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- It's often said that if you really want
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to understand something,
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then what you should do is build it.
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Now take something like your own hand.
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Do you really understand how it works?
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What it's made of? How it functions?
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Well one way to find out would be
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to make a machine that
behaves just like that.
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For a very long time that
was an impossible dream.
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The idea that there could be machines
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that could behave exactly
like our own bodies
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seemed entirely out of reach.
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But then around 300 years ago,
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this dream was made real.
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This is an automaton,
a self-moving machine
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that simulates the
actions of a living being.
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This elegant young
artist first went on show
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in France in the 1770s.
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In those days, Europe was full
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of automata like these.
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They entertained kings and princes
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and taught moral lessons to citizens.
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They raised deep philosophical questions
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and they would ferment revolution.
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Automata were masterpieces
of art and engineering.
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Forgotten wonders of an extraordinary age.
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This film is their story.
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(gears whirring)
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For a very long time, the
construction of machines
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that could move like humans or animals
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seemed completely fantastical.
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But in the Middle Ages,
a new form of technology
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was developed that could begin to make
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complex, controlled,
and regular movements.
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This technology was mechanical clockwork,
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and it would be used in some
of the very earliest automata.
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The development of clockwork was driven
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by a new type of social organization.
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The burgeoning medieval city.
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For medieval city states,
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clockwork offered a vital tool
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to help govern their population.
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The city was home
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to explosive tensions.
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The city air made people free,
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so it was said in the Middle Ages,
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and what that meant was
a big urban problem.
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Masters and servants,
traders and employees
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were at each other's throat.
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In the city there was
plague and there was fire
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and there was civil strife.
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The aim was to find a technique
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that could turn the city into a place
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of good order and of ideal government.
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Clockwork could offer the solution.
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(church bells ringing)
The sound of the bells
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reached out across the
city, bringing together
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its disparate groups and offering
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regularity in a world entirely
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removed from nature.
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(church bells ringing)
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Cities soon began building
spectacular clocks
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to showcase their power.
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And these clocks would become home
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to some of the earliest automata.
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(bell ringing)
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This is the Zytglogge,
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a German word that means "time bell."
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For half a millenium,
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the Zytglogge has stood in Bern,
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now the capital of Switzerland,
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and it's driven by an astonishing piece
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of clockwork technology.
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(gears whirring)
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This is the machine at the
heart of the Zytglogge.
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Its beat, its to-and-fro movement,
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is the beat that drives the
time system of the city.
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These complex gears, coiled ropes,
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and moving weights are a system
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designed more than 500 years ago,
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and they're still working perfectly.
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Right at the top of the machine
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is a device which turns
the energy of the weights
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into the system that marks
the minutes and the hours.
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Almost as soon as such devices were built,
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their fluttering, their oscillation,
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their regular movement was compared
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with the movement of the human body.
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The analogy between clockwork and the body
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inspired the engineers of the Zytglogge
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to experiment.
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To combine clocks with
art, with sculpture,
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and with design.
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Clockwork could now be used
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to bring machines to life.
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(machine clicking)
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In a world removed from nature,
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these automata offered regularity
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and order to the city.
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Here a crowing rooster,
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the rural symbol of time,
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has been animated once more,
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transformed into a machine
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for the citizens to enjoy.
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(mechanical rooster crowing)
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The Zytglogge and its theater of machines
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was a vision of the world
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that the city-dwellers had left behind.
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(church bells ringing)
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These machines and their show
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were designed to bring peace, order,
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and harmony to the city of Bern.
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The great mechanical clocks
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of the medieval European towns
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were intensely public structures.
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From Bern across the whole of Europe,
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the clocks of the city
taught their citizens
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lessons in morality and virtue.
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But all that was soon to change,
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and to change really dramatically.
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These automata would become private.
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Mechanical theaters
that showed the universe
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and the world to the
few princes and rulers
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who governed them.
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One of the largest and most spectacular
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of these new private automata was built
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in the 1740s in the rich and prosperous
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town of Salzburg in Austria.
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It would be created especially
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for the Hellbrunn palace,
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a fabulously extravagant summer retreat
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designed to satisfy the private pleasures
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of the ruling classes.
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This was a place of lavish excess.
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Its gardens filled with strange devices
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designed to entertain and titillate.
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But one machine surpassed them all
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in scale, ambition, and
technical sophistication,
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An automaton in the form
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of an entire working city.
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The automation was commissioned
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in the 1740s by this man,
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Archbishop Jakob von Dietrichstein.
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For him, the machine was the
vision of a perfect society.
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A city populated by well-behaved,
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obedient automaton subjects.
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The magnificent mechanical theater.
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Imagine that you were a member
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of the privileged audience here,
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invited by the prince to see
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this extraordinary automaton.
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This amazing spectacle.
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What you're looking at is a harmonious
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orderly, and entertaining vision
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of the way the city works,
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or rather the way the city should work.
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(gears turning)
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As the machine comes to life,
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almost 200 figurines begin to move.
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The city becomes a kind
of vast mechanical opera.
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(organ music playing)
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(gears clicking)
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Beneath water pressure turns a wheel
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that is connected via a series of gears
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to the entire machine.
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Here, this metal work acts like
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a set of instructions,
guiding each of the figures
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to perform their actions
at different intervals.
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(organ music playing as gears turn)
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Above the mechanism, the workers execute
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their tasks perfectly,
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mechanically, automatically.
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Meanwhile, an elegant
and aristocratic audience
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keeps watch with the
most minimal of movement.
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This is a prince's vision
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of a utopian society.
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But there's a darker side
to this seductive spectacle.
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The machine that runs the theater
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was designed and built by a
salt miner Lorenz Rosenegger.
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The salt miners generated the wealth
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on which the city relied, and
which funded this machine.
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But the salt miners were radicals,
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insurrectionaries, many
of them Protestants.
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A decade before this theater was built
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almost all the Protestants in Salzburg
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had been expelled by
the order of its ruler.
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Rosenegger indeed conducted the work
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on this theater under armed guard
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to keep him at his job.
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It was a technical masterpiece,
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but for the salt miners it was a machine
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that represented the tyrannic
power that ruled them.
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(machine gears clicking)
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The Hellbrunn mechanical
theater perfectly encapsulates
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the contradiction at the heart
of all 18th century automata.
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These were machines built as entertainment
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for a fabulously wealthy court society,
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but their mechanical ingenuity,
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their artfully carved exteriors,
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their very soul came from
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poorly paid
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artisan workers
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What's more, the
creativity of those workers
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would revolutionize the automata
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so beloved by the aristocracy.
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In the 18th century, artisans
in the workshops of Europe
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began developing ingenious ways
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with which to miniaturize the components
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of clocks and watches.
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With these new smaller mechanisms,
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automata changed.
