Museum of Automata, York, 199x

the Museum of automata is to be found at the foot of Clifford's Tower in the ancient and historic city of York the capital of the north of England behind a quite modest exterior is a wonderland of magic and ingenuity an automaton mimics the movement of living things it's a glorious expression of human inventiveness created by man for the sheer enjoyment and entertainment of his fellow creatures the Japanese Archer which dates from the middle of the nineteenth century incorporates mechanical ingenuity precision and beauty and speaks across centuries continents and cultures in a language that can be understood by all the wooden mechanism enables the archer to pick up a narrow place it in the bow and fire it not once but four times before being rewound Claude the clown is the museum's mascot and was made in France towards the end of the 19th century the battle on which Claude is perched acts as a sound box for the musical movement and more importantly conceals the top work mechanism the shape of the cams determines the movement as they turn on the shaft they raise and lower levers that animate face and limbs this technique has brought life to a host of almost human characters from earliest times man has been fascinated by the possibilities of incorporating movement into the images he fashioned of himself and his fellow creatures the earliest known statuette with articulated limbs dates from the Gresham culture approximately 25,000 years BC figurines from ancient Greece and Rome employed simple pivots and drawstrings to bring them to life as men progress to more complex mechanical devices the automaton figures were often second on the mechanism created as a fanciful rules by a master to illustrate a scientific principle to his pupils hero of Alexandria's dancing figures driven by a simple reaction motor are a case in point hero lived during the 1st century AD and he left a valuable record of his own inventions and those of his predecessors the dancing figures work in the following way when a fire is lit on the altar the air inside is heated expands and is forced down the central vertical tube and expelled out along the radial tubes the force of the expanded air pushing against the cylindrical case causes the turntable to revolve carrying the dancers with it you Hiro recorded over 70 theorems using pneumatics hydraulics and simple mechanics to create movement his writings were to inspire engineers and scientists throughout the Middle Ages by the 18th century the singing birds of the ancient Greeks had progressed to the exquisite singing bird boxes of such master craftsmen as Russia and Russia Swiss watchmakers excelled in the manufacture of these tiny birds refining their mechanisms until it was difficult to distinguish the real from the clockwork here the secret of life is revealed Springs and cams move beacon wings while bellows and a slide whistle the song sometimes such singing birds were concealed in more elaborate settings such as this ladies nécessaire also made in Switzerland spring driven clockwork first appeared in the 15th century and provided an efficient portable source of motion which was to be exploited to the full over the next four centuries this Gould and Julie loot was made at the beginning of the 19th century the strings are held in diamond pegs the back is finally enameled hidden inside is a dancer moving to the accompaniment of two musicians playing a drum and a heady giddy to striking Jax imprisoned on the face of a gold breguet watch sound out the ours while Cupid forges his arrows taking his rhythm from the beat of time a more worldly blacksmith is at work above this Rogers clock inexorably driven by time his task is never done and he works without pause a striking Jack sounds they are before the widespread use of the wristwatch public clocks help to regulate the communal day and striking Jackson automatons scenes what a popular addition this magnificent 19th century mantel clock was made by Bontemps primarily a maker of singing birds he used clocks of showcases form the mechanisms of clock and bird are quite separate here the beam engine acts as a pendulum a group of workmen labour beneath the cathedral clock and hurried and unheeding the work will never be completed this magician performs his tricks on request regardless of they are the objects on his table mysteriously change each time he raises the cones a closer look may give the game away his black forest cousin however performs on the are his trick is the same and his technique similar but he lacks the glamour of his middle-eastern friend if you think his mechanisms also lacking in style let me introduce you to his industrious companion the spinner who also adorns a black forest clock is kept hard at work by little more than a piece of bent wire and a tiny weight the potato eater is a favorite Black Forest folk character we will leave you to guess why his plate is always full despite his voracious appetite let us now turn to the work of the 19th century toymaker accessible to a far wider public in using cheap materials there is perhaps no other field where man's mechanical ingenuity is more apparent interchangeable cams enable this tin clown to execute a number of sensitive drawings here is deftly