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Not to be confused with automation as a process.
This article is about a self-operating machine. For other uses, see Automaton
(disambiguation). For Automata, see Automata (disambiguation).

Pinocchio automaton.

An automaton (/ɔːˈtɒmətən/; plural: automata or automatons) is a self-

operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to automatically follow
a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined
instructions.[1] Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to
give the illusion to the casual observer that they are operating under their own power.

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
o 2.1Ancient
o 2.2Medieval
o 2.3Renaissance and early modern
o 2.4Modern
 3In education
 4Clocks
 5Animatronics and mechatronics
 6Robotics
 7See also
 8Further reading
 9Notes and references
 10External links

Etymology[edit]
The word "automaton" is the latinization of the Greek αὐτόματον, automaton, (neuter)
"acting of one's own will". This word was first used by Homer to describe automatic door
opening,[2] or automatic movement of wheeled tripods.[3] It is more often used to describe
non-electronic moving machines, especially those that have been made to resemble
human or animal actions, such as the jacks on old public striking clocks, or
the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock.

History[edit]
Ancient[edit]

The book About automata by Hero of Alexandria (1589 edition)

There are many examples of automata in Greek mythology: Hephaestus created

automata for his workshop;[4] Talos was an artificial man of
bronze; Daedalus used quicksilver to install voice in his moving statues; King Alkinous of
the Phaiakians employed gold and silver watchdogs.[5][6]
The automata in the Hellenistic world were intended as tools, toys, religious idols, or
prototypes for demonstrating basic scientific principles. Numerous water powered
automata were built by Ktesibios, a Greek inventor and the first head of the Great Library
of Alexandria, for example he "used water to sound a whistle and make a model owl
move. He had invented the world's first "cuckoo" clock".[7] This tradition continued in
Alexandria with inventors such as the Greek mathematician Hero of
Alexandria (sometimes known as Heron), whose writings on hydraulics, pneumatics,
and mechanics described siphons, a fire engine, a water organ, the aeolipile, and a
programmable cart.[8][9]

The Antikythera mechanism from 150–100 BC was designed to calculate the positions of
astronomical objects.
Complex mechanical devices are known to have existed in Hellenistic Greece, though
the only surviving example is the Antikythera mechanism, the earliest known analog
computer.[10] It is thought to have come originally from Rhodes, where there was
apparently a tradition of mechanical engineering; the island was renowned for its
automata; to quote Pindar's seventh Olympic Ode:
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
move their marble feet.
However, the information gleaned from recent scans of the fragments
indicate that it may have come from the colonies of Corinth in Sicily and
implies a connection with Archimedes.
According to Jewish legend, Solomon used his wisdom to design
a throne with mechanical animals which hailed him as king when he
ascended it; upon sitting down an eagle would place a crown upon his
head, and a dove would bring him a Torah scroll. It is also said that
when King Solomon stepped upon the throne, a mechanism was set in
motion. As soon as he stepped upon the first step, a golden ox and a
golden lion each stretched out one foot to support him and help him rise
to the next step. On each side, the animals helped the King up until he
was comfortably seated upon the throne.[11]
In ancient China, a curious account of automata is found in the Lie
Zi text, written in the 3rd century BC. Within it there is a description of a
much earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou (1023-957 BC) and a
mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an 'artificer'. The latter proudly
presented the king with a life-size, human-shaped figure of his
mechanical handiwork:
The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid
strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken
it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began
singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing,
keeping perfect time...As the performance was drawing to an end, the
robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance,
whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shih
[Yan Shi] executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly
taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it
turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer,
variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the
king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs,
spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles,
bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them
artificial...The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, and found
that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the
eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost
their power of locomotion. The king was delighted.[12]

Other notable examples of automata include Archytas's dove, mentioned

by Aulus Gellius.[13] Similar Chinese accounts of flying automata are
written of the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his
contemporary Lu Ban, who made artificial wooden birds (ma yuan) that
could successfully fly according to the Han Fei Zi and other texts.[14]
Medieval[edit]
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The manufacturing tradition of automata continued in the Greek world

well into the Middle Ages. On his visit to Constantinople in 949
ambassador Liutprand of Cremona described automata in the
emperor Theophilos' palace, including
"lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck
the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering
tongue," "a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise
made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their
species" and "the emperor's throne" itself, which "was made in such a
cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at
another it rose higher and was to be seen up in the air."[15]