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They no longer had to
be rooted to the spot.
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Thanks to the miniaturized components,
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automata could now simulate
new kinds of movements
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and even make complex
and naturalistic sounds.
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(bird tweeting)
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To see how some of these amazing feats
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of miniaturization were achieved,
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I've come to meet Jonathan Betts,
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senior curator of horology
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at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
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When we say small, I think
it's really interesting
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to think a bit about just how small
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the technologies that go into watchmaking
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in general and some
- Yes.
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- of the automataries.
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So you've got here
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some equipment
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to cut a screw
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- Yes.
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- To cut the piece of a screw.
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- This is just an example
of how the really tiny
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stuff was done.
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- Maybe it would be clearer if we start
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with how it's done
- [Jonathan] Yeah.
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- [Simon] on a scale
we can see more easily.
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- I mean in the 18th century,
screws were basically
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made by forcing a plain steel rod
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into this thing called a screw plate,
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and each one of these holes
has a screw thread in it.
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00:17:18,923 --> 00:17:22,784
If you force a piece of
steel rod into that hole,
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and turn it as you do so,
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it will form a thread on the shaft.
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This is basically the same
thing as a screw plate,
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but it has a single hole in the middle.
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It's gonna be difficult for you to see
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but right at the center
is a tiny little hole.
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That hole has thread...
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- [Simon] And it's working on
exactly the same principle.
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- [Jonathan] Exactly the same principle.
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You just have to be very, very careful,
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because there's virtually
no metal in the pin
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that you're forcing into the hole.
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It can very easily break off inside there.
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But that's basically how it works.
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An example here of the kind of tiny screw,
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this is from a small watch balance
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and if I just place it there, you can see
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00:18:06,839 --> 00:18:10,562
on the scale of one penny,
just how tiny it is.
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- [Simon] This tiny screw and
its ingenious manufacturing
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process are just one example
of the amazing techniques
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00:18:21,479 --> 00:18:24,957
developed by the clock trade.
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(ticking clock)
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- There is a tendency for people to forget
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that every single one of these things
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has to be made by someone.
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They don't sort of grow organically.
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The craftsman starts with sheet metal
269
00:18:41,788 --> 00:18:44,391
and blocks of metal and castings
270
00:18:44,391 --> 00:18:47,565
and everything has to be
formed in one way or another.
271
00:18:51,143 --> 00:18:55,325
- [Simon] Creating these
intricately machined components
272
00:18:55,325 --> 00:18:59,101
was an extremely difficult
job for the artisans,
273
00:19:00,101 --> 00:19:01,954
and the work took place
274
00:19:01,954 --> 00:19:05,841
in distinctly insalubrious settings.
275
00:19:13,111 --> 00:19:15,202
Automata may have been put on show
276
00:19:15,202 --> 00:19:18,892
in palaces and courts and elegant gardens,
277
00:19:18,892 --> 00:19:23,863
but they relied completely
on the extremely skilled work
278
00:19:23,863 --> 00:19:26,219
of badly paid
279
00:19:26,219 --> 00:19:29,059
and ingenious artisans.
280
00:19:29,063 --> 00:19:32,541
Men and women of the clock trades.
281
00:19:32,541 --> 00:19:34,754
These trades centered
282
00:19:34,754 --> 00:19:37,302
on the working class district
283
00:19:37,302 --> 00:19:39,767
of the great European cities.
284
00:19:39,767 --> 00:19:42,902
In London, for example,
around Clark and Well,
285
00:19:42,902 --> 00:19:46,476
there would be streets in which each house
286
00:19:46,476 --> 00:19:49,846
would specialize in a different component
287
00:19:49,846 --> 00:19:53,473
of a watch or clock, and
then a master would arrive
288
00:19:53,473 --> 00:19:56,806
and put those components together.
289
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,939
The distributed and coordinated labor
290
00:20:04,939 --> 00:20:08,887
of a vast artisan workforce was essential
291
00:20:08,887 --> 00:20:12,104
to making clocks and automata.
292
00:20:15,128 --> 00:20:19,466
But life as an artisan in
the clock trade was tough.
293
00:20:21,103 --> 00:20:25,253
In places like this,
gathered around a table,
294
00:20:25,253 --> 00:20:29,082
would be half a dozen
workers devoted entirely
295
00:20:29,082 --> 00:20:33,416
to one specific task of the trade.
296
00:20:33,416 --> 00:20:37,650
They'd be preparing the spring drives
297
00:20:37,650 --> 00:20:41,020
that were the source of
energy for each clock.
298
00:20:41,020 --> 00:20:45,735
They'd be cutting a gear
of exquisite tininess
299
00:20:45,735 --> 00:20:49,286
inside the watchwork itself.
300
00:20:49,286 --> 00:20:53,671
This was hard painful labor that required
301
00:20:53,671 --> 00:20:56,259
the most intense attention.
302
00:20:56,259 --> 00:21:00,462
Lit only by candlelight,
one's eyes could fail.
303
00:21:00,462 --> 00:21:03,065
You could damage your limbs,
304
00:21:03,065 --> 00:21:06,873
and yet while this was
challenging and difficult work,
305
00:21:06,873 --> 00:21:09,049
it was also innovative.
306
00:21:09,049 --> 00:21:11,982
It was here that new tools, new machines,
307
00:21:11,982 --> 00:21:16,618
new kinds of designs were
constantly being developed.
308
00:21:16,618 --> 00:21:20,970
(gears ticking)
309
00:21:24,336 --> 00:21:27,173
The artisan workforce was a source
310
00:21:27,173 --> 00:21:31,258
of constant gradual innovation.
311
00:21:31,258 --> 00:21:35,465
(ticking)
312
00:21:39,493 --> 00:21:43,386
What had once needed an entire clock tower
313
00:21:43,386 --> 00:21:46,714
could now be made to fit snugly
314
00:21:46,714 --> 00:21:49,929
into the palm of one hand.
315
00:22:08,211 --> 00:22:11,652
The miniaturization and
technical sophistication
316
00:22:11,652 --> 00:22:14,424
of the masterpieces of the clock trade
317
00:22:14,424 --> 00:22:18,180
had at least one really
important consequence.
318
00:22:18,180 --> 00:22:20,735
These clocks were able
319
00:22:20,735 --> 00:22:24,170
to stay stable and working
320
00:22:24,170 --> 00:22:28,746
and vital against changes
in their environment.
321
00:22:28,746 --> 00:22:32,145
That principle is called homeostasis.
322
00:22:32,145 --> 00:22:35,345
It means that however
the environment changes,
323
00:22:35,345 --> 00:22:37,735
temperature, pressure,
324
00:22:37,735 --> 00:22:40,893
the bumps and knocks of every day life,
325
00:22:40,893 --> 00:22:43,515
these machines will keep on going
326
00:22:43,515 --> 00:22:45,820
reliably and regularly.