sketching a cockerel an 18th century Japanese design inspired this 19th century tumbler mercury's their hidden ingredient causing the little figure to flip over as it flows from torso to head the golden boots of the OTO parapet Atticus doll were patented in 1862 by the American Enoch rice Morrison she treads ashore and steady path unlike the path of the little French tinplate drunkard from the found Marten workshop while the Matan toys were produced in great numbers this miniature theater is almost certainly a one-off three double hand operated belts carry a colorful array of characters across the stage each hand colored figure is mounted on a wheeled platform and limbs are animated by fine wires linked to the wheels during the Napoleonic Wars French prisoners of war scattered in prisons around England transformed cookhouse bones into mechanical toys to trade for the luxury of soap or even a new pair of trousers this little drummer is a fine example Japanese Kobe toys show him a Carver sense of humor and were made join the Meiji period for the Western market Westerners may well have thought they were buying something peculiarly Japanese but where in reality buying something produced for the foreigner far removed from the cheap children's toys are the deluxe automata produced for an adult market during the second half of the 19th century a group of Frenchman concentrated in the Marais district of Paris running quite separate establishments yet all using the same techniques produce living sculptures of the multi-talented cosmopolitan characters of Parisian cafe society not only was a whole range of facial expressions captured in papeon air Shan staff but also the subtleties of hand and body movements these are portrait faces sculptors were employed to immortalize entertainers of the day and mechanics animated these sculptures enabling us to witness circus acts that were performed over a hundred years ago details of costume and face makeup are all faithfully reproduced in an age before piped music and moving the screen images it must have been wonderful indeed to have a portable entertainer that could be switched on and off at will you nearly all these pcs have their own musical accompaniment a cylinder and cone concealed either in the cabinet base or in the body this clan sleeps whenever he gets the chance the intermission Bell interrupts his slumber not once but three times reminds him of his audience and finally obliges him to start playing again in this microcosm anything is possible a cloud serenades the moon the moon comes down to earth this piece entitled founder siècle shared its name with a group of poets also known as the decadence it certainly has a decadent air smokers were a favorite subject build in an 1884 catalog as special attraction for tobacconists they were prominently placed in shop windows and no doubt pulled the crowds as they pulled on their meerschaum cigarette holders if you're worried for their lungs you have good reason for the leather bellows that inhales so deeply are not immune to the ravages of nicotine and need a regular overhaul the fisherman draws comfort from his pipe each time of fish eludes him an early accumulator keeps the tobacco embers glowing and would have delighted and Confused an audience for whom electricity in the home was as yet a rare and privileged thing he seems philosophical about the lack of fish persevering to pull out an old shoe a bottle and finally an old tin can what's this an artist's impression of the fisherman an automaton artist of course not only has he captured the fisherman on canvas but his succession of inedible catches too Bob and his Leonard Pig is one of the pride and joys of the museum collection the levers that animate the pig purse from the base through the back of the chair along Bob's thigh and continue up through one side of the ladder the French have had a special relationship with their pigs ever since they first hunted truffles together Bob has gone a step further and trained his pig to perform acrobatic stunts on top of a ladder his expression says it all you these two are from the vichy workshop and appear side by side in the catalog they would have cost about six guineas each at a time when the average weekly wage was twenty four shillings they make a harmonious pair the banjo player will surely win over his ladylove as will Piero his Columbine the Piero writer is perhaps the most romantic piece he turns up his lamp and writes to his beloved Columbine Michelle Colombian my darling Columbine little passes CV time passes so rarely zannino pass that even the years seem short to me you should tell Marco I love you more than ever don't be able to rule noprl forever dream on Pierrot we all have a tale of unrequited love to town this gracious lady must have had many admirers in the Parisian salons of the last century her hands move in time with the music and her breast rises and falls simulating breathing her head is a Boomer she often however if a beautiful young lady was to be portrayed porcelain heads were bought in from the doll manufacturers the lady magician is a stunning example the wide-eyed innocence of her Mona Lisa like smile makes the strange contents of her pots all the more surprising these young ladies all have porcelain