Similar automata in the throne room (singing birds, roaring and moving
lions) were described by Luitprand's contemporary, the Byzantine
emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his book Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου
Τάξεως.
In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built:
"statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and
the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad". The "public
spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the
'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly
displayed."[16] Also in the 8th century, the Muslim alchemist, Jābir ibn
Hayyān (Geber), included recipes for constructing
artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans that would be subject to their
creator's control in his coded Book of Stones. In 827, Abbasid caliph al-
Ma'mun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad, which
had the features of an automatic machine. There were metal birds that
sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim
inventors and engineers.[17][page needed] The Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir also
had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 917, with birds
on it flapping their wings and singing.[18] In the 9th century, the Banū
Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and
which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.[19]
 Automaton in the Swiss Museum CIMA.

An automaton writing a letter in Swiss Museum CIMA.

Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid

automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in
the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206.[citation
needed]
His automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that
floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties.
His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams)
that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer
could be made to play different rhythms and drum patterns if the pegs
were moved around.[20] According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata
were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body
actions during each musical selection."[21]
Al-Jazari constructed a hand washing automaton first employing the
flush mechanism now used in modern toilets. It features a female
automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the
lever, the water drains and the automaton refills the basin.[22] His
"peacock fountain" was another more sophisticated hand washing
device featuring humanoid automata as servants who
offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling
a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty
water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates
a linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under
the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at
a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant
figure — with a towel!"[23] Al-Jazari thus appears to have been the first
inventor to display an interest in creating human-like machines for
practical purposes such as manipulating the environment for human
comfort.[24]
Samarangana Sutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja (11th century),
includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical contrivances
(automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains shaped like
humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled oil lamps,
danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu
mythology.[25][26][27]
Villard de Honnecourt, in his 1230s sketchbook, show plans for animal
automata and an angel that perpetually turns to face the sun. At the end
of the thirteenth century, Robert II, Count of Artois built a pleasure
garden at his castle at Hesdin that incorporated several automata as
entertainment in the walled park. The work was conducted by local
workmen and overseen by the Italian knight Renaud Coignet. It included
monkey marionettes, a sundial supported by lions and "wild men",
mechanized birds, mechanized fountains and a bellows-operated organ.
The park was famed for its automata well into the fifteenth century
before it was destroyed by English soldiers in the sixteenth.[28][29][30]
The Chinese author Xiao Xun wrote that when the Ming
Dynasty founder Hongwu (r. 1368–1398) was destroying the palaces
of Khanbaliq belonging to the previous Yuan Dynasty, there were—
among many other mechanical devices—automata found that were in
the shape of tigers.[31]
Renaissance and early modern[edit]

A cuckoo clock with a built in automaton of a cuckoo that flaps its wings and
opens its beak in time to the sounds of the cuckoo call to mark the number
of hours on the analogue dial.
Elephant automaton at Waddesdon Manor

The Renaissance witnessed a considerable revival of interest in

automata. Hero's treatises were edited and translated into Latin and
Italian. Giovanni Fontana created mechanical devils and rocket-
propelled animal automata. Numerous clockwork automata were
manufactured in the 16th century, principally by the goldsmiths of
the Free Imperial Cities of central Europe. These wondrous devices
found a home in the cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammern of the
princely courts of Europe. Hydraulic and pneumatic automata, similar to
those described by Hero, were created for garden grottoes.
Leonardo da Vinci sketched a more complex automaton around the year
1495. The design of Leonardo's robot was not rediscovered until the
1950s. The robot could, if built successfully, move its arms, twist its
head, and sit up.
The Smithsonian Institution has in its collection a clockwork monk, about
15 in (380 mm) high, possibly dating as early as 1560. The monk is
driven by a key-wound spring and walks the path of a square, striking his
chest with his right arm, while raising and lowering a small wooden cross
and rosary in his left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his
eyes, and mouthing silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the
cross to his lips and kisses it. It is believed that the monk was
manufactured by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V.[32]
A new attitude towards automata is to be found in Descartes when he
suggested that the bodies of animals are nothing more than complex
machines - the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with cogs,
pistons and cams. Thus mechanism became the standard to
which Nature and the organism was compared.[33] France in the 17th
century was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were
to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution. Thus,
in 1649, when Louis XIV was still a child, an artisan named Camus
designed for him a miniature coach, and horses complete with footmen,
page and a lady within the coach; all these figures exhibited a perfect
movement. According to P. Labat, General de Gennes constructed, in
1688, in addition to machines for gunnery and navigation, a peacock that
walked and ate. Athanasius Kircher produced many automata to create
Jesuit shows, including a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking
tube.