327
00:22:45,820 --> 00:22:48,209
Now homeostasis is so important,
328
00:22:48,209 --> 00:22:50,065
but for some scientists,
329
00:22:50,065 --> 00:22:54,225
that was the definition of life itself.
330
00:22:54,225 --> 00:22:59,109
So with these techniques
provided by the clock trades,
331
00:22:59,109 --> 00:23:02,790
a huge breakthrough was possible
332
00:23:02,790 --> 00:23:05,158
in the design of automata.
333
00:23:05,158 --> 00:23:09,589
(automaton clicking)
334
00:23:14,726 --> 00:23:19,248
Automaton makers could
perhaps not just imitate
335
00:23:19,248 --> 00:23:22,947
but simulate living beings.
336
00:23:33,577 --> 00:23:38,035
One man in particular began to pioneer
337
00:23:38,035 --> 00:23:41,786
the simulation of living things.
338
00:23:44,874 --> 00:23:47,946
His name was Jacques de Vaucanson,
339
00:23:47,946 --> 00:23:49,803
and he succeeded in building some
340
00:23:49,803 --> 00:23:52,661
of the most beautiful and complex
341
00:23:52,661 --> 00:23:55,506
clockwork beings of the era.
342
00:23:57,849 --> 00:24:01,495
Vaucanson was convinced that
there was no significant
343
00:24:01,495 --> 00:24:05,464
difference between humans and machines.
344
00:24:07,401 --> 00:24:11,326
He spent his nights
attending anatomy classes,
345
00:24:11,326 --> 00:24:15,924
studying in extreme and gory detail
346
00:24:15,924 --> 00:24:18,683
the way the body worked.
347
00:24:24,416 --> 00:24:27,275
By looking closely at human anatomy,
348
00:24:27,275 --> 00:24:30,988
Vaucanson hoped that he
could reconstitute it
349
00:24:30,988 --> 00:24:34,989
using clockwork.
350
00:24:34,989 --> 00:24:38,347
His ideas were part of
a novel way of thinking
351
00:24:38,347 --> 00:24:40,951
about the human body that began to
352
00:24:40,951 --> 00:24:44,067
emerge in the 18th century.
353
00:24:47,730 --> 00:24:51,453
Vaucanson's contemporaries began to see
354
00:24:51,453 --> 00:24:54,312
the way which the human body works
355
00:24:54,312 --> 00:24:56,787
is essentially automatic.
356
00:24:56,787 --> 00:24:59,997
Automatic is the key word in the way
357
00:24:59,997 --> 00:25:02,759
they describe what humans do.
358
00:25:02,759 --> 00:25:06,706
So here's a writer in the 1740s,
359
00:25:06,706 --> 00:25:08,797
a friend of Vaucanson.
360
00:25:08,797 --> 00:25:12,465
He asks "Doesn't your body leap back
361
00:25:12,465 --> 00:25:14,963
"in terror when you come upon
362
00:25:14,963 --> 00:25:17,886
"an unexpected precipice?
363
00:25:17,886 --> 00:25:21,767
"Don't your eyelids close automatically
364
00:25:21,767 --> 00:25:23,880
"at the threat of a blow?
365
00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:28,275
"Don't your lungs
automatically work" he says
366
00:25:28,275 --> 00:25:31,105
"continually like a bellows."
367
00:25:31,105 --> 00:25:35,030
And it was exactly those
ideas that Vaucanson
368
00:25:35,030 --> 00:25:38,304
would use to engineer a machine
369
00:25:38,304 --> 00:25:41,760
that could simulate life itself.
370
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:46,556
(flute playing)
371
00:25:54,646 --> 00:25:58,925
By studying the activity of
flute playing in great detail,
372
00:25:58,925 --> 00:26:01,761
Vaucanson was able to build a device
373
00:26:01,761 --> 00:26:04,951
that actually played the flute.
374
00:26:07,611 --> 00:26:10,637
There was no music box hidden inside
375
00:26:10,637 --> 00:26:12,173
this masterpiece.
376
00:26:12,173 --> 00:26:15,597
Mechanical lungs and a silver tongue
377
00:26:15,597 --> 00:26:18,964
controlled the movement of air.
378
00:26:21,572 --> 00:26:25,865
Clockwork fingers precisely
covered the holes,
379
00:26:27,450 --> 00:26:31,067
and Vaucanson even got hold of real skin
380
00:26:31,067 --> 00:26:34,720
with which to clothe his
extraordinary machine.
381
00:26:38,972 --> 00:26:41,948
The automaton took Europe by storm.
382
00:26:41,948 --> 00:26:44,797
It was a glorious celebration
383
00:26:44,797 --> 00:26:46,691
of the combination of engineering,
384
00:26:46,691 --> 00:26:50,037
artistry, and the study of anatomy.
385
00:26:55,056 --> 00:26:58,373
Unfortunately, Vaucanson's flute player
386
00:26:58,373 --> 00:27:01,094
does not survive.
387
00:27:01,094 --> 00:27:04,624
What made such a splash
in the 18th century
388
00:27:04,624 --> 00:27:07,685
disappeared somewhere in eastern Europe
389
00:27:07,685 --> 00:27:11,355
in the 19th century, and its whereabouts,
390
00:27:11,355 --> 00:27:15,282
or indeed its survival
now completely unknown.
391
00:27:15,282 --> 00:27:19,089
But at the time this machine inspired
392
00:27:19,089 --> 00:27:22,364
a whole generation to ask about
393
00:27:22,364 --> 00:27:25,425
whether there's any difference at all
394
00:27:25,425 --> 00:27:29,794
between mere machines and living beings.
395
00:27:34,856 --> 00:27:38,770
Vaucanson's work had
inspired philosophical debate
396
00:27:38,770 --> 00:27:41,498
and much technical innovation.
397
00:27:43,658 --> 00:27:45,866
But for all his visionary ideas,
398
00:27:45,866 --> 00:27:48,096
his success was based on the mastery
399
00:27:48,096 --> 00:27:52,081
of one seemingly simple mechanical device.
400
00:27:58,049 --> 00:28:02,183
A circularly shaped piece
of metal known as a cam.
401
00:28:08,044 --> 00:28:12,193
The beauty of the cam
lies in its versatility.
402
00:28:12,193 --> 00:28:14,796
Anything that the machine needs to do
403
00:28:14,796 --> 00:28:19,045
can be cut into the
undulating surface of the cam.
404
00:28:23,136 --> 00:28:27,540
The edge of the cam is simply a way
405
00:28:27,540 --> 00:28:32,287
of turning circular
motion into up and down
406
00:28:32,287 --> 00:28:34,889
or backwards and forwards motions.
