WEBVTT - Five Historical Robots 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.360 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.799 stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:16.640 I'm Holly Fry, I'm Tracy V. Wilson Fan. I'm willing 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.000 to bet Tracy that when you hear the term or robots, 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.360 you think of things like Honda's Asimo or the I 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.440 Robot roomba that might tutor around the house tidying up floors. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:33.360 I think of the bad Robot TV placard, Yeah, from 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.720 J J. Abrams production company. Um, but they were actually 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.559 way long before check playright. Carol Kapok coined the term 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.120 robot in his Are You Are, which did for Rassam's 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:51.080 Universal Robots. Uh, there were mechanized creations automata that we're 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.120 being created without electronics or computers, and many were, you know, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.440 fairly simple, but they really paved the way for robots 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.040 of today. So if you do a search for first 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.759 robot or earliest robot online, you're probably going to find 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.440 all kinds of different conflicting answers. Some of them are philosophical, 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.800 some of them are mythological, and some of them are religious. Uh. 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.959 We know that clockwork devices go back many, many, many years, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.639 but most historians on the subject are not really eager 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.000 to pinpoint which exact one was first. Yeah, there's there 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.640 are too many possible answers, because there are some mythological 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:36.000 ones that aren't necessarily supported with hard evidence. Those ones, 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.160 they're a little bit tricky. Some people even refer to 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.160 like the biblical story of creation as kind of a 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:47.920 first um, almost robotics experiment sort of thing. Uh so there, 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.760 it's really hard. I mean, you get into a big 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:51.840 philosophical debate with people if you say this was the 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.560 first robot we know about for sure, because you're like, 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.800 there's some other options. Yeah, so you don't want to 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.640 do that. Some of them are so far back in 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:04.800 his that this substantiation for them is just not add clear, right, 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.000 And we're gonna look back at the early history of 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:12.320 mechanized beings and clockworks and steampowered mini marvels, So you're 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.519 not gonna hear us talk about the DARPA big dog 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.040 or the Mars curiosity rover. We're going incredibly old school 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.120 with this list, so nothing past the late seventeen hundreds, 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.560 and we have just selected five for the sake of 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.120 podcast length. But of course that means leaves out many 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.240 many others, because there really are many more examples of 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.280 this than I think many people realize. So think of 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.320 this as just a sampling of some of mankind's ventures 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.680 into automated beings. And really I'm telling a fib when 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.000 I say it's five, it's sort of five instances, but 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.320 some of them feature more than one. Yes, automota. So 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.400 it's going to be fun. We're fudging our numbers, We're 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:51.680 doing it with a good heart. Yes uh. And we're 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:57.639 going to start with one that is not easily substantiated. 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.560 We're going off of one text, but it's important, and 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.919 that's Yan Cheese Automated Man. So the first one is 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:07.240 in China. The reference to it can be found in 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.800 a third century b c E. Taoist text, and the 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:13.480 course of this text, a story is told of Kingmu 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.880 of Chow, who reigned from nine to b c. E. 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.639 In it, this so called artifice their presents an automated 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.720 man to the king and his book Science and Civilization 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.120 in China, Volume two, writer Joseph Needham quotes a translated 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.400 text about this autuma time, and in his quote he 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.880 says the king stared at the figure in astonishment. It 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.080 walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.280 so that anyone would have taken it for a live 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:45.680 human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.200 singing perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.600 began posturing, keeping perfect time. As the performance was drawing 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:55.720 to an end, the robot winked its eye and made 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.000 advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.200 incensed and would have had young she executed on the spot, 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.480 had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:07.960 robot to pieces to let him see what it really was, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.440 and indeed, it turned out to be only a construction 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.920 of leather, wood, glue, and lacquer, variously colored white, black, red, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.200 and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:25.200 internal organs complete, liver, gall heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.559 and intestines. And over these again muscles, bones and limbs 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.560 with their joints, skin, teeth, and hair, all of them artificial. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.480 The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.240 and found that the mouth could no longer speak. He 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.680 took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.039 He took away the kidneys and the legs lost their 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.400 power of locomotion. The king was delighted. So, and that's 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.039 an often referred to text when people talk about the 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:55.239 history of robots. And we don't have evident heart evidence 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.039 of this automaton, but it's significant that it would have 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.960 been mentioned in a historical Taoist text that refers back 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:05.520 seven hundred years. Uh. It evidences this fascination with mechanical 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.040 beings going way way way back into ancient history so early. Yeah, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:11.960 I would be delighted too if I were the king, 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.720 who would not. Uh. So that's our first one, and 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:19.760 the second one is a little more recent than that. 