WEBVTT - How Is Maillardet's Automaton Still Wowing Us After 200 Years?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>boglebam Here. In this our twenty first century, we've become

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<v Speaker 1>pretty much accustomed to the idea of robots being able

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<v Speaker 1>to move around, almost like people or other animals. It

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't always go smoothly. Robot fail videos are one of

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<v Speaker 1>my favorite categories, but we've seen robots do everything from

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<v Speaker 1>put together a car to run a foot race. However,

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<v Speaker 1>the idea of automata, meaning moving mechanical devices sometimes designed

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<v Speaker 1>to imitate life, actually dates back thousands of years. The

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<v Speaker 1>word automaton is derived from the ancient Greek word automatose,

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<v Speaker 1>which means self acting, and the Greeks built some of

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<v Speaker 1>the earliest machines that emulated living creatures, from mechanical dolphins

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<v Speaker 1>and eagles that entertained crowds at the Olympic Games to

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<v Speaker 1>a mechanical puppet theater. In Renaissance Europe, churchgoers marveled at

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<v Speaker 1>mechanized angels. In fourteen ninety five, Leonardo da Vinci designed

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<v Speaker 1>a robotic night that could move its limbs, though it's

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<v Speaker 1>not clear whether he ever actually built it. In the

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<v Speaker 1>early eighteen hundreds, a particularly marvelous human like machine reached

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<v Speaker 1>new heights of complexity and even mimicked human's artistic self expression.

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<v Speaker 1>Or we are talking about Maillard Day's automaton, a device

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<v Speaker 1>created around the year eighteen hundred by Swiss mechanical designer

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<v Speaker 1>on remailar Day, who worked in London building clocks and

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<v Speaker 1>other machines. The automaton, which resembles a human boy sitting

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<v Speaker 1>at a table with a pen in hand, is capable

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<v Speaker 1>of making four different detailed drawings and writing out three

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<v Speaker 1>different poems, two in French and one in English. This

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<v Speaker 1>automaton is currently housed by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the nation's foremost science and technology education centers,

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<v Speaker 1>which acquired the automaton from the estate of a wealthy

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<v Speaker 1>philadelph back in nineteen twenty eight and has spent decades

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<v Speaker 1>restoring and maintaining it Before the article This episode is

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<v Speaker 1>based on How Stuffworks. Spoke by email with Susannah Carrol, now,

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<v Speaker 1>the director of Collections and curator at the Franklin Institute.

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<v Speaker 1>She said the significance of the Malar Day automaton is

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<v Speaker 1>that it has one of the largest working memories of

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<v Speaker 1>any existing automaton from the same time period by memory.

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<v Speaker 1>She's not talking about computer chips. Instead. The memory of

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<v Speaker 1>Maillard Day's automaton is in the form of brass discs

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<v Speaker 1>called cams, which are turned by a clockwork motor powered

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<v Speaker 1>by springs. You wind up with a large key. Three

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<v Speaker 1>steel rods with sort of teeth on the end follow

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<v Speaker 1>the cam's irregular edges. These followers are connected to a

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<v Speaker 1>complex system of levers and rods that translate those movements

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<v Speaker 1>up the figure's body and down into its writing hand,

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<v Speaker 1>thus producing incredibly smooth side to side, front and back

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<v Speaker 1>and up and down movements. The figure also appears to

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<v Speaker 1>follow its works with its eyes and head. If you've

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<v Speaker 1>never seen it in action, go check out a video.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, maybe not right now, but you know when

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<v Speaker 1>you get a chance. And Carol said. Though automated machines

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<v Speaker 1>and even human like machines were written about and probably

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<v Speaker 1>even created thousands of years ago, automata of this size

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<v Speaker 1>were not common at all. The Mallar Day automaton was

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<v Speaker 1>an engineering accomplishment and continues to be an impressive wonder

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<v Speaker 1>of machinery and skill. I would define it as an

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<v Speaker 1>example of the apex of a type of automaton with

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<v Speaker 1>limitations defined by the time period in which it was made.

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<v Speaker 1>Unlike the larger humanoid machines created in the Renaissance, which

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<v Speaker 1>were powered by water displacement or pulley systems, most of

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<v Speaker 1>the automata of the period in which malar Day worked

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<v Speaker 1>were just a few inches in size, with miniature clockwork

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<v Speaker 1>mechanisms designed to replicate animals such as birds and frogs.

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<v Speaker 1>Creating these small, intricate devices was a complex task, Carol explained.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes a single automaton would be created by workshops in

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<v Speaker 1>different countries. For example, the mechanism may be made in Switzerland,

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<v Speaker 1>the enameling or gilding may be done in France, and

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<v Speaker 1>then the automaton would be sold in England. Records are

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<v Speaker 1>rare for the automata that remain in existence, so it

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<v Speaker 1>can be a challenge to figure out who built them.