A Japanese automata theater in Osaka, drawn in 18th century. The Takeda

family opened their automata theater in 1662.

The world's first successfully-built biomechanical automaton is

considered to be The Flute Player, invented by the French
engineer Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. He also constructed
the Digesting Duck, a mechanical duck that gave the false illusion of
eating and defecating, seeming to endorse Cartesian ideas that animals
are no more than machines of flesh.
In 1769, a chess-playing machine called the Turk, created by Wolfgang
von Kempelen, made the rounds of the courts of Europe purporting to be
an automaton. The Turk was operated from inside by a hidden human
director, and was not a true automaton.

Maillardet's automaton is drawing a picture

Other 18th century automaton makers include the prolific Swiss Pierre
Jaquet-Droz (see Jaquet-Droz automata) and his contemporary Henri
Maillardet. Maillardet, a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable
of drawing four pictures and writing three poems. Maillardet's Automaton
is now part of the collections at the Franklin Institute Science Museum
in Philadelphia. Belgian-born John Joseph Merlin created the
mechanism of the Silver Swan automaton, now at Bowes Museum.[34] A
musical elephant made by the French clockmaker Hubert Martinet in
1774 is one of the highlights of Waddesdon Manor.[35] Tipu's Tiger is
another late-18th century example of automata, made for Tipu Sultan,
featuring a European soldier being mauled by a tiger.
According to philosopher Michel Foucault, Frederick the Great, king of
Prussia from 1740 to 1786, was "obsessed" with automata.[36] According
to Manuel de Landa, "he put together his armies as a well-
oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot-like
warriors".
Japan adopted automata during the Edo period (1603–1867); they were
known as karakuri ningyō.
Automata, particularly watches and clocks, were popular in China during
the 18th and 19th centuries, and items were produced for the Chinese
market. Strong interest by Chinese collectors in the 21st century brought
many interesting items to market where they have had dramatic
realizations.[37]
Modern[edit]

A singing bird box made about 1890 by Bontems. Bird dressed with iridescent
hummingbird feathers and case made of tortoiseshell.

The famous magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) was

known for creating automata for his stage shows.

The flute-player by Innocenzo Manzetti (1840)

In 1840, Italian inventor Innocenzo Manzetti constructed a flute-playing

automaton, in the shape of a man, life-size, seated on a chair. Hidden
inside the chair were levers, connecting rods and compressed air tubes,
which made the automaton's lips and fingers move on the flute
according to a program recorded on a cylinder similar to those used
in player pianos. The automaton was powered by clockwork and could
perform 12 different arias. As part of the performance it would rise from
the chair, bow its head, and roll its eyes.
Tea-serving Japanese automaton, "karakuri ningyō", with mechanism (right),
19th century.

The period 1860 to 1910 is known as "The Golden Age of Automata".

During this period many small family based companies of Automata
makers thrived in Paris. From their workshops they exported thousands
of clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around the world. It
is these French automata that are collected today, although now rare
and expensive they attract collectors worldwide. The main French
makers were Bontems, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou, Roullet & Decamps,
Theroude and Vichy.
Contemporary automata continue this tradition with an emphasis on art,
rather than technological sophistication. Contemporary automata are
represented by the works of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in the United
Kingdom, Dug North and Chomick+Meder,[38] Thomas Kuntz,[39] Arthur
Ganson, Joe Jones in the United States, Le Défenseur du Temps by
French artist Jacques Monestier, and François Junod in Switzerland.
Some mechanized toys developed during the 18th and 19th centuries
were automata made with paper. Despite the relative simplicity of the
material, paper automata require a high degree of technical ingenuity.
One of the most advanced automata proposed to date
is NASA's Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE), a wind-
powered automaton to be used for exploring Venus. Unlike other
modern automata, AREE is an automaton instead of a robot for practical
reasons — Venus's harsh conditions, particularly its surface temperature
of 462 °C (864 °F), make operating electronics there impossible.[40]

