Stairway from Heaven - musical holiday-themed automaton with plans

Our good friend here at The Automata Blog, John Hutchinson, created this holiday-themed automaton featuring an integrated music box. If you start now, you will have a one-of-a-kind gift for someone this holiday season. Full plans and instructions will be featured in the Holiday 2014 edition of Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts. The holiday issue is also known as Issue 57, which will soon be available at booksellers and will eventually be available on the Fox Chapel Publishing web site. Should you be unable to get it in time, here is a link to their their past holiday issues. You are sure to find a suitable project/gift idea among them!

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Carved wood and clockwork devil automaton in Milan from the 16th century

Photo by Bob Frishman, 2013

This devil automaton now housed at a museum in Milan was made by taking a sixteenth-century torso -- possibly that of Christ at the Column -- and applying a clockwork mechanism to it. The automaton when cranked would turn its head and eyes, stick out the its tongue, and make an inarticulate sound. A seventeenth-century description mentions horns and a collar which are now lost.

The piece is part of the Applied Arts Collections Museum in the Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy. Another interesting blog posts about this devil automaton can be found on the io9 blog.

[ Thanks to Bob Frishman of Bell-Time Clocks for the discovery and photo! ]

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Leonardo's 'Last Supper' painting brought to life as an automaton going to auction

Shown here is a rare automaton by the famous maker Phalibois representing Davinci's painting The Last Supper. It is a large scene-style automaton measuring about four feet in length. It may be the only one of its kind in the world. This is the second extraordinary piece in the Skinner auction that takes place tomorrow, June 2nd, 2012.

From the Skinner auction catalog:

The Lord’s Supper Automaton, attributed to Henry Phalibois, c.1890, the automaton based on Da Vinci’s The Lord’s Supper, features Jesus and the twelve Apostles in period clothing moving as if in serious conversation at a long table set with pewter dishes and goblets, complex gearing and drives all powered by two 110 and 220 volt 60-cycle motors, lg. 69, ht. 30, dp. 22 in.

Here is DaVinci's famous painting of the scene:

Here is Phalibois' three dimensional interpretation of the painting:

This automaton was featured in a traveling exhibition that toured Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the early 1920s, under the name of The London Mechanical and Electrical exhibition. Details of this exhibition are featured in Rod Cornelius, Mechanical Music, July/August 2011, pp. 32-35.

Here are the auction details
Date: June 2, 2012, 10am
Preview Times:
   June 1, 2012, 12pm - 7pm
   June 2, 2012, 8am - 9:30am
Location: 274 Cedar Hill Street, Marlborough, MA

Here is the Skinner online catalog listing for The Lord's Supper Automaton, attributed to Henry Phalibois.

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Video of Gianello Torriano's monk automaton

A few months ago, we posted about a 400 year old monk automaton. While that post has a great embedded audio story about the monk, it did not have video of this incredible creation in action. Here you go. There is no sound, so there is no need to try to fix your speakers.

This automaton figure of a monk dates to around 1560 and is believed to have been created by Gianello Torriano -- an Italian engineer and master clockmaker. The automaton currently resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Here is a web page featuring a detailed article about the monk automaton by Elizabeth King.

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Audio story about 400 year old monk automaton

Here is an audio program from NPR's fascinating program, Radiolab. This 20 minute episode tells the tale of a 400 year old monk automaton. The figure is made of wood and iron, stands 15 inches in high, and is powered by a wound spring. When activated, the monk walks, hits his chest with his right arm, moves the wooden cross in his left hand, nods his head, rolls his eyes, and moves his mouth as if in prayer.

The first remarkable thing about this monk automaton is that it is still in working order at the Smithsonian Institution. The second remarkable thing is the sequence of events that led to its creation. To learn more about this, you can listen to the audio clip embedded above, or follow the link below for a lengthy paper on the subject. Both are excellent.

Here is a link to an article on the automaton by Elizabeth King titled Clockwork Prayer: A Sixteenth-Century Mechanical Monk

[ Thanks Michelle! ]

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