Incredible life-sized peacock automaton by James Cox created in 1777

The folks over at the amazing Atlas Obscura blog did a great round-up of animal themed automata the other day. Among them was this life size peacock automaton created in 1777 by James Cox. The automaton is The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

From the video description:

Peacock clock at the State Hermitage Museum in Russia. Made in the 18th century by James Cox, an English clock maker, and sold to Potemkin (a favorite of the Catherine the Great) as spare parts. It took 9 years for a Russian mechanic named Ivan Kulibin to put it together again. Well worth it. It is run only once a year during June to preserve the mechanism, so you have very few chance to see it work. Made of gilded bronze silver and glass, it measures 3 meters in height. The dial of the clock is embedded into the head of a mushroom with a dragonfly moving on top to indicate the time.

Here is the full article at Atlas Obsura titled Five Astounding Animal Automata.

[ Thanks Falk! ]

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