In education[edit]
The potential educational value of mechanical toys in teaching
transversal skills has been recognised by the European Union education
project Clockwork objects, enhanced learning: Automata Toys
Construction (CLOHE).[41]

Clocks[edit]
Main article: Automaton clock
Examples of automaton clocks include Chariot clock and Cuckoo Clocks.
The Cuckooland Museum exhibits autonomous clocks.

This section needs expansion. You

 can help by adding to it. (December
2016)

Animatronics and mechatronics[edit]

Main articles: Animatronics and Mechatronics

This section needs expansion. You

can help by adding to it. (December
2016)

Robotics[edit]
Main articles: Robotics, History of robots, and Android (robot)

This section needs expansion. You

can help by adding to it. (December
2016)

See also[edit]
 Automata theory
 Automation
 Brazen head
 Cellular automaton
 Centre International de la Mécanique d'Art
 Christian Ristow
 Computer
 Ctesibius
 Genesis Redux
 Giles Walker
 Golem
 Hero of Alexandria
 La Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin display of 19th century
automata
 Maillardet's automaton
 Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum
 Orchestrion
 Singing bird box
 Theo Jansen
 Whirligig

Further reading[edit]
 Bailly, Christian (2003). Automata: The Golden Age: 1848-1914.
London: Robert Hale. ISBN 9780709074038.
 Beyer, Annette (1983). Faszinierende Welt der Automaten : Uhren,
Puppen, Spielereien (1st ed.). München:
Callwey. ISBN 9783766706591.
 Bowers, Q. David (1974). Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical
Instruments (4. printing ed.). Vestal, NY: Vestal
Press. ISBN 9780911572087.
 Brauers, Jan (1984). Von der Äolsharfe zum Digitalspieler: 2000
Jahre mechanische Musik, 100 Jahre Schallplatte. München:
Klinkhardt & Biermann. ISBN 9783781402393.
 Chapuis, Alfred; Gélis, Edouard (1928). Le monde des automates;
étude historique et technique. OCLC 3006589.
 Critchley, Macdonald; Henson, R. A. (1978). Music and the brain.
Studies in the neurology of music. London:
Heinemann. ISBN 9780433067030.
 Waard, R. D. (1967). From music boxes to street
organs. OCLC 609338403.
 Chapuis, Alfred; Droz, Edmond (1956). The Jaquet-Droz mechanical
puppets. Neuchatel: Historical Museum. OCLC 315497609.
 Hyman, Wendy Beth (2011). The Automaton in English Renaissance
Literature. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-6865-7.
 Cardinal, Catherine; Mercier, François (1993). Museums of horology
La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle. Geneva: Banque
Paribas. ISBN 9783908184348.
 Montiel, Luis (30 June 2013). "Proles sine matre creata: The
Promethean Urge in the History of the Human Body in the
West". Asclepio. 65 (1). doi:10.3989/asclepio.2013.01.
 Lapaire, Claude (1992). Clock and Watch Museum, Geneva.
Geneva: Art and History Museum. ISBN 9782830600728.
 Ord-Hume, Arthur W. J. G. (1973). Clockwork music: an illustrated
history of mechanical musical instruments from the music box to the
pianola, from automation lady virginal players to orchestrion. New
York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 9780517500002.
 Ord-Hume, Arthur W.J.G. (1978). Barrel organ: the story of the
mechanical organ and its repair. South Brunswick, N.J.: A.S.
Barnes. ISBN 9780498014826.
 Rausser, Fernand; Bonhôte, Daniel; Baud, Frédy (1972). All'Epoca
delle Scatole Musicali, Edizioni Mondo, 175 pp.
 Carrera, Roland; Loiseau, Dominique; Roux, Olivier; Luder, Jean
Jacques (1979). Androids: The Jaquet-Droz Automatons. Lausanne:
Scriptar. ISBN 9782880120184.
 Troquet, Daniel (1989). The wonderland of music boxes and
automata. Sainte-Croix. OCLC 27888631.
 Webb, Graham (1984). The musical box handbook (2nd ed.). Vestal,
NY: Vestal Press. ISBN 9780911572360.
 Weiss-Stauffacher, Heinrich; Bruhin, Rudolf (1976). The marvelous
world of music machines. Tokyo: Kodansha
International. ISBN 9780870112584.
 Winter-Jensen, Anne (1987). Automates & musiques: pendules.
Genève: Musée de l'horlogerie et de
l'émaillerie. ISBN 9782830600476.
 Wosk, Julie (2015). My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and
Other Artificial Eves. ISBN 9780813563374.