407
00:28:34,889 --> 00:28:39,049
And these motions can be
of the most various kind.
408
00:28:39,049 --> 00:28:43,188
A feather, a bellows, the movement can be
409
00:28:43,188 --> 00:28:45,140
of an amazing range of things.
410
00:28:45,140 --> 00:28:49,829
The possibility for variation
and design becomes infinite.
411
00:28:56,200 --> 00:29:01,081
Cams function as a kind of
mechanical memory for a machine.
412
00:29:01,081 --> 00:29:05,030
The more detailed and
intricate the edge of the cam,
413
00:29:05,030 --> 00:29:07,927
the more complex the actions it can store.
414
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:18,038
Automaton builders focused on this device,
415
00:29:18,038 --> 00:29:21,844
constantly refining and
developing the cams.
416
00:29:30,621 --> 00:29:33,636
Devices would be built that contained
417
00:29:33,636 --> 00:29:37,079
whole stacks of miniaturized cams.
418
00:29:50,005 --> 00:29:53,612
One of the most remarkable realizations
419
00:29:53,612 --> 00:29:57,463
of cam technology is a device in the shape
420
00:29:57,463 --> 00:30:01,057
of a small boy.
421
00:30:01,057 --> 00:30:04,716
It's perhaps the world's most astonishing
422
00:30:04,716 --> 00:30:06,463
surviving automaton.
423
00:30:14,693 --> 00:30:19,317
What's on this card is a piece of writing
424
00:30:19,317 --> 00:30:23,702
made by a 240 year old machine.
425
00:30:25,341 --> 00:30:27,293
One of my favorite machines.
426
00:30:27,293 --> 00:30:30,097
One of the most magnificent automata
427
00:30:30,097 --> 00:30:32,253
of the 18th century,
428
00:30:32,253 --> 00:30:35,623
It's this boy, this writer.
429
00:30:35,623 --> 00:30:39,305
He was built in Switzerland
430
00:30:39,305 --> 00:30:42,622
by Pierre Jaquet-Droz,
431
00:30:42,622 --> 00:30:46,781
one of Switzerland's greatest clockmakers.
432
00:30:46,781 --> 00:30:51,560
The aim was, I think, to mechanize reason
433
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,589
and automate the passions.
434
00:30:54,589 --> 00:30:58,471
Jaquet-Droz was about 50 years old
435
00:30:58,471 --> 00:31:02,270
in the early 1770s when he designed
436
00:31:02,270 --> 00:31:04,663
and built this masterpiece.
437
00:31:07,475 --> 00:31:11,790
Inside the boy are almost 6,000 parts.
438
00:31:14,388 --> 00:31:17,246
What's astonishing is that every one
439
00:31:17,246 --> 00:31:21,150
of these crafted
components has been refined
440
00:31:21,150 --> 00:31:25,354
and miniaturized to fit completely inside
441
00:31:25,354 --> 00:31:28,178
the body of the boy himself.
442
00:31:32,130 --> 00:31:35,448
What Jaquet-Droz did was
to use the technologies
443
00:31:35,448 --> 00:31:39,469
of homeostasis, of miniaturization,
444
00:31:39,469 --> 00:31:43,746
to build really a true automaton.
445
00:31:43,746 --> 00:31:48,257
Inside the little writer
is all his source of energy
446
00:31:48,257 --> 00:31:51,948
and all the machinery that drives him.
447
00:31:51,948 --> 00:31:54,668
He works on his own.
448
00:31:54,668 --> 00:31:59,301
(clicking gears)
449
00:32:33,375 --> 00:32:37,599
At his core, is a great stack of cams.
450
00:32:43,386 --> 00:32:47,706
As these cams move, three cam followers
451
00:32:47,706 --> 00:32:52,047
read their shaped edges
and translate these
452
00:32:52,047 --> 00:32:55,629
into the movement of the boy's arm.
453
00:33:03,858 --> 00:33:06,461
Working together, the cams control
454
00:33:06,461 --> 00:33:08,925
every stroke of the quill pen,
455
00:33:08,925 --> 00:33:13,167
and exactly how much pressure
is applied to the paper
456
00:33:14,773 --> 00:33:19,739
so as to achieve beautiful,
elegant, and fluid writing.
457
00:33:29,527 --> 00:33:33,333
With this sublime machine, Jaquet-Droz
458
00:33:33,333 --> 00:33:38,155
had reverse engineered
the very act of writing.
459
00:33:45,959 --> 00:33:48,049
But the mechanical boy contained
460
00:33:48,049 --> 00:33:51,343
one perhaps even more astonishing feature.
461
00:33:53,013 --> 00:33:55,818
The wheel that controlled the cams
462
00:33:55,818 --> 00:33:59,071
was made up of letters
that could be removed
463
00:33:59,071 --> 00:34:02,151
and then replaced and reordered.
464
00:34:06,263 --> 00:34:08,983
These allowed the writer in principle
465
00:34:08,983 --> 00:34:13,004
to make any word and any sentence.
466
00:34:13,004 --> 00:34:17,523
In other words, it allowed
the writer to be programmed.
467
00:34:23,983 --> 00:34:28,559
This beautiful boy is
thus a distant ancestor
468
00:34:28,559 --> 00:34:32,756
of the modern programmable computer.
469
00:34:47,545 --> 00:34:50,596
The writer was one of
the most technologically
470
00:34:50,596 --> 00:34:54,371
advanced objects of the 18th century,
471
00:34:54,371 --> 00:34:58,625
but it was also one of the
most socially exclusive.
472
00:35:01,212 --> 00:35:04,464
Like many other automata of the age,
473
00:35:04,464 --> 00:35:08,585
it was a private spectacle only to be seen
474
00:35:08,585 --> 00:35:11,879
by the very privileged few.
475
00:35:13,580 --> 00:35:17,953
But that was soon to change.
476
00:35:17,953 --> 00:35:21,499
At the end of the 1700s, the play things
477
00:35:21,499 --> 00:35:26,096
of the aristocracy would be
turned against their patrons
478
00:35:26,096 --> 00:35:29,750
in the most dramatic way imaginable.
479
00:35:34,651 --> 00:35:37,727
Late 18th century automata were
480
00:35:37,727 --> 00:35:41,001
pricy, expensive.
481
00:35:41,001 --> 00:35:45,501
They were for posh people,
for well heeled gentry,
482
00:35:45,501 --> 00:35:50,419
for aristocrats, courtiers, monarchs.
483
00:35:50,419 --> 00:35:54,739
When Jaquet-Droz brought
his machines to Paris,
484
00:35:54,739 --> 00:35:59,379
he made sure that only
the extremely wealthy
485
00:35:59,379 --> 00:36:04,326
could see them by charging
ludicrously inflated prices
486
00:36:04,326 --> 00:36:08,336
and then proclaiming that no servant
487
00:36:08,336 --> 00:36:12,679
would be allowed in to see the show.
