much of this!😯
Do now, learn later. My grandfather, now deceased, owned and operated a jewelry store from the 1950's to 2013. He died at 91 years and was repairing the inner workings of windup watches up to his dying day. Make this a lifelong journey.
These are all stunning, but check out the automatons by the old jewelry houses.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
@@atlantic_love I love this, thanks for taking the time to write. that is how I see this, a gateway into another world of creativity that will keep me learning for the rest of my life. I'm incredibly excited, it's only on the grace of a friend that I'm even able to move away from my current situation and start school. A life improvement a long time coming.
@@5DNRG will do!
Superbe, magnifique, grandiose. Je suis émerveillé par ces petites machines construite avec génie. Je n'arrive pas à comprendre qu'elles soient devenues désuètes, les machines d'aujourd'hui ne sont pas aussi belle ni faites avec autant de minutie.
C'est magique. Merci c'était passionnant.
That was so fascinating! I had no idea these pieces of art existed. I have always liked wooden and wind up toys. You don't need batteries to operate them, and they last longer.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
This was the most entertaining video I've watched in ages 😂 very professionally done and amazing to watch
This museum has got to be the last place on earth that you would want to be trapped in overnight .
I was just thinking the very same thing!
😅
Next Night at the museum?
Thank you for gathering those fascinating dolls together
Automatons , not dolls. The difference is significant.
my bad it was a understatement,triggering a whole lot of programmed action without electricity is pretty mindblowing and just with a simple touch.
So much more interesting and creepy than digital stuff!
The tiny birds are just amazing
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
As a connoisseur of old automatic mechanical music machines, I had my hands on restoring quite a number of these.
my favorite was Dancing Albert a musicless mechanical epigene of Prince Albert husband of Queen Victoria in his Balmoral Scottish attire but Albert was missing pretty much all his royal regalia and his mechanism was stuck I removed his spring mechanism cleaned it and emerged it in thin oil for a day since nothing I did made it run but this did the trick then I re-married Albert with his box and mechanism and I started to fabricate all the regalia including a missing sporran for his kilt.
I also had to glue fix and retouch his face with paint since it partially had flaked off.
after that Albert went to auction and sold for 500 euros to a British buyer even though I bought him for just 10 euros at a flea market since he didn't work and looked awful.
I'm surprised this comment didn't find much attention. Props to you and your wonderful trade! That must've felt truly spectacular when you finally got it to run! You must have a multitude of talents to walk away with such a profit too. How did you fall into that trade originally?
I have always wanted one of those bird boxes! So pretty and realistic!
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
Same here. That ladies necessities box was amazing!
So cool I wish I was talented enough to make these. Thanks for the vid!
This is what happens when more than one clockmaker are living in the same area. One of them flex's on the other one, out of spite, by making a mechanical thats so complex that other clockmaker is bound to move out from being defeated
Simply amazing....the fact some were made couple hundred years ago show the determination, and imagination of people with endless time on their hands unlike today.
It wasn’t endless time. It was endless money from the wealthy, who would pay big bucks to have a fancier one than anybody else.
we will look back on smartphones and TH-cam in the exact same way far from now.
The Baltimore American Visionary Art Museum has an awesome permanent exhibit of Automata as well!
I hope this place is still open!
The potato eater intrigues me. Even slowing the video down and pausing it, I still couldn't figure it out.
this is great documentary
When I was 13 , I took the cuckoo bird out of my dads cuckoo clock and replaced it with a tiny plastic dinosaur . About 3 weeks went by before anyone in my house noticed it !!! Lol
That’s hilarious and brilliant! 😅
😅😅😅😅
You are mischievous !!
I honestly don’t find these to be terrifying. I think they are sweet in their own way.
It is about set and setting. Nowadays people unfortunately barely see them in other places than horror movies, and that's how they are perceived. But windup toys or musicboxes with almost unwound spring sometimes start by themselves by a small jerk, which can be scary.
thank you so much to the museum for showing us this beautiful 🤩 film 🎥 🎞 of beautiful arts 🎭
I’d Hate to imagine how long it took to think up, draw blueprints , and actually make one of these things. Only a Master Mechanical Engineer.
