Another jaw dropper. An astonishing 250 year old programmable automaton.

[johnnielsen]

 

[Tom Kitta]

The boy is not an ancestor of a computer - it is an ancestor of a CNC machine. Mechanical computer steers boy hand in 3 axis to produce a part.

 

[johnnielsen]

Cam automatic screw machines have existed for 150 years and they rely on exactly the same mechanisms. You could say they were precursors of analog computers. When I had one (Traub A42 cam automatic) it was one of my favorite machines. It was great fun to make a 1 3/8" diameter 6-6 nylon wheel 1 1/4" long with a two step bore and a heavily radiused corner in just over 5 seconds including advancing the bar stock at better than 500 pcs an hour.

 

[Tom O]

Amazing what they could make. Like the one in the movie “Hugo”.

 

[YotaBota]

WOW, The term "craftsman" means the best of the trade but this is way beyond craftsman. There must have some sort of templates/machines for cutting the gears and cams but I can't even imaging doing this with a file and saw.

 

[johnnielsen]

WOW, The term "craftsman" means the best of the trade but this is way beyond craftsman. There must have some sort of templates/machines for cutting the gears and cams but I can't even imaging doing this with a file and saw.

Yes, the skill required to build it is incredible but what about the person who designed it. That really blows my mind.

 

[CalgaryPT]

I've read the Linotype is the most complicated mechanical machine ever built, and I was fortunate enough to grow up around them. But this is incredible. A true mixture of art and machine. Imagine the mind of a person who designed this and his thoughts at night before he fell asleep. This man wasn't just dreaming of sheep. Truly amazing, and almost scary in some ways; it must be the eyes and their sync'd movements. Wow.

Thanks John.

 

[Crankit]

Absolutely incredible mastery of movement! I could only imagine the time spent into producing this

 

[DPittman]

Mind boggling in every aspect.