488
00:36:12,679 --> 00:36:17,650
The courtiers and the
automata that fascinated them
489
00:36:17,650 --> 00:36:22,605
began to resemble each other too closely
490
00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:26,595
because the resemblance was spotted
491
00:36:26,595 --> 00:36:31,588
by radicals, republicans,
and revolutionaries,
492
00:36:31,588 --> 00:36:35,720
and they exploited it mercilessly.
493
00:36:40,579 --> 00:36:44,131
A science fiction novel
written in the 1770s
494
00:36:44,131 --> 00:36:47,149
to attack the aristocratic regime
495
00:36:47,149 --> 00:36:52,150
described courtiers as
bodies without souls
496
00:36:52,179 --> 00:36:55,822
covered in lace.
497
00:36:55,822 --> 00:37:00,531
Automata that might look
like humans but weren't.
498
00:37:11,940 --> 00:37:14,404
Radical pamphleteers pointed out
499
00:37:14,404 --> 00:37:16,188
that while it was easy to be
500
00:37:16,188 --> 00:37:19,611
an automaton like the king,
501
00:37:19,611 --> 00:37:24,068
it was very hard to build
one like the artisans.
502
00:37:25,769 --> 00:37:29,994
Craftsmen were surely nobler than royalty.
503
00:37:37,679 --> 00:37:40,954
The leaders of the French Revolution
504
00:37:40,954 --> 00:37:45,594
simply described the
king that they executed
505
00:37:45,594 --> 00:37:48,597
as a crowned automaton.
506
00:37:50,459 --> 00:37:53,463
By describing monarchy
507
00:37:53,463 --> 00:37:56,663
as that kind of automatic machine,
508
00:37:58,472 --> 00:38:02,348
it became possible to destroy it.
509
00:38:09,737 --> 00:38:12,617
The machinery of life and death
510
00:38:12,617 --> 00:38:16,681
helped inspire the protagonists
of the French Revolution.
511
00:38:26,044 --> 00:38:29,553
As the court society
that had funded and built
512
00:38:29,553 --> 00:38:32,914
many of the grandest automata collapsed,
513
00:38:32,914 --> 00:38:35,629
these extraordinary machines would begin
514
00:38:35,629 --> 00:38:38,599
to change again.
515
00:38:40,274 --> 00:38:44,378
Automata became highly
sought after commodities
516
00:38:44,378 --> 00:38:47,654
in the newly emerging
worlds of global trade.
517
00:38:57,089 --> 00:38:58,977
The late 18th century was
518
00:38:58,977 --> 00:39:02,903
a period of dramatic crisis.
519
00:39:02,903 --> 00:39:07,318
European society, economics, politics
520
00:39:07,318 --> 00:39:09,921
were completely transformed.
521
00:39:09,921 --> 00:39:13,058
The old world of court society
522
00:39:13,058 --> 00:39:15,953
with its princes and its prelates
523
00:39:15,953 --> 00:39:19,947
gave way to a new expansive world
524
00:39:19,947 --> 00:39:24,374
of international trade
and global networks.
525
00:39:24,374 --> 00:39:28,821
Into the European sphere erupted new kinds
526
00:39:28,821 --> 00:39:31,564
of peoples, aliens,
527
00:39:31,564 --> 00:39:34,167
exotic, foreign,
528
00:39:34,167 --> 00:39:38,025
and European machinery changed too.
529
00:39:38,025 --> 00:39:41,229
The automata would soon take
530
00:39:41,229 --> 00:39:45,436
on the appearance of these strangers.
531
00:39:45,436 --> 00:39:50,225
Automata would become
foreign and exotic beings.
532
00:40:04,705 --> 00:40:07,798
These two extraordinary machines
533
00:40:07,798 --> 00:40:12,667
represent some of the first
of a new kind of automaton
534
00:40:12,667 --> 00:40:14,526
that began to appear towards
535
00:40:14,526 --> 00:40:17,843
the end of the 18th century.
536
00:40:17,843 --> 00:40:21,651
It's likely that they were made
for the great London dealer
537
00:40:21,651 --> 00:40:26,461
entrepreneur and automaton
salesman James Cox
538
00:40:26,461 --> 00:40:31,177
sometime towards the end of the 1700s.
539
00:40:31,177 --> 00:40:33,792
They were made specifically
540
00:40:33,792 --> 00:40:36,592
to be exported to China.
541
00:40:40,364 --> 00:40:42,848
At the very end of the 18th century,
542
00:40:42,848 --> 00:40:45,611
Europeans were desperately trying to find
543
00:40:45,611 --> 00:40:47,716
anything they could sell
544
00:40:47,716 --> 00:40:52,554
to the rich and powerful Chinese.
545
00:40:52,554 --> 00:40:56,367
James Cox soon realized
that while the Chinese
546
00:40:56,367 --> 00:41:00,494
were deeply uninterested
in most of the trinkets
547
00:41:00,494 --> 00:41:03,470
that the West produced, the one thing
548
00:41:03,470 --> 00:41:07,199
they did desire was automata.
549
00:41:13,519 --> 00:41:16,250
Cox's ambition was to use
550
00:41:16,250 --> 00:41:19,016
his automaton business
551
00:41:19,016 --> 00:41:22,349
to reverse the appalling trade imbalances
552
00:41:22,349 --> 00:41:24,674
between China and Europe.
553
00:41:24,674 --> 00:41:28,962
The point was that China made goods
554
00:41:28,962 --> 00:41:31,661
Europeans lusted after.
555
00:41:31,661 --> 00:41:35,095
Tea and porcelain and silk.
556
00:41:35,095 --> 00:41:38,135
The Chinese didn't seem to want anything
557
00:41:38,135 --> 00:41:42,113
that Europe produced and
this was the exception.
558
00:41:42,113 --> 00:41:46,223
Cox openly boasted in London that
559
00:41:46,223 --> 00:41:49,817
by manufacturing and then exporting
560
00:41:49,817 --> 00:41:53,263
clocks like these he
could make as he put it
561
00:41:53,263 --> 00:41:57,936
Asian luxury serve the arts of Europe
562
00:41:57,936 --> 00:42:02,735
and at last win cash for the really
563
00:42:02,735 --> 00:42:06,412
cash-strapped European trades.
564
00:42:10,621 --> 00:42:15,026
With the Chinese buying up
automata in large quantities,
565
00:42:15,026 --> 00:42:18,380
London workshops and show rooms
566
00:42:18,380 --> 00:42:22,103
expanded and flourished.