Look up on François Junod...
its not that hard really if you have a degree in mechanical engineering
Wonderful 👍👏👏
I'm simultaneously fascinated and terrified. Quite ingenious, but creepy too--I think it's that "uncanny valley" effect.
Either way, very interesting. Thank you for posting this!
Thank you for your comment.
it definitely is the uncanny valley effect, the automatons are very similar to humans but also too different from us. to me it seems like many of the artists who constructed these automaton's didn't really quite get what it was actually about and ended up trying to recreate actual life with their machines instead of displaying mastery over mechanical engineering.
That clown with the pig on a ladder…*shudder*
What detailed works of art. Not comparable to the popular 'Bimbobox' that used to be seen in playgrounds. Bimbobox is the orchestra with the monkeys.
I actually learned about automata from my computer science course . In Fact the touring machine (our modern computers) has its origins in a simple automaton. I am very exited to learn more about their principles
These are precious in so many ways. Some of the best are created by the old jewelry houses.
The people that made these have to be pretty a pretty driven lot -- possibly as odd as their pieces. What were some of these people like, and what drove them to create in this way? Was it the mechanism and math, the journey of craft, a horrible spouse, bored in prison, a pub or pride bet, front for a secret spy-gadget business? I think there's an interesting people-story here.
In the 19th century, automatons were fascinating animated sculptures that were exhibited in bourgeois salons.
And Dayton's in Minneapolis, to calm the children who were having their first hair cuts. I screamed my 2 year old lungs out. I could smell the moldy rust in them too. Even more horrifying were the JAMBOREE BEARS, who stood 10 feet tall, and reeked of mold. These are very unique. Thank you for this wonderful film!
Look up Tim Hunkin's channel for someone who might have the mindset.
Simply that they were intelligent and could make them. They sold for a lot of money.
Also as the narrator said, some were prisoners who made and traded them.
A hobby perhaps? It’s a bit like asking what drives people to build things now
Well that was brilliant ..thank you..spellbinding, captivating, educational fun
Loved it. 👍😉🙏
The work that's gone into these is amazing. I've always been fascinated with them.
Oh man! I went to York in 1990 and I didn’t know about this museum. I loved walking around that city. It was a cool place.
The writing here is just as finely crafter as the automota
Thank you for sharing this video I have never seen such complexity in these systems. This is fascinating
OK, the laughing man at 27:04 is genuinely freaky. Needs a horror movie.
Excellent documentary video.
Wow! Absolutely Magical! Such magnificent attention to detail. I really enjoyed this presentation. Thank you for bringing this.
Serem, tapi keren. Mekanismenya komplek banget, pergerakannya diperhitungkan dengan baik.
I don't see this art form Dying, but its definitely Changed over to new technology. For Example, I believe Battlebots or motorized toys classify as Automata depending on what they are programmed to do. That being said, to see history in mechanical engineering is nothing short of incredible.
This is really amazing. A good book on the topic is "Edison's Eve", which gives some historical background. Basically, this was the AI of its day. The Japanese figures are known as "Karakuri Ningyo" i.e."Trick dolls".
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
Yes, I remember my Aunt & Uncle used to have this, Bartender, making cocktails automoton that was really cute and interesting, when I was a boy in the late 60's! Don't know what happened to it.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
If anyone is interested in checking out a fantastic collection of automaton toys, coin banks, store displays, etc., look up The House on the Rock in Wisconsin. Thousands of them from the early to mid 1900's.
I adore Automata! The watch/wind mechanism ones are my favorite. The human doesn't have to do much, except set the motion up and watch ! I cannot afford them, but some simple ones or kits would be a way. TY for posting ! 🤖🤖🤖🤖
Amazing! I wish I had the imagination and skill to produce anything even close to this genius !
O love automata reminds me of the movie whisper of the heart by hayao miyazaki
How magical!! And such spectacular quality!!! WOW!!!!!!
Have always been fascinated by these.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
Several years ago I visited the town of York, and my Danish ancestors. The body in the Viking Museum could have been me (same size, and Danish), but I never realized this Museum, close to the tower, which I did visit!