heads by zoom all the same gestures could be adapted to blowing kisses smelling posies lifting the lids of baskets or in the case of the figure on the left promoting perfume with a well-placed label at the turn of the 20th century with the advent of electricity automata were widely sought after for advertising purposes ideally suited to shop window displays electrically driven pieces were eye catching modern and would repeat their routines until the plug was pulled this was one of the last pieces to be made by the Falla bois firm shortly before being taken over by the house of de comb in 1925 it advertises the services of eight qualified chiropodist s-- claiming that their operations are painless and offering a solution for sweaty and inflamed feet for a mere three francs fifty novel tricks such as turning pages in window tapping to attract attention could be incorporated the Jeff coffee drink have appeared in coffee shops and cafes all over Europe as the demand for electrically driven advertising pieces went up so the demand for clockwork parlor pieces declined during the second half of the 20th century a new breed of automata maker appeared unlike the 19th century makers who employed teams of specialist craftsmen to create the finished product today's automata stroke in isolation responsible for every aspect of production there are no rules orthodox materials are mixed with found materials and scrap eccentric experimentation and recycled junk stand alongside technical brilliance and artistic integrity Katie Roe worked on The Birth of Venus over a period of many months using a mixture of lime wood Douglas fir and lemon wood this demanding time-consuming occupation is rarely profitable and automata Stentor lead double lives following more profitable pursuits during the day and beavering way in cellars and garden sheds after ours compare the intricacy and grace of Katies CC with the raw economy and power of Peter Marquis made of undecorated DIY pine it's both powerful and lyrical in its effect the wonderful undulating motion which is produced by hella cams is as pleasing from below as it is from above the ends allude also leaves the wood undecorated but works it to a satin smooth finish humour may be subtle as in his boy with a girl on his mind or honestly bawdy as in Frank Nelson's man in the loo inspiration may be obvious as in Eric Williamson superbly crafted Mad Hatter's Tea Party he has added his own twist to Carol's well-known tale lime wood is used for large-scale carving and pair with its tight-knit grain for small items contrasting woods sugar mechanism which is a work of art in itself to full advantage Oh the inspiration for James Chad burns mad professors musical instrument is more complex each key produces both sound and movement and James lists gothic architecture religion mythology and plumbing among the many influences on his work here the instrument is more recognizable but not always more tuned for a 26 note spinette in the base of this automaton provides the sound for david secrets music lesson gesture and a Harlequin struggle with some early English melodies the Harlequin concentrates on the music the gesture is more interested in his audience and even occasionally forgets to play political comment raises its head from time to time here Frank Nelson makes clear his feelings about Maggie Thatcher's poll tax modern automata are described variously as working models 3d cartoons and works of art the contemporary collection is constantly growing and changing there is another far more serious development this century robots and automatic machines have found their place in industry and the home these functional machines bear little resemblance to their automaton ancestors unlike the clockwork interior of last century's automata where cause and effect can be visibly traced the electronic entrails of today's robots belie the movements their command this IBM robot assembled computer keyboards for years before being relegated to the museum machines can store information and act upon it the possibilities are endless and so the serious rubbed shoulders with a frivolous a visit to the museum is incomplete without a stroll along the pier it is after all on the pier that many of our modern automata makers first encountered automata every pair has its fortune-teller and this one is no exception madam eva is her name the saucy sailor gets his comeuppance big Burt Kaos has a dog called order it will be a tall order to order big Burt to order one of the last characters you will encounter as you leave the museum is the Laughing Man commissioned by a pharmaceutical firm to advertise a cure for kidney problems is he trying to tell us that it's only his laughter that's infectious now the Museum of automata is above all a tribute to man's ingenuity and sense of fun out of the visions of our ancestors have appeared the robots of today and along that pathway all manner of men have contributed and you

Channel: MechMinestrone68

Views: 458,504

Rating: 4.929184 out of 5

Keywords: Museum, Automata, Automaton, York

Id: SzOgsaXO7BE

Length: 29min 16sec (1756 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 21 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Brickman274]

Not really creepy, but very mesmerizing...