Notes and references[edit]

1. ^ Automaton - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster
Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automaton
2. ^ Homer, Iliad, 5.749
3. ^ Homer, Iliad, 18.376
4. ^ Him she found sweating with toil as he moved to and fro about his
bellows in eager haste; for he was fashioning tripods, twenty in all, to
stand around the wall of his well-builded hall, and golden wheels had
he set beneath the base of each that of themselves they might enter
the gathering of the gods at his wish and again return to his house, a
wonder to behold. Homer, Iliad 18. 371
5. ^ The automatones of Greek Mythology online at the Theoi Project.
6. ^ Hyginus. Astronomica 2.1
7. ^ This "first cuckoo clock" was further stated and described in the 2007
book The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern
World by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid on page 132: "Soon
Ctesibius's clocks were smothered in stopcocks and valves, controlling
a host of devices from bells to puppets to mechanical doves that sang
to mark the passing of each hour - the very first cuckoo clock!"
8. ^ Noel Sharkey (July 4, 2007), A programmable robot from 60
AD, 2611, New Scientist
9. ^ Brett, Gerard (July 1954), "The Automata in the Byzantine "Throne of
Solomon"", Speculum, 29 (3): 477–
487, doi:10.2307/2846790, ISSN 0038-7134, JSTOR 2846790.
10. ^ Harry Henderson (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Computer
Science and Technology. Infobase Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-
4381-1003-5. Retrieved 28 May 2013. The earliest known analog
computing device is the Antikythera mechanism.
11. ^ "King Solomon's Throne". www.chabad.org.
12. ^ Needham, Volume 2, 53.
13. ^ Noct. Att. L. 10
14. ^ Needham, Volume 2, 54.
15. ^ Safran, Linda (1998). Heaven on Earth: Art and the Church in
Byzantium. Pittsburgh: Penn State Press. p. 30. ISBN 0-271-01670-
1. Records Liutprand's description.
16. ^ Meri, Josef W. (2005), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An
Encyclopedia, 2, Routledge, p. 711, ISBN 0-415-96690-6
17. ^ Ismail b. Ali Ebu'l Feda history, Weltgeschichte, hrsg. von Fleischer
and Reiske 1789-94, 1831.
18. ^ Le Strange, Guy (1922). Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate: from
contemporary Arabic and Persian sources (2nd ed.). Oxford:
Clarendon Press. p. 256.
19. ^ Koetsier, Teun (2001). "On the prehistory of programmable
machines: musical automata, looms, calculators". Mechanism and
Machine Theory. Elsevier. 36 (5): 589–603. doi:10.1016/S0094-
114X(01)00005-2.
20. ^ "A 13th Century Programmable Robot". shef.ac.uk. University of
Sheffield. Archived from the original on June 29, 2007.
21. ^ Fowler, Charles B. (October 1967), "The Museum of Music: A History
of Mechanical Instruments", Music Educators Journal, MENC_ The
National Association for Music Education, 54 (2): 45–
49, doi:10.2307/3391092, JSTOR 3391092
22. ^ Rosheim, Mark E. (1994), Robot Evolution: The Development of
Anthrobotics, Wiley-IEEE, pp. 9–10, ISBN 0-471-02622-0 also
at Google Books
23. ^ Rosheim, Mark E. (1994), Robot Evolution: The Development of
Anthrobotics, Wiley-IEEE, p. 9, ISBN 0-471-02622-0 also at Google
Books
24. ^ Rosheim, Mark E. (1994), Robot Evolution: The Development of
Anthrobotics, Wiley-IEEE, p. 36, ISBN 0-471-02622-0
25. ^ Varadpande, Manohar Laxman (1987). History of Indian Theatre,
Volume 1. p. 68.
26. ^ Wujastyk, Dominik (2003). The Roots of Ayurveda: Selections from
Sanskrit Medical Writings. p. 222.
 27. ^ Needham, Joseph (1965). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume
4, Physics and Physical Technology Part 2, Mechanical Engineering.
p. 164.