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:25.880 This one was a pigeon created by Archiitis of Tarentum 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.039 and Archaetis was born around BC in a Greek controlled 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.240 territory that's now part of southern Italy. He was a 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:37.480 very accomplished man. He was a philosopher, a mathematician, an astronomer, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.440 a statesman, and a commander in chief. And sometimes he 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.880 gets called the father of mechanics. He said to be 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.960 the most advanced of the Pythagorean mathematicians, and he classified 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.760 mathematics into four divisions, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. He 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:58.320 was really influential in his time, and Archidis also influenced 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.479 the work of Plato and Toddle. In fact, he said 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.520 to have rescued Plato from Dionysius the Second. But historians 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.839 are generally pretty quick to point out that the relationship 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.120 between Plato and Architis was a complex one. It was 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:15.760 pretty complicated. They had similar stances on many philosophical issues, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.720 but they also had some pretty obvious disagreements. But for 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.120 today's interest, the accomplishment of Architis that's the most relevant 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.920 is a mechanical bird. This bird, which he called simply 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.039 the pigeon, was suspended at the end of a pivoting bar. 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.880 It moved in revolutions around the bar, either using a 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.080 jet of steam or compressed air. And while the bird, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.760 which was created somewhere between four hundred and three fifty 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.080 b C. Is often listed as a footnote to Architis's 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.839 body of work, it's really important to remember that he 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.320 built this mechanism more than two thousand years ago, So 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:53.600 it was this very simple little robotic pigeon. Yes, some 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.880 people point to it as the first robot and recorded 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.159 history but as we mentioned earlier, and it's a claim 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.599 that a lot of people are just not willing to 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:06.240 make for sure about any of these. And now there's 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.200 kind of a big jump to our next one, because 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:11.560 we are getting to Da Vinci, who many people know 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.680 was really interested in mechanics. Uh. And so Leonardo was 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.400 born in April of fourtift two. He's one of history's 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.160 most famous men. So we all know his famous paintings 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.360 like the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, and his 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.560 drawings of these Truvian man So he's not really a 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:30.200 mystery to anyone who has even a passing knowledge of history. 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.360 Late in his life, in fifteen fifteen, he created this 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:38.040 automatal lion, allegedly to present to King France. At first, 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.200 the faux feline was said to have walked forward toward 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.320 the king, opened up its chest and revealed a cluster 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:48.320 of lilies. And while there's some lack of specificity about 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.680 the original lion uh and Leonardo did not leave any 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.920 sketches of it, he did make detailed sketches of the 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.720 mechanisms that he likely used in its construction, and he 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.920 left some notes as well. And in two thousand nine, 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:05.600 Renato Boretto, a master builder of automata, use those sketches 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.480 and da Vinci's notes and he actually recreated the lion. 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:13.840 It's really really interesting to watch. You can find video 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:15.840 of it online and will link to some of it. 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.320 You know, it's kind of sobering to watch this sample 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:23.720 of robotics that's based on early fifteen hundreds ingenuity, because 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.360 it's still a pretty impressive piece today. To see this, 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.560 it almost looks like a giant toy. It's life size, 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.800 but it's you know, carved, so it doesn't look like 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.840 a real lion, but it just it moves along and 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.040 it kind of has wheels and its feet and it 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.800 rolls as its legs move along the floor, and it 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.880 tilts its head side to side, and it's kind of 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:46.440 mind blowing to me to think that that was designed 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:52.199 hundreds of years ago. Leonardo also designed a fully automated 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.840 man that was styled to look like an armored knight, 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:57.400 with a rope and gear mechanism to raise and move 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:01.280 the limbs, but there's no record of this actually being built. 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.080 Italian robotics historians have also constructed a machine based on 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.440 these designs. Yeah, it's um it can't do quite the 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.199 amount of moving on its own that the lion can, 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.199 which is why we focused on the lion for this one. 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.800 But I thought that the the armored man she cold 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.600 at least to mention. And then we get to a 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:23.600 couple of entries that are really really mind blowing. The 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.760 first is Kanson's flute player, and like I said, this 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.120 one is U kind of a two for it's not 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.440 really just the one. We're going to talk about his 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.800 famous duck automaton as well, which when I have mentioned 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.680 to our colleagues that we were working on this podcast, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.760 everyone asked about the duck and I just kind of shrug. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:45.800 We'll get there. So Jacques de Vokinson was born in 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.800 Grenoble on February seventeen o nine, and he was the 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:54.520 youngest child of ten born to a glovemaker and a 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.520 devout Catholic wife. And the story goes that Jacques was 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.520 obsessed with mechanical things at a very young age. Uh 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.120 he studied with the Jesuits as a youngster. He even 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.240 entered a monastery but the age of sixteen as a 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.760 means of supporting his scientific studies because at that point 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.560 his father was gone and his mother couldn't really just 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.560 pay for him to play in his mechanized world. And 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.600 then later in sight, he left the monastery to study 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.480 medicine and anatomy in Paris, and throughout his life of 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.199 Wilkinson was inspired by medical science, and his passion for 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.680 an insight into the workings of anatomy garnered him several 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.040 patrons that supported his work through the years. His most 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:37.160 famous automaton was a gold plated copper duck. And what 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.080 a duck it was. It could do many of the 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.880 things real ducks could do. It could it could quack 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.440 and drink water, and flap its wings and mimic the 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:51.400 digestive process, reminding me of many novelty items owned by 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:54.600 my grandfather. So yes, it's the famous pooping robot duck. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.800 If everybody knows about uh, you know, it's one of 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.200 the like when you go, oh, ancient robots like pooping 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:08.200 robot duck. Right. Yes. In a letter written to the 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.920 Abbe de Fontaine, he wrote, my second machine or automaton 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.000 is a duck in which I represent the mechanism of 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.560 the intestines which are employed in the operations of eating, drinking, 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.520 and digestion, where in the working of all the parts 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.680 necessary for these actions is exactly imitated. The duck stretches 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:28.440 out its neck to take corn out of your hand, 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.880 It swallows it, digested and discharges it digested by the 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.400 usual passage. And I feel compelled to know it didn't 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.720 actually digested it. There was no chemical breakdown of whatever 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:42.000 you handed it. You could hand it buttons and it 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.640 would those would pass through its automated little system. And 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:47.960 I think when modern ears here they think of it 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.640 as this cookie novelty thing. But really he was trying 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:56.880 to represent a full um anatomical being. Like to him, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.280 it was more about the science of and study of, 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.959 you know, biology than it was like, look, my duck poops. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.480 Not so much to be something you would buy in 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:09.080 the back of a spencer gift, but that duck was 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.160 actually created to boost attendance at an exhibit of another 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.520 of Vokinson's works, which was his Automatic Flute Player. The 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.960 flute player was allegedly conceived in a fevered state while 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.960 he was ill. A famous marble statue by sculptor Antoine 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.319 Koiservo was the inspiration for the shape of the figure, 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.959 although Wolkenson's version was made of wood and then painted 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.280 to look like marble. And this figure was five point 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:38.800 five feet tall, which is about one point seven meters. Uh. 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.480 And in the modern book Living Dolls the Magical History 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:44.760 of the Question Mechanical Life Gabby Wood rights of the 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.880 Mechanical Flute Player, nine bellows were attached to three separate 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.480 pipes that led into the chest of the figure. Each 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.880 set of three bellows was attached to a different weight 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.520 to give out varying degrees of air, and then all 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.920 pipes joined into a single one equivalent to a trachea, 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.520 continuing up through the throat and widening to form the 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.640 cavity of the mouth. The lips, which bore upon the 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.120 whole of the flute, could open and close and move 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.880 backwards or forwards. Inside the mouth was a movable metal 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.679 tongue which governed the airflow and created pauses. This automaton breathed, 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:22.880 which is cool. It's really cool. Um. It's an incredibly 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:28.360 complex design. And of course, uh, you know, the flute 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.960 is a hard instrument to play when you're an actual human. 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.560 So he had to do something tricky. Yes, So, borrowing 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.319 from his family's roots, he gave the flute player's hands 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:40.959 a skin covering to mimic the soft touch that you 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.480 need to play a flute. That's a tricky instrumental master 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.960 even for people, and his macanoid minstrel could play twelve 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.920 different tunes. And this flute player went on display on 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.360 February eleventh of set eight, and the cost of entry 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.199 to see this marvel was roughly equivalent to a week's 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:03.040 worth of wages for the average manual laborer. So this 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.440 was a serious money maker because people were paying that 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.560 to go see it. I mean it was too fantastical 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.679 to skip, uh, which is why when the attendants fell off, 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.360 Vokinson added the duck to the exhibit, as well as 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.680 another piece called the Tambourine Player. In an effort to 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.000 bring audiences back and keep the money flowing. He sold 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.000 off his mechanical creations in one and at that point 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:30.120 became Francis Inspector of silk manufacturer. His adventures in that 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.880 job could really be their own podcasts, they really could. 