567
00:42:22,135 --> 00:42:24,961
As money poured in from the East,
568
00:42:24,961 --> 00:42:28,322
lavish exhibitions attended by fashionable
569
00:42:28,322 --> 00:42:30,881
London residents were held to help
570
00:42:30,881 --> 00:42:33,896
promote and sell these new
571
00:42:33,896 --> 00:42:36,783
and highly exclusive commodities.
572
00:42:44,587 --> 00:42:47,936
In this new world, automaton builders
573
00:42:47,936 --> 00:42:51,669
started to gain celebrity status.
574
00:42:51,669 --> 00:42:56,287
None more so than James
Cox's star employee,
575
00:42:56,287 --> 00:43:01,002
a brilliant Belgium immigrate
to London, Joseph Merlin.
576
00:43:03,579 --> 00:43:06,215
Merlin cultivated a deliberately
577
00:43:06,215 --> 00:43:08,872
eccentric public reputation.
578
00:43:11,322 --> 00:43:15,150
He'd appear at show rooms
and fashionable parties
579
00:43:15,150 --> 00:43:19,326
dressed up as a bar maid
with her own drink store
580
00:43:19,326 --> 00:43:22,973
playing the fiddle.
581
00:43:22,973 --> 00:43:25,896
And traveling around the room on his own
582
00:43:25,896 --> 00:43:30,412
new fangled invention, roller skates.
583
00:43:37,970 --> 00:43:39,964
Every thing Merlin did was news,
584
00:43:39,964 --> 00:43:41,785
and what happened to him became meat
585
00:43:41,785 --> 00:43:43,822
for gossip columnists.
586
00:43:43,822 --> 00:43:46,841
Sometimes things didn't
go entirely smoothly.
587
00:43:46,841 --> 00:43:49,423
He was at a party in Soho and of course
588
00:43:49,423 --> 00:43:52,426
he turned up with his roller skates
589
00:43:52,426 --> 00:43:55,832
playing his violin, passing
drinks round the room,
590
00:43:55,832 --> 00:43:59,481
and I've got here a report
of what happened next
591
00:43:59,481 --> 00:44:02,873
written by a journalist at the time.
592
00:44:02,873 --> 00:44:06,862
"Having no means of retarding his velocity
593
00:44:06,862 --> 00:44:10,627
"or commanding his direction," we're told,
594
00:44:10,627 --> 00:44:13,688
"Mister Merlin impaled himself against
595
00:44:13,688 --> 00:44:18,242
"a mirror of more than 500 pounds value
596
00:44:18,242 --> 00:44:22,125
"and dashed it to atoms,
and broke his violin
597
00:44:22,125 --> 00:44:26,854
"to pieces and wounded
himself most severely."
598
00:44:28,293 --> 00:44:31,437
But although Merlin may
not have been brilliant
599
00:44:31,437 --> 00:44:35,201
as a roller skater, he was unparalleled
600
00:44:35,201 --> 00:44:39,329
as a designer of automata,
and these machines
601
00:44:39,329 --> 00:44:43,323
would astonish the late
18th century public.
602
00:44:50,502 --> 00:44:54,939
Merlin's masterpiece was a fabulous swan
603
00:44:54,939 --> 00:44:57,662
made entirely of silver.
604
00:45:03,589 --> 00:45:07,396
It's one of the most
revered automata of the age,
605
00:45:07,396 --> 00:45:11,246
and it features both ingenious
clockwork engineering
606
00:45:11,246 --> 00:45:14,262
and visionary artistic flourishes.
607
00:45:19,676 --> 00:45:24,294
By using clockwork to drive these simple
608
00:45:24,294 --> 00:45:27,213
glass cylindrical rods,
609
00:45:27,213 --> 00:45:29,882
Merlin was able to mimic
610
00:45:29,882 --> 00:45:33,834
the extraordinary
complexity of moving water.
611
00:45:40,890 --> 00:45:44,474
As the light catches the
twisted and imperfect
612
00:45:44,474 --> 00:45:46,959
surface of the rods, it creates
613
00:45:46,959 --> 00:45:49,924
the unmistakable reflection of water
614
00:45:49,924 --> 00:45:52,550
on the underside of the swan.
615
00:45:55,125 --> 00:45:57,408
The craftsmanship and artistry
616
00:45:57,408 --> 00:46:00,716
of the creature was breathtaking.
617
00:46:05,376 --> 00:46:08,859
(hand crank clicking)
618
00:46:13,504 --> 00:46:17,189
(chimes playing)
619
00:46:55,508 --> 00:46:58,313
A mechanical marvel,
620
00:46:58,313 --> 00:47:02,516
when we look at the swan
executing its actions
621
00:47:02,516 --> 00:47:05,908
with extraordinary precision,
622
00:47:05,908 --> 00:47:09,555
a masterpiece combing the clockmaker's art
623
00:47:09,555 --> 00:47:13,044
and the skill of the master jeweler,
624
00:47:13,044 --> 00:47:16,660
we can easily imagine
the effect this device
625
00:47:16,660 --> 00:47:18,728
must have had on London audiences
626
00:47:18,728 --> 00:47:22,003
in the 1770s.
627
00:47:22,003 --> 00:47:25,161
It made Merlin's reputation
628
00:47:25,161 --> 00:47:27,910
as the social celebrity
629
00:47:27,910 --> 00:47:30,728
he'd always wanted to be.
630
00:47:30,728 --> 00:47:34,259
Celebrity culture at the time flocked
631
00:47:34,259 --> 00:47:38,227
to see this device, to gawp in amazement
632
00:47:38,227 --> 00:47:41,900
at this triumph of beauty
633
00:47:41,900 --> 00:47:44,763
and of technical skill.
634
00:47:47,104 --> 00:47:50,210
The success of devices like the swan
635
00:47:50,210 --> 00:47:52,898
and the celebrity of their makers
636
00:47:52,898 --> 00:47:56,781
established a huge audience for automata,
637
00:47:56,781 --> 00:48:01,515
and as the market expanded,
new builders emerged
638
00:48:01,515 --> 00:48:05,955
creating ever more ingenious
ways to wow the public.
639
00:48:07,582 --> 00:48:10,098
The most eminent of these
640
00:48:10,098 --> 00:48:13,284
was Wolfgang von Kempelen.
641
00:48:15,798 --> 00:48:19,723
A man whose mechanical ability seemed
642
00:48:19,723 --> 00:48:23,734
to many almost supernatural.
643
00:48:26,087 --> 00:48:30,491
Von Kempelen became famous
for creating a device
644
00:48:30,491 --> 00:48:34,374
far in advance of any machine
645
00:48:34,374 --> 00:48:37,035
that had ever been built.
646
00:48:49,605 --> 00:48:52,432
This is one of the masterpieces
647
00:48:52,432 --> 00:48:55,867
of late 18th century engineering.