If you're hoping to visit this unique and wonderful museum, unfortunately you're about 28 years too late. It closed in 1996, and is now a pool hall, apparently.
Sad. 😔
What a tragic loss😢
what.
One day I hope to be able to visit that awesome museum!
Sadly it closed many years ago.
It closed :(
Really WONderFULL. Thanks so much for sharing this. Cheers from So.CA.USA 3rd House On the Left.
Remember. This is basically how robots came about. It would be neat if the museum does a follow up to that showing how these lead into what we know today. Just more uncanny valley creations that can move about by themselves a bit
I’m glad they have some of these guys still preserved they’re so cool ! .. albeit creepy some of them
To be called an automaton, an old phrase, means in modern standards to not be able to step outside your programming. Unable to use critical thought in other words. So interesting where the words comes from and what it means.
Somehow this was recommended. Thank you TH-cam for this gem
Fantastic museum. Would love to visit if it still exists.
This is wonderful, I'm glad to have stumbled upon it.
the detail in some of these are insane!
I love how these are filmed with a black background and well lit so you can see everything properly 👍🏾
I love this stuff....I wish it would come back
Could have been a Museum of Uncanny Valley. A superb art, nonetheless! It is where mechanics, aesthetics, and imagination meet.
Bob and his learned pig almost felt like parody. The ear wiggle. The toe tap at the end. Chilling
Simply brilliant, and worth a fortune.
~This Doc. Should Be LONGER . . .
4:15 I could not stop laughing at the bird chirping away and then getting slammed down by the lid. what a funny little thing.
It fascinates me to see this. It's like a trip back in time.
I adore automata and kinetic sculpture... I paint watercolors and at 62 I finally have all the time I need ! Another fascinating area is jig dolls and primitive carved wooden toys..my love of simple automata began when my mother bought a carousel apparatus for my sister birthday cake that was moved by the lighting (rising hot air to a to mounted "wheel" at the top that caused movement from the riding heat of the candles to move the tin shapes below ..
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
04-23-2022 12:48 a.m. nyc
Thanx for posting !! That was fun.
My mom (age 94) has a 1901 Regina music box. And I was reminded of a trip ~52? years ago~ that included a visit to "Clark's Trading Post," (SC, I think) which had not only music boxes but also "orchestrons" that combined player pianos with automated drums, bells, trumpets and violins as accompaniment.
It also reminds me of Scorsese's movie "Hugo," with *its* complex automaton serving as a bridge between 19th c. stage-magic and 20th c. early moviemaking via the work of George Melies.
Hello,
Thank you for talking about the film "Hugo Cabret" because our company provided automatons for the decoration of Georges Méliès' shop when he was selling toys in a Parisian station.
We also loaned images concerning the Jaquet-Droz's androids for one of the bonuses of the DVD of this film.
Such a shame that we have to lose such an ingenious collection to another country, these items are so incredibly rare.
Fear not, Afrika will replace these wonders with carved sticks.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
@@coloradostrong wow
Did you hear about the destruction and theft of countless ancient artifacts in Iraq by their own people? That's just one example. Yes these were extremist's but maybe if they were brought to the British museum we could still appreciate these items but these Babylonian treasures are gone forever. To me the protection of invaluable historical artifacts for the enjoyment of future generations is more important than who owns it or where these items are kept. At the end of the day we are all just care takers in this short life and I know that the British will take good care of these automatons so I don't worry about it.
@@pinkpugginz Truth.
Where’s the internets favorite singing robot in dead girls clothes. Y’know… “I feel fantastic”?
What a wondefull upload! Facinating how Hero' was so advanced in Automatons, but why not? The Antikythera Mechanism was even older, I went to see it in Athens 2 years ago.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
What a great video! So many fascinating exhibits.
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
I wish I knew how to make automatons
Visit our website with automatons for sale and DVDs on automatons and androids: www.automates-boites-musique.com/index.php
I found this absolutely fascinating, thanks 💜💜💜
Hello, thank you for your interest in automata.
What an absolutely stunning collection.
Stunning work with imagination to boot.Inspirational.