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.680 He really sort of revolutionized looms um. But the flute 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.160 player in the other automeda changed hands several times, and 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.280 the flute player was last seen in the possession of 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.240 Gottfried Christoph Barres, doctor to the Duke of Brunswick, and 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.680 then he disappeared from history. After the doctor's death, the 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.440 duck turned up a couple more times, and uh, there 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.360 are allegedly there are pictures of it or something that's 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.960 very much like it that you can find online. But 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.320 the flute player, we don't. We don't know where it landed, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.240 which is a pity because I would really love to 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:07.320 see how that works. And then for our final entry 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.760 in our list of five instances, there are actually three 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.920 pieces in this but uh, they're quite marvelous. Yes, they're 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.040 the work of Pierre Jacquedras, who was born on July 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:23.280 seventeen twenty one in Switzerland. His family was primarily involved 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.640 in two modes of employment, farming and watchmaking, and in 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.800 seventeen thirty eight Jacquedras opened up his own watch shop 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.600 in Le chad Defont, and initially he specialized in pendulum clocks, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.200 but eventually he turned his attention to automated mechanisms and 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.240 eventually began to sell small automeda to a special clients. 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.480 I also feel like we should mentioned that he is 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.920 It's kind of a side note, but he's often credited 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.200 with creating a wristwatch. So he was very much into 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:55.320 shrinking mechanisms down, which plays into his work in Automeda. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:59.160 In seventeen seventy four, he and his son Henri Louis, 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.440 and a clock maker, Jean Frederick less Show presented their 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.680 three creations, which are still considered to be marvels of 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.320 mechanical engineering. The Musician is the first one, and it's 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.320 a female and um she plays an organ, and it's 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.840 not an actual organ, it's a custom instrument that looks 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.960 like an organ, and she will bow at the end 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.920 of her performances, and she plays five different tunes, and 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.960 the mechanical works are actually all concealed beneath her gown, 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.520 but her fingers move super briskly and they tap along 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.200 at the instrument's keys, and it's really quite something to watch. 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.200 The draftsman can draw floor pictures, and he'll also blow 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.400 dust and graphite off of this page. And the draftsman 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.560 looks more like a little boy, and he looks almost 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.800 identical to the third one, which is an automaton that 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:49.680 people sort of hold in this extremely high regard because 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.240 it's really quite a marvel. It's called the Writer, and 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.960 it's um to my mind, and I think the mind 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.800 of many other others that study this subject. It's the 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.000 most impressive of the three because he can write as 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:06.760 many as forty letters in sequence, and because he has 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.240 built with a series of coded gears in his back 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.480 that can be moved, he can actually be programmed to 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.639 write new sequences. His messages aren't static, uh, and he'll 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.600 dip his pen in an ink well so that it 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.640 needs to be refreshed whenever he writes, and he carefully 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.320 scrawls out the program message onto paper, and his eyes 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:27.760 actually follow his pen as he's working, which is sort 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.640 of amazing and wonderful. The fact that this one can 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.720 be programmed to do different things would probably put him 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:39.119 higher on the list in like the Nitpickers list of robots, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.560 because one of in terms of today's terminology, one of 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.800 the hallmarks of robotics is that these are programmable things, 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:49.640 not just things that work on like a remote control 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.640 or some kind of teather Yeah. Uh. And Jacque Drows 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.760 would take these automota around with him on tour while 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.479 he was visiting wealthy families, and he would, you know, 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.000 have them do their little activities and show off and 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.760 then he would use those charms to sell his high 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:09.159 end watches and smaller automoda to his elite clientele, and 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.280 he would also book them into hotel rooms and then 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.640 charge admission for people to just come and see them. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.920 And the Jaque Drew's name is still famous for its watches. Um. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.720 Just as Paul Pare, who we discussed in a previous podcast, 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.360 brought branding into fashion houses, Jacquie Drews did a similar thing, 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:27.760 and he understood the idea of building a brand in 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:32.880 his industry, and his touring automoda were part of that brand. Today, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.760 this trio lives in the Museum of Art and History 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.480 in Switzerland and they all still work, which is a 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.720 testament to the extraordinary engineering and skill that went into 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.080 their creation. Yeah, those are other ones that you can 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.680 see lots of video footage of online. Uh, you know, 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.760 people carefully programming them. And I've noticed in some of 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:56.760 them the writer he's a little um squeaky. At some 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.560 point they have to scoot the paper along form a 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.280 little bit because the paper actually gets kind of moved 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.440 on this little um carrier that goes back and forth 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.960 underneath his hands. But generally he's still I mean they're 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.639 all still in great working order and pretty amazing, and 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.520 I feel like, um, we should mention as we wrap up, 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.120 we're not going to talk about this one, but uh, 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.399 I know people will ask why we didn't include it, 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:24.919 which is the katakuti ningio, which are Japanese automata uh 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.679 that are generally referenced from like sixteenth through early nineteenth century, 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.119 And I really think they deserve their own podcasts, so 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:34.720 stay tuned. It would be weird to talk about robots 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:36.320 and not mentioned Japan at all, so I wanted to 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.600 make sure we at least pointed those out. Uh. They 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.680 also kind of go past the point in history where 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:43.600 we wanted to do the cut off, not so much 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.720 the early. It's a little later than early. Some of 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.280 it's in this realm that I was talking about, but 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:51.360 it goes on a little bit further and there are 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.520 many different types, and I feel like they just they 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:56.840 deserve their own whole little discussion because they're really quite amazing. 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.880 But uh, those are, like I said, a little sampling 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:05.000 of historical robotics and automata that I just I think 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.639 it's sort of beautiful and wonderful that's going back these 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.560 thousands of years. We've always been obsessed with creating sort 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.040 of mechanized versions of ourselves and other natural elements of 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.280 the world. And a lot of these remind me of 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.240 stuff that happened much later, or things that that later 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:24.560 would not have been quite so impressive, like the Um 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:27.399 you look at the movie Hugo and the book that 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.480 it was based off of, like that was a much 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:35.240 more recent era of of clockworks and steam based things 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:40.760 and automata that could write things. Um, and this predates 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.440 those sort of things by some hundreds of years. Yeah, 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:49.600 it's very very cool. So that's historical. Robots will hopefully 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:51.639 do more perhaps in the future, in addition of the 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.240 Japanese ones, because robots are awesome. They're really cool. I also, 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.119 as as we're reading this, I just like every description 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.560 sort of have ended with the sentence and then they 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.399 all came to life and the doctor had to come 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:08.119 and save us, because that, along with the intriguing idea 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.119 of making mechanical life, is the idea of that going 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:16.480 horribly wrong in the human consciousness that they seem to Nope, 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.199 they all none of them came to like running, They 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:22.119 didn't take over the world. So let's take a moment 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:27.199 to have a word from our sponsor. You also have 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:30.000 some listener mail, do you. Indeed? This mail is from 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:34.040 Elizabeth and it is yet another email about our podcast 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.719 on the domestication of cats. She's gotten a bunch of 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.400 and also lots of people sending cat pictures. Keep them 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:41.760 coming because I love that the cat pictures are really 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.199 brightening our listener in bar. They're so fun. Uh. And 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.040 Elizabeth says, I really enjoyed your recent podcast about the 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.520 domestication of cats. I'm an evolutionary biologist, so I'm always 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.760 super excited when you guys makes a little science in 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.840 with your history. The straight up history podcasts are awesome 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.280 as well as someone who works who were ras a 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.840 lot about wildlife conservation, though there was one point I 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.600 wished you'd emphasized more. Cats may be fascinating animals and 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.560 wonderful pets, but the fact that humans have introduced these 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:11.879 deadly little predators all over the world has had a 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:15.960 devastating impact on wildlife. Domestic cats are implicated in the 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:18.720 extinction of several bird species and are also a huge 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.240 threat to reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. As much as 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.560 I empathize with cat owners desire to let their pets 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.760 room outside. Even well fed domestic cats kill quite a 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.640 few wild animals. There's actually a project at the University 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:33.160 of Georgia right in your backyard that seeks to quantify 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.720 this by attaching cameras to outdoor cats callers. Here's a 0:22:36.760 --> 0:22:38.920 link to web comic about the project and what about 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.480 the project page itself, which we can also share with 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.280 our listeners. If you guys ever touch on this or 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:46.080 a similar topic again, it would be great if you 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.280 could encourage fellow cat lovers to minimize their pets impact 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:52.280