648
00:48:55,867 --> 00:49:00,463
Automata could draw,
they could play music,
649
00:49:00,463 --> 00:49:04,027
they could write and now apparently
650
00:49:04,027 --> 00:49:06,928
they could play chess.
651
00:49:06,928 --> 00:49:09,470
Imagine you were in a show room
652
00:49:09,470 --> 00:49:13,253
in London's West End in 1784.
653
00:49:13,253 --> 00:49:16,869
This is what you would see.
654
00:49:16,869 --> 00:49:20,474
You'd be shown in to a darkened chamber
655
00:49:20,474 --> 00:49:24,858
lit by candles and on
stage in front of you,
656
00:49:24,858 --> 00:49:29,700
a machine in the shape of an oriental,
657
00:49:29,700 --> 00:49:33,241
A Turk with his cushion, his pipe,
658
00:49:33,241 --> 00:49:36,355
and in front of him a chess board.
659
00:49:36,355 --> 00:49:40,857
The chess board sits on
top of this large cabinet
660
00:49:40,857 --> 00:49:44,069
and inside marvels
661
00:49:44,069 --> 00:49:48,033
of 18th century gearing and wheelwork.
662
00:49:48,033 --> 00:49:52,661
The master of ceremonies
shows you how elegant
663
00:49:52,661 --> 00:49:56,636
and splendid this machinery is.
664
00:49:56,636 --> 00:49:59,726
Then he closes the doors.
665
00:50:05,098 --> 00:50:08,181
The machine has to be wound up.
666
00:50:08,181 --> 00:50:12,152
(hand crank winding)
667
00:50:13,780 --> 00:50:17,227
And his pipe
668
00:50:17,227 --> 00:50:20,094
and his cushion removed.
669
00:50:24,121 --> 00:50:28,638
And now the Turk is ready to play chess.
670
00:50:41,593 --> 00:50:46,024
(gears moving)
671
00:50:56,978 --> 00:51:01,524
(choral music)
672
00:51:06,354 --> 00:51:10,545
Clockwork seemed to be
mimicking human reason.
673
00:51:11,766 --> 00:51:14,487
One of the great hopes of the age
674
00:51:14,487 --> 00:51:17,410
had finally been realized.
675
00:51:17,410 --> 00:51:20,830
At last the mind could be simulated
676
00:51:20,830 --> 00:51:23,822
by clockwork engineering.
677
00:51:36,574 --> 00:51:38,402
The Turkish chess player went
678
00:51:38,402 --> 00:51:42,237
on tour throughout Europe.
679
00:51:42,237 --> 00:51:45,486
Almost everywhere he went, he won.
680
00:51:47,347 --> 00:51:50,792
In cafes, academies, and courts,
681
00:51:50,792 --> 00:51:54,622
the Turk was able to
invent new chess openings
682
00:51:54,622 --> 00:51:57,332
and destroy the reputation
683
00:51:57,332 --> 00:52:00,156
of numbers of expert players.
684
00:52:04,876 --> 00:52:08,268
As almost nothing else could at the time,
685
00:52:08,268 --> 00:52:12,172
The Turk demonstrated just how ambitious,
686
00:52:12,172 --> 00:52:15,489
just how endless the possibilities were
687
00:52:15,489 --> 00:52:19,583
for engineering, mechanism, and design.
688
00:52:19,583 --> 00:52:23,356
(machine parts moving)
689
00:52:34,764 --> 00:52:37,421
But this amazing machine would do
690
00:52:37,421 --> 00:52:40,909
much more than merely entertain.
691
00:52:40,909 --> 00:52:43,394
It would inspire one of the most
692
00:52:43,394 --> 00:52:47,583
important inventions of
the Industrial Revolution.
693
00:52:55,163 --> 00:52:57,647
In the middle of the 1780s, a group
694
00:52:57,647 --> 00:53:02,170
of wealthy English gentlemen
met together for dinner.
695
00:53:02,170 --> 00:53:04,942
At their dinner party, they discussed
696
00:53:04,942 --> 00:53:07,567
one of the really major problems
697
00:53:07,567 --> 00:53:10,351
of the British textile trades.
698
00:53:10,351 --> 00:53:12,623
The problem was could the process
699
00:53:12,623 --> 00:53:16,153
of weaving, one of the
most complicated activities
700
00:53:16,153 --> 00:53:19,033
in industry, could there be a machine
701
00:53:19,033 --> 00:53:21,636
that could do something like that?
702
00:53:21,636 --> 00:53:24,004
Well one of the guys at dinner
703
00:53:24,004 --> 00:53:26,585
had seen the Turkish chess player
704
00:53:26,585 --> 00:53:30,766
down in London and he'd
been completely amazed
705
00:53:30,766 --> 00:53:33,016
by what this machine could do.
706
00:53:33,016 --> 00:53:35,499
He reckoned that if there was a machine
707
00:53:35,499 --> 00:53:38,772
so ingenious that it could play chess,
708
00:53:38,772 --> 00:53:41,887
surely it would be possible to design
709
00:53:41,887 --> 00:53:45,589
a machine that could weave cloth.
710
00:53:47,547 --> 00:53:52,479
(machine parts working)
711
00:54:07,631 --> 00:54:10,927
These are mechanical power looms.
712
00:54:10,927 --> 00:54:13,892
What used to be done by hand, weaving,
713
00:54:13,892 --> 00:54:15,705
is now done
714
00:54:15,705 --> 00:54:18,937
by automatic machinery.
715
00:54:18,937 --> 00:54:22,394
The men who first designed
machines like this
716
00:54:22,394 --> 00:54:26,041
had been inspired by
the Turkish chess player
717
00:54:26,041 --> 00:54:29,081
and I don't think it's too fanciful to see
718
00:54:29,081 --> 00:54:33,140
in the components of
this mechanical animal
719
00:54:34,500 --> 00:54:38,256
things that absolutely resemble the moving
720
00:54:38,256 --> 00:54:41,188
components of the Turk.
721
00:54:41,188 --> 00:54:44,410
The picking arm that throws the shuttle
722
00:54:44,410 --> 00:54:47,432
backwards and forwards
really does look like
723
00:54:47,432 --> 00:54:50,936
the mechanical arm the Turk uses
724
00:54:50,936 --> 00:54:55,177
to move pieces across the chess board.
725
00:54:55,177 --> 00:54:59,327
(machine parts moving)
726
00:55:04,399 --> 00:55:07,930
Once upon a time, automata had been there
727
00:55:07,930 --> 00:55:12,687
for entertainment and now a
range of automatic machines
728
00:55:12,687 --> 00:55:16,682
like this would revolutionize the world.
