WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Five Historical Robots 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:06.840 Hey, everybody Happy Saturday. Okay, Drew confession Uh. In part 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.280 because there is a new Star Wars movie, I have 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.600 droids on the brain really bad, So it seemed like 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.120 a good time to revisit an episode about mankind's early 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:21.520 attempts at automota. This episode from looks at five different 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.759 historical inventions that very loosely fall into the discussion of 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:34.040 early robotics. Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:42.120 from house stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.840 the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson Fan. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:47.960 I'm willing to bet Tracy that when you hear the 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:52.000 term or robot, uh, you think of things like Honda's 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:56.160 Asimo or the I Robot roomba that might tutor around 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.040 the house tidying up floors. I think of the bad 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:06.560 Robot TV placard Yeah from J. J. Abrams production Company. Um, 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:11.280 but there were actually way long before check playright. Carol 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.039 Kapok coined the term robot in his Are You Are, 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.640 which did for Rassam's Universal robots. Uh. There were mechanized 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.760 creations automata that were being created without electronics or computers, 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.479 and many were you know, fairly simple, but they really 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.399 paved the way for robots of today. So if you 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.280 do a search for first robot or earliest robot online, 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.759 you're probably going to find all kinds of different conflicting answers. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.920 Some of them are philosophical, some of them are mythological, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.520 and some of them are religious. Uh. We know that 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:49.800 clockwork devices go back many, many, many years, but most 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.320 historians on the subject are not really eager to pinpoint 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.240 which exact one was first. Yeah, there's there are too 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.600 many possible answers because there are some of the logical 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.960 ones that aren't necessarily supported with hard evidence. Those ones 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.120 are a little bit tricky. Some people even refer to 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.120 like the Biblical story of creation as kind of a 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:17.880 first um, almost robotics experiment sort of thing. Uh So there, 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:19.720 it's really hard. I mean, you get into a big 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.800 philosophical debate with people if you say this was the 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.520 first robot we know about for sure, because they're like, 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.079 there's some other options. Yeah, so you want to do that. 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.560 Some of them are so far back in history that 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:34.720 the substantiation for them is just not add percent clear, right, 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.880 And we're going to look back at the early history 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:42.040 of mechanized beings and clockworks and steampowered mini marvels. So 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.240 you're not gonna hear us talk about the DARPA Big 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.639 Dog or the Mars Curiosity rover. We're going incredibly old 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.040 school with this list, so nothing past the late seventeen hundreds, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.520 and we have just selected five for the sake of 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.080 podcast length, But of course that means leaves out many 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.200 many others, because there really are many more examples of 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.240 this than I think many people realize. So think of 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.280 this as just a sampling of some of mankind's ventures 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.640 into automated beings. And really I'm telling a fib when 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.960 I say it's five, it's sort of five instances, but 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.880 some of them feature more than one automata. So it's 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:18.359 going to be fun. We're fludging our numbers, but we're 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.639 doing it with a good heart. Yes uh. And we're 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:27.600 going to start with one that is not easily substantiated. 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.520 We're going off of one text, but it's important, and 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.880 that's Yan Cheese Automated Man. So the first one is 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.200 in China. The reference to it can be found in 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.080 a third century b C. Taoist text, and the course 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.440 of this text a story is told of King Mu 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:49.200 of Chew, who reigned from b C. E. In it, 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.960 this so called artifice are presents an automated man. To 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.120 the king and his book Science and Civilization in China, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.960 Volume two, writer Joseph Needham quotes a translate text about 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.280 this automa time, and in his quote he says, the 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.360 king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.400 rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.960 anyone would have taken it for a live human being. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.760 The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing perfectly 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.080 in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.080 keeping perfect time. As the performance was drawing to an end, 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.400 the robot winked its eye and made advances to the 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.960 ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.719 have had Yan she executed on the spot, had not. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.960 The latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.800 pieces to let him see what it really was, and 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:43.080 indeed it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.520 and lacquer variously colored white, black, red, and blue. Examining 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.239 it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete, liver, 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:56.960 gall heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach, and intestines. And over 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:01.400 these again muscles, bones, and limbs with their points, skin, teeth, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:05.039 and hair, all of them artificial. The king tried the 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.240 effect of taking away the heart and found that the 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.000 mouth could no longer speak. He took away the liver, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.480 and the eyes could no longer see. He took away 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.040 the kidneys, and the legs lost their power of locomotion. 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.279 The king was delighted. So, and that's an often referred 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.880 to text when people talk about the history of robots. 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.240 And we don't have evident, hard evidence of this automaton, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.599 but it's significant that it would have been mentioned in 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:33.240 a historical Daoist text that refers back seven hundred years. Uh. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.880 It evidences this fascination with mechanical beings going away, way 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.120 way back in the ancient history, so early. Yeah, I 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:43.000 would be delighted too if I were the king, who 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.840 would not. Uh So that's our first one, and the 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.520 second one is a little more recent than that. This 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.920 one was a pigeon created by archiitis of tarentum and 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.920 archeitis was born around b C. In a Greek control 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.200 territory that's now part of southern Italy. He was a 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.440 very accomplished man. He was a philosopher, a mathematician, an astronomer, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.400 a statesman, and a commander in chief. And sometimes he 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.839 gets called the father of mechanics. He's said to be 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.920 the most advanced of the Pythagorean mathematicians, and he classified 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:23.760 mathematics into four divisions geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. He 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.280 was really influential in his time, and Architis also influenced 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.440 the work of Plato and Aristotle. In fact, he said 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.480 to have rescued Plato from Dionysius the second. But historians 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.760 are generally pretty quick to point out that the relationship 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.120 between Plato and Architis was a complex one. It was 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.720 pretty complicated. They had similar stances on many philosophical issues, 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.680 but they also had some pretty obvious disagreements. But for 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.080 today's interest, the accomplishment of Architis that's the most relevant 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.880 is a mechanical bird. This bird, which he called simply 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.600 the pigeon, was suspended at the end of a pivoting 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.400 ball are it moved in revolutions around the bar, either 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.640 using a jet of steam or compressed air. And while 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.160 the bird, which was created somewhere between four hundred and 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.280 three fifty b C. Is often listed as a footnote 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.600 to Archiitis's body of work, it's really important to remember 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.440 that he built this mechanism more than two thousand years ago. 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:23.040 So it was this very simple little robotic pigeon. Yes, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.400 some people point to it is the first robot and 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.640 recorded history, but as we mentioned earlier, and it's a 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.360 claim that a lot of people are just not willing 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.960 to make for sure about any of these. And now 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.080 there's kind of a big jump to our next one 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.440 because we are getting to Da Vinci, who many people 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.520 know was really interested in mechanics. Uh. And so Leonardo 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.360 was born in April of two. He's one of history's 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.160 most famous men. So we all know his famous paintings 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.320 like the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, and his 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.520 drawings of the Truvian Man. So he's not really a 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.720 mystery to anyone who has even a passing knowledge of history. 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:03.320 Late in his life, in fifteen fifteen, he created this 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.520 Automata Lion, allegedly to present to King France wid the 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.920 first the faux feline was said to have walked forward 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.800 toward the king, opened up its chest and revealed a 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.000 cluster of lilies. And while there's some lack of specificity 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.440 about the original lion, UH and Leonardo did not leave 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.720 any sketches of it, he did make detailed sketches of 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.560 the mechanisms that he likely used in its construction, and 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:30.880 he left some notes as well. And in two thousand nine, 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.000 Renato Boretto, a master builder of automata UH, used those 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.440 sketches and da Vinci's notes and he actually recreated the lion. 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:43.800 It's really really interesting to watch. You can find video 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.800 of it online and will link to some of it. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.280 You know, it's kind of sobering to watch this sample 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.720 of robotics that's based on early fifteen hundreds ingenuity, because 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.319 it's still a pretty impressive piece today. To see this, 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.560 it almost looks like a giant toy. It's life size, 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.760 but it's you know, carved, so it doesn't look like 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.800 a real lion. But it just it moves along and 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.000 it kind of has wheels and its feet and it 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.760 rolls as its legs move along the floor, and it 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.840 tilts its head side to side, and it's kind of 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.400 mind blowing to me to think that that was designed 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:29.000 hundreds of years ago. Leonardo also designed a fully automated 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.600 man that was styled to look like an armored knight, 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.200 with a rope and gear mechanism to raise and move 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.320 the limbs, but there's no record of this one actually 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.480 being built. Italian robotics historians have also constructed a machine 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.720 based on these designs. Yeah it um. It can't do 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.360 quite the amount of moving on its own that the 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.480 lion can, which is why we focused on the lion 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.040 for this one. But I thought that the the armored 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.880 man should get at least to mention. And then we 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.960 get to a couple of entries that are really really 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.040 mind blowing. The first is Vokinson's flute player, and like 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.320 I said, this one is uh, kind of a two 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:07.560 for it's not really just the one. We're going to 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:11.880 talk about his famous duck automaton as well, which when 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:13.840 I have mentioned to our colleagues that we were working 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.720 on this podcast, everyone asked about the duck and I 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:21.000 just kind of shrug. We'll get there. So. Jacques de 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.760 Vokinson was born in Grenoble on February seventeen, o nine, 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.040 and he was the youngest child of ten born to 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.400 a glovemaker and a devout Catholic wife, and the story 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:35.720 goes that Jacques was obsessed with mechanical things at a 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.120 very young age. He studied with the Jesuits as a youngster. 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.640 He even entered a monastery but the age of sixteen 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.200 as a means of supporting his scientific studies because at 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.080 that point his father was gone and his mother couldn't 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.720 really just pay for him to play in his mechanized world. 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.960 And then later in seventy eight, he left the monastery 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.480 to study medicine and anatomy in Paris, and throughout his 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.640 life Wolkinson was inspired by medical science, and his passion 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.120 for an insight into the workings of anatomy garnered him 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.360 several patrons that supported his work through the years. His 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.320 most famous automaton was a gold plated copper duck. And 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.720 what a duck it was. It could do many of 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.240 the things real ducks could do. It could it could 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.000 quack and drink water and flap its wings and mimic 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:28.000 the digestive process, reminding me of many novelty items owned 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.360 by my grandfather. So yes, it's the famous pooping robot. Duck. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.840 Everybody knows about. Uh, you know, it's one of those 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.960 like when you go, oh, ancient robots, they go pooping 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:44.960 robot duck right. Yes. In a letter written to the 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:50.000 Abbey Defontaine, he wrote, my second machine or automaton is 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:52.920 a duck in which I represent the mechanism of the 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.360 intestines which are employed in the operations of eating, drinking, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.280 and digestion, where in the working of all the parts 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:03.480 necessary for these actions is exactly imitated. The duck stretches 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.240 out its neck to take corn out of your hand. 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.520 It swallows, it, digests it, and discharges it digested by 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.880 the usual passage. And I feel compelled to know it 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.120 didn't actually digested it. There was no chemical breakdown of 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.680 whatever you handed it. You could hand it buttons and 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.280 it would those would pass through its automated little system. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.640 And I think when modern ears here they think of 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.160 it as this cookie novelty thing. But really he was 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:33.640 trying to represent a full um anatomical being. Like to him, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:37.120 it was more about the science of and study of, 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.560 you know, biology, than it was like, Look, my duck poops, right, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:43.280 not so much to be something you would buy in 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.839 the back of a spencer gift, but that duck was 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.920 actually created to boost attendance at an exhibit of another 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.280 of Vokinson's works, which was his Automatic Flute Player. The 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.760 flute Player was allegedly conceived in a fevered state while 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.160 he was ill. A famous marble statue by sculpt or 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.080 Antoine Koiservo was the inspiration for the shape of the figure, 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.720 although Kanson's version was made of wood and then painted 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:11.040 to look like marble, and this figure was five point 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.840 five feet tall, which is about one point seven meters 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.800 uh and in the modern book Living Dolls The Magical 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:21.440 History of the Question Mechanical Life Gabby Wood rights of 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:25.280 the Mechanical Flute Player, nine bellows were attached to three 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.520 separate pipes that led into the chest of the figure. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.400 Each set of three bellows was attached to a different 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.040 weight to give out varying degrees of air, and then 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.320 all pipes joined into a single one equivalent to a trachea, 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.280 continuing up through the throat and widening to form the 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.440 cavity of the mouth. The lips, which bore upon the 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.920 whole of the flute, could open and close and move 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:48.640 backwards or forwards. Inside the mouth was a movable metal 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:53.440 tongue which governed the airflow and created pauses. This automaton breathed, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:59.640 which is cool. It's really cool. Um. It's an incredibly 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:05.200 complex design. And of course, uh, you know, the flute 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.720 is a hard instrument to play when you're an actual human, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.320 so he had to do something tricky, yes, So, borrowing 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.079 from his family's roots, he gave the flute player's hands 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.719 a skin covering to mimic the soft touch that you 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.240 need to play a flute. That's a tricky instrumental master 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:25.720 even for people, and his macanoid minstrel could play twelve 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.680 different tunes. And this flute player went on display on 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.160 February eleventh of seventy eight, and the cost of entry 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.960 to see this marvel was roughly equivalent to a week's 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.800 worth of wages for the average manual laborer. So this 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.240 was a serious money maker because people were paying that 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:45.320 to go see it. I mean it was too fantastical 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.440 to skip, uh, which is why when the attendants fell off, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.120 Volkinson added the duck to the exhibit, as well as 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.440 another piece called the Tambourine Player, in an effort to 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.760 bring audiences back and keep the money flowing. He sold 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.320 off his mechanical aations in seventeen forty one and at 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:06.720 that point became France's inspector of silk manufacturer. His adventures 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.240 in that job could really be their own podcast, they 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.960 really could. He really sort of revolutionized looms. Um. But 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.520 the flute player and the other automata changed hands several times, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:18.960 and the flute player was last seen in the possession 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.560 of Gottfried Christoph Barres, doctor to the Duke of Brunswick, 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.760 and then he disappeared from history after the doctor's death. 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.680 The duck turned up a couple more times, and uh, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.960 there are allegedly there are pictures of it or something 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.160 that's very much like it that you can find online. 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:37.560 But the flute player, we don't. We don't know where 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:39.920 it landed. Just a pity because I would really love 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.720 to see how that works. And then for our final 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.160 entry in our list of five instances, there are actually 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:51.320 three pieces in this but uh, they're quite marvelous. Yes, 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.440 they're the work of Pierre Jacquedras, who was born on 0:15:54.560 --> 0:16:00.000 July seventy one in Switzerland. His family was primarily involved 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.400 in two modes of employment, farming and watchmaking, and In 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.320 seventeen thirty eight, Jacque Edras opened up his own watch 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.520 shop in le Cha Defont, and initially he specialized in 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.760 pendulum clocks, but eventually he turned his attention to automated 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:19.000 mechanisms and eventually began to sell small automeda to a 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.360 special clients. I also feel like we should mentioned that 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.000 he is It's kind of a side note, but he's 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.520 often credited with creating the wristwatch, so he was very 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.080 much into shrinking mechanisms down, which plays into his work 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:35.080 in Automeda. In seventeen seventy four, he and his son 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.040 Henri Louis, and a clockmaker Jean Frederic les Show presented 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.360 their three creations, which are still considered to be marvels 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.880 of mechanical engineering. The musician is the first one, and 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.880 it's a female and um, she plays an organ, and 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.320 it's not an actual organ, it's a custom instrument that 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.560 looks like an organ, and she will bow at the 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.560 end of her performances. Uh. And she plays five different 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:00.240 tunes and the mechanical works are actually all concealed neath 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.720 her gown. But her fingers move super briskly and they 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.200 tap along at the instrument's keys, and it's really quite 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.000 something to watch. The draftsman can draw floor pictures, and 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:21.040 he'll also blow dust and graphite off of his page. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:23.840 The Draftsman looks more like a little boy, and he 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.919 looks almost identical to the third one, which is an 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:32.920 automaton that people sort of hold in this extremely high 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.119 regard because it's really quite a marvel. It's called the Writer, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.600 and it's um to my mind and I think the 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.639 mind of many other others that study this subject. It's 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.760 the most impressive of the three because he can write 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.480 as many as forty letters in sequence, and because he 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:52.840 has built with a series of coded gears in his 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.240 back that can be moved, he can actually be programmed 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.119 to write new sequences. His messages aren't static, uh, and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.399 he'll dip his pen in an ink well so that 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:05.000 ink needs to be refreshed whenever he writes, and he 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:07.879 carefully scrawls out the program message onto paper, and his 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.359 eyes actually follow his pen as he's working, which is 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.280 sort of amazing and wonderful. The fact that this one 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.320 can be programmed to do different things would probably put 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.040 him higher on the list in like the Nitpickers list 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:27.080 of robots, because one of in terms of today's terminology, 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.719 one of the hallmarks of robotics is that these are 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.639 programmable things, not just things that work on like a 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.800 remote control or some kind of tether. Yeah. Uh and 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.199 Jacket Drows would take these automoda around with him on 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.119 tour while he was visiting wealthy families and he would, 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.760 you know, have them do their little activities and show off, 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.399 and then he would use those charms to sell his 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:52.480 high end watches and smaller automoda to his elite clientele. 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.040 And he would also book them into hotel rooms and 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.560 then charge admission for people just come and see them. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.800 And the Jaquet Draws name is still famous for its watches. Um. 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.640 Just as Paul Party, who we discussed in a previous podcast, 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:09.240 brought branding into fashion houses, Jacque Drows did a similar thing, 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.639 and he understood the idea of building a brand in 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:16.800 his industry, and his touring automata were part of that brand. Today, 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.719 this trio lives in the Museum of Art and History 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.360 in Switzerland and they all still work, which is a 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.640 testament to the extraordinary engineering and skill that went into 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.000 their creation. Yeah, those are other ones that you can 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:32.119 see lots of video footage of online you know, people 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.680 carefully programming them, and I've noticed in some of them 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:41.000 the writer he's a little um squeaky. In some points 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.760 they had to scoot the paper along form a little 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.280 bit because the paper actually gets kind of moved on 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.800 this little um carrier that goes back and forth underneath 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.960 his hands. But generally he's still I mean, they're all 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.639 still in great working order and pretty amazing, and I 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.399 feel like, um, we should mention as we wrap up, 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.040 we're not going to talk about this one, but uh, 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.280 I know people will ask why we didn't include it, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:08.920 which is the katakui Ningio, which are Japanese automeda uh 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.560 that are generally referenced from like sixteenth through early nineteenth century, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.040 and I really think they deserve their own podcasts, so 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.639 stay tuned. It would be weird to talk about robots 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.320 and not mentioned Japan at Also I wanted to make 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.720 sure we at least pointed those out. Uh. They also 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.679 kind of go past the point in history where we 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.000 wanted to do the cut off so much the early 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.359 it's a little later than early. Some of it's in 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:33.520 this realm that I was talking about, but it goes 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.160 on a little bit further, and there are many different types, 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:38.120 and I feel like they just they deserve their own 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.679 whole little discussion because they're really quite amazing. But uh, 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.359 those are, like I said, a little sampling of historical 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.280 robotics and automoeda that I just I think it's sort 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.480 of beautiful and wonderful that going back these thousands of years, 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.600 we've always been obsessed with creating sort of mechanized versions 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.000 of ourselves and other natural elements of world, right, and 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:02.520 a lot of these to remind me of stuff that 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.480 happened much later, or things that that later would not 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.960 have been quite so impressive, like the Um you look 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:11.639 at the movie Hugo and the book that it was 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.080 based off of, like that was a much more recent 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:20.719 era of of clockworks and steam based things and automata 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:25.480 that could write things. Um, and this predates those sort 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.040 of things by some hundreds of years. Yeah, it's very 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:34.040 very cool. So that's historical robots will hopefully do more 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.320 perhaps in the future, in addition of the Japanese ones, 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.360 because robots are awesome, They're really cool. I also, as 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.600 as we're reading this, I just like every description sort 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:45.439 of could have ended with the sentence, and then they 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.280 all came to life and the doctor had to come 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:54.800 and save us. Thank you so much for joining us 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:58.160 for this Saturday classic. 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