28. ^ http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1850&context=mff
29. ^ Landsberg, Sylvia (1995). The Medieval Garden. New York: Thames
and Hudson. p. 22.
30. ^ Macdougall, Elisabeth B. Medieval Gardens. Google Books.
Retrieved 19 July 2012.
31. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 133 & 508.
32. ^ King, Elizabeth. "Clockwork Prayer: A Sixteenth-Century Mechanical
Monk" Blackbird 1.1 (2002) [1]
33. ^ Schultz, P.D., & Schultz, S.E. (2008). A History of Modern
Psychology.(pp. 28-34).Thompson Wadsworth.
34. ^ "The Bowes Museum > Collections > Explore The Collection > The
Silver Swan". www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk.
35. ^ Waddesdon Manor (22 July 2015). "A Marvellous Elephant -
Waddesdon Manor" – via YouTube.
36. ^ See Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, New York, Vintage
Books, 1979, p.136: "The classical age discovered the body as object
and target of power... The great book of Man-the-Machine was written
simultaneously on two registers: the anatomico-metaphysical register,
of which Descartes wrote the first pages and which the physicians and
philosophers continued, and the technico-political register, which was
constituted by a whole set of regulations and by empirical and
calculated methods relating to the army, the school and the hospital,
for controlling or correcting the operations of the body. These two
registers are quite distinct, since it was a question, on one hand, of
submission and use and, on the other, of functioning and explanation:
there was a useful body and an intelligible body... The celebrated
automata [of the 18th century] were not only a way of illustrating an
organism, they were also political puppets, small-scale models of
power: Frederick, the meticulous king of small machines, well-trained
regiments and long exercises, was obsessed with them."
37. ^ Kolesnikov-Jessop, Sonia (November 25, 2011). "Chinese Swept Up
in Mechanical Mania". The New York Times. Retrieved November
25, 2011. Mechanical curiosities were all the rage in China during the
18th and 19th centuries, as the Qing emperors developed a passion for
automaton clocks and pocket watches, and the "Sing Song
Merchants", as European watchmakers were called, were more than
happy to encourage that interest.
38. ^ "Chomick+Meder – Figurative Art and
Automata". www.chomickmeder.com.
39. ^ "Artomic Automata". artomic.com. Archived from the original on
2010-03-05. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
40. ^ Hall, Loura (2016-04-01). "Automaton Rover for Extreme
Environments (AREE)". NASA. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
41. ^ "clohe-movingtoys.eu". www.clohe-movingtoys.eu.

External links[edit]
Automatonat Wikipedia's sister projects

 Definitions from Wiktionary

 Media from Wikimedia Commons

 Texts from Wikisource

 The Automata and Art Bots mailing list home page
 History
 Modern Automata Museum
 The House of Automata - The largest online gallery of automata
 Maillardet's Automaton
 Japanese Karakuri
 J. Douglas Bruce, 'Human Automata in Classical Tradition and
Mediaeval Romance', Modern Philology, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Apr., 1913),
pp. 511-526
 M. B. Ogle, 'The Perilous Bridge and Human Automata', Modern
Language Notes, Vol. 35, No. 3 (Mar., 1920), pp. 129-136
 conservation of automata
 Thomas Edison's talking doll
 Was this automaton the world's first computer? Incredible
mechanical boy built 240 years ago who could actually write Daily
Mail, November 6, 2013, "The Writer" created by watchmaker Pierre
Jaquet-Droz in the 1770s. Large color photos.
 Automata in the Waddesdon Manor collection
 Video of elephant automaton