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<v Speaker 1>Maillard Day's automaton clear set up all by itself, though

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<v Speaker 1>the automaton puts its signature on the final drawing that's

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<v Speaker 1>programmed for, and that signature reads by the automaton of

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<v Speaker 1>malar Day. Mailar Day learned how to build human like

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<v Speaker 1>machines as an apprentice of Pierre jacquet Rose, an eighteenth

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<v Speaker 1>century Swiss clockmaker, watchmaker and master mechanic. Jacquey Rose's complex

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<v Speaker 1>and extravagantly decorated automata and time pieces caught the attention

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<v Speaker 1>of the royal courts of Yearurope and far away China,

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<v Speaker 1>and for a brief but awkward period, the Spanish Inquisition,

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<v Speaker 1>which suspected him of witchcraft until he demonstrated his piece's

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<v Speaker 1>inner workings. Jacquey Dros's shops in London and Geneva produced,

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<v Speaker 1>among whole flocks of tiny singing birds, a large scale automata,

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<v Speaker 1>including a nearly life scale child sitting at a desk

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<v Speaker 1>that writes real notes on paper with a feather quill.

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<v Speaker 1>Created sometime around seventeen seventy, That piece, called The Writer,

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<v Speaker 1>is currently down for repairs, but it and two other

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<v Speaker 1>jacquey DROs automata, the Draftsmen and the Musician, are on

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<v Speaker 1>display at the Art and History Museum in Nuschittel, Switzerland.

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<v Speaker 1>The two working pieces perform public demonstrations there on the

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<v Speaker 1>first Sunday of every month. Some historians consider these to

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<v Speaker 1>be some of the earliest working mechanical computers, albeit with

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<v Speaker 1>read only programs created decades before visionaries like Charles Babbage

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<v Speaker 1>and Ada Lovelace were even born. All of this is

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<v Speaker 1>to say that malar Day learned from the best. When

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<v Speaker 1>he struck out on his own and opened his own

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<v Speaker 1>workshop in London, he pushed the art and science of

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<v Speaker 1>building automata even further. Carol said it probably would have

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<v Speaker 1>taken three crafts people around two years to design and

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<v Speaker 1>construct an automaton like the one in our collection. Skills

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<v Speaker 1>in watch in clockmaking would be instrumental in constructing an automaton.

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<v Speaker 1>A metal spitting material, science, precision, creativity, patience all would

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<v Speaker 1>likely play a role. Mailar Day's automaton was designed primarily

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<v Speaker 1>to amaze and entertain audiences at exhibitions. He and other

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<v Speaker 1>watch and clockmakers would travel with their large automata to

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<v Speaker 1>create an experience that would make a powerful impression upon spectators,

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<v Speaker 1>most of whom had never seen sophisticated mechanical technology. Carol explained,

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<v Speaker 1>in the seventeen hundreds, people were still looking at the

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<v Speaker 1>town hall or church clock, which may have had automata

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<v Speaker 1>to see the time. Pocket watches were not yet widely

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<v Speaker 1>worn by the general public. A Maillard Day toured Europe

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<v Speaker 1>with the automaton until his death in eighteen thirty, reaching

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<v Speaker 1>as far east as Russia. After that, the machine's history

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<v Speaker 1>becomes sketchy. It's possible that P. T. Barnum acquired the

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<v Speaker 1>device and put it on display in his museums in

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<v Speaker 1>New York City. In Philadelphia, the device may have been

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<v Speaker 1>damaged in one of the fires that destroyed both museums

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<v Speaker 1>before it somehow came into the possession of the Brock

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<v Speaker 1>family in Philadelphia. Automata continued to be popular entertainment into

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen hundreds, such as the mechanical fortune tellers at

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<v Speaker 1>amusement parks, but the fascination with them gradually faded. After all,

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<v Speaker 1>even more spectacular and world changing technologies emerged during the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen hundreds, from airplanes to television to home computers. Carol said,

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<v Speaker 1>maybe there were so many advances in storing data like

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<v Speaker 1>the Malar day Automaton's seven programs to what we have

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<v Speaker 1>now that we just leapt from mechanical to our computerized robots. However,

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<v Speaker 1>automatad do live on as entertainment today. Disney leaned into

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<v Speaker 1>the concept in the nineteen sixties, revamping the technology to

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<v Speaker 1>include electrical and eventually electronic and computerized elements. These audio

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<v Speaker 1>Animatronics trademark are all over Disney theme parks, from the

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<v Speaker 1>Birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room to the Pirates in

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<v Speaker 1>Pirates of the Caribbean, two new figures in Star Wars Galaxies.

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<v Speaker 1>Edge Carol said, replicating life has always been an interesting endeavor.

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<v Speaker 1>It is an ultimate challenge to the machinist and forces

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<v Speaker 1>the viewer to question what it means to be human,

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<v Speaker 1>similar to humanoid robots today. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article Mailar Day's Automaton is a marble of nineteenth

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<v Speaker 1>century robotics on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Patrick J. Kiger.

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<v Speaker 1>Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot

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<v Speaker 1>Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. But four more

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<v Speaker 1>podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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