729
00:55:20,613 --> 00:55:23,962
The Turkish chess player
had helped inspire
730
00:55:23,962 --> 00:55:26,469
the mechanization of weaving
731
00:55:26,469 --> 00:55:29,689
and the transformation of industry.
732
00:55:32,959 --> 00:55:36,922
But the machine was not all it seemed.
733
00:55:38,444 --> 00:55:41,942
Its amazing ability relied on something
734
00:55:41,942 --> 00:55:45,867
none of its audience was aware of.
735
00:55:52,487 --> 00:55:56,924
In the end, the Turk's
secret was revealed.
736
00:55:59,841 --> 00:56:02,416
As you can see I'm sitting here
737
00:56:02,416 --> 00:56:05,274
inside the Turk.
738
00:56:05,274 --> 00:56:08,292
Despite appearances,
there was more than enough
739
00:56:08,292 --> 00:56:11,792
room inside the cabinet for a fully grown
740
00:56:11,792 --> 00:56:15,664
human being to sit in some comfort.
741
00:56:17,290 --> 00:56:21,354
From inside, the operator
could guide the Turk's arm,
742
00:56:21,354 --> 00:56:24,801
picking up and moving pieces at will.
743
00:56:26,609 --> 00:56:29,169
And they could follow
the course of the game
744
00:56:29,169 --> 00:56:32,625
by looking up from underneath
745
00:56:32,625 --> 00:56:37,370
at the chess board on top of the cabinet.
746
00:56:37,370 --> 00:56:40,499
So the Turk was an experiment
747
00:56:40,499 --> 00:56:43,836
about confidence.
748
00:56:43,836 --> 00:56:45,789
Instead of being
749
00:56:45,789 --> 00:56:48,903
a magnificent automaton,
750
00:56:48,903 --> 00:56:50,195
it was, in fact,
751
00:56:50,195 --> 00:56:53,940
a magnificently arranged device
752
00:56:53,940 --> 00:56:58,048
in which a human pretended
753
00:56:58,048 --> 00:57:00,201
to be a machine
754
00:57:00,201 --> 00:57:03,872
that was pretending to be a human.
755
00:57:03,872 --> 00:57:07,914
A vision of the fluidity, the ambiguity,
756
00:57:07,914 --> 00:57:10,527
that characterized the boundary
757
00:57:10,527 --> 00:57:14,122
between humanity and technology,
758
00:57:14,122 --> 00:57:17,626
between people and machines.
759
00:57:19,275 --> 00:57:23,665
(machines working)
760
00:57:25,725 --> 00:57:29,586
Now that machines of
industry could really do
761
00:57:29,586 --> 00:57:32,924
what humans did, the mechanical marvels
762
00:57:32,924 --> 00:57:35,783
of the Industrial Age began to make
763
00:57:35,783 --> 00:57:40,310
vast swathes of artisans
and craftsmen redundant.
764
00:57:46,185 --> 00:57:49,811
Having finally succeeded
in building devices
765
00:57:49,811 --> 00:57:53,384
that could mimic the
actions of the human body,
766
00:57:53,384 --> 00:57:57,448
the artisans had
unwittingly created machines
767
00:57:57,448 --> 00:58:00,529
that would now be used to replace them.
768
00:58:00,529 --> 00:58:04,468
(machine working)
769
00:58:09,135 --> 00:58:13,221
But the story of automata
does not end here.
770
00:58:16,940 --> 00:58:19,254
This is the Draftsman.
771
00:58:19,254 --> 00:58:21,793
It is a stunning example
of what is perhaps
772
00:58:21,793 --> 00:58:24,993
automata's greatest legacy,
773
00:58:24,993 --> 00:58:27,830
the ability to store memory
774
00:58:27,830 --> 00:58:31,026
and then reactivate it at will.
775
00:58:35,331 --> 00:58:40,013
All the information to
recreate this intricate picture
776
00:58:40,013 --> 00:58:44,318
is held in a complex stack of cams
777
00:58:44,318 --> 00:58:47,858
that guides the movements of the pencil.
778
00:58:49,783 --> 00:58:54,379
This idea of storing information
in the changing surface
779
00:58:54,379 --> 00:58:58,465
of the disk would, amongst other things,
780
00:58:58,465 --> 00:59:01,983
inspire the birth of the technology
781
00:59:01,983 --> 00:59:04,348
of recorded sound.
782
00:59:10,508 --> 00:59:12,850
This vinyl disc
783
00:59:12,850 --> 00:59:15,868
is materialized memory
784
00:59:15,868 --> 00:59:19,985
and it works exactly the way a cam
785
00:59:19,985 --> 00:59:22,674
in any automaton works.
786
00:59:22,674 --> 00:59:26,417
The groove that the needle follows
787
00:59:26,417 --> 00:59:31,217
encapsulates permanently and reliably
788
00:59:31,217 --> 00:59:36,156
an extremely complicated
amount of information.
789
00:59:36,156 --> 00:59:40,517
Placed on a record
player, that information
790
00:59:40,517 --> 00:59:44,852
can be recaptured
791
00:59:44,852 --> 00:59:47,007
with a machine
792
00:59:47,007 --> 00:59:49,268
that is in many ways
793
00:59:49,268 --> 00:59:53,167
the descendent of 18th century automata.
794
00:59:56,704 --> 01:00:01,092
(classical music playing)
795
01:00:01,092 --> 01:00:03,124
Recording technology doesn't
796
01:00:03,124 --> 01:00:06,142
just capture sound.
797
01:00:06,142 --> 01:00:09,625
It also tries to bring it back to life.
798
01:00:11,115 --> 01:00:16,023
We live in a world of technologies
that try to achieve this.
799
01:00:19,233 --> 01:00:22,688
In cinemark, we have a machine
800
01:00:22,688 --> 01:00:25,686
that captures the light
801
01:00:25,686 --> 01:00:28,478
and then brings it back to life.
802
01:00:30,756 --> 01:00:33,796
We think these are new technologies,
803
01:00:33,796 --> 01:00:36,751
but the story of automata shows
804
01:00:36,751 --> 01:00:39,265
just how old they are.
805
01:00:39,265 --> 01:00:42,279
(mechanical rooster crowing)
806
01:00:42,279 --> 01:00:44,966
Automata are machines that allow us
807
01:00:44,966 --> 01:00:48,538
to experience again the movements
808
01:00:48,538 --> 01:00:52,099
of a world we thought we'd lost.
809
01:00:57,256 --> 01:00:59,859
They were built by people who dreamt
810
01:00:59,859 --> 01:01:03,410
of a new relation, a better relation,
811
01:01:03,410 --> 01:01:07,304
between humanity and technology.
812
01:01:07,304 --> 01:01:12,220
(gears clicking)
813
01:01:15,755 --> 01:01:20,502
(water running)
814
01:01:20,502 --> 01:01:24,957
(classical music)
57912
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