Vaudville Automaton Enigmarelle - a Hoax?
There is an running theme in the history of automata, to create -- or fake -- lifelike creations (for the latter, see The Turk, Chess-Playing Machine
).The recent BoingBoing.net post about an automaton from the 1900s by the name of Enigmarelle looks to be another hoax.
The source of their post is the VITAPHONE VARIETIES blog.
It seems a bit too good to be true...an automaton adept at so many different things. I have nothing but respect for engineers, machinists, and craftsmen of the past, but this thing rivals ASIMO in its abilities.
Follow the links and decide for yourself. If you know more about the history of Enigmarelle, post a comment and let us know!
posted by Dug North on 4/25/2007
1 Comments:
What I would love to know about this one is how on earth it wrote its name with prosthetic hands (that is, if there really WAS an amputee inside) when prosthetic hands can't even do that /now/.
It's an *~enigma~* !
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