The Writer Automaton, Switzerland [video] | Hacker News Reader

The Writer Automaton, Switzerland [video]

chonday.com

63 pointsfrr1497 comments

1770ies. Wow. That's still in the so-called 'Ancien Regime', before Napoleon took Switzerland for a few years. Switzerland was a relatively loose confederacy back then, a bunch of city states, small republics and subject territories. Very poor, except maybe for the watchmakers in Neuchatel. Even getting the supplies for such a machine must have been tough back then. All the more impressive.

Often when one of these ingenuously conceived & impeccably crafted devices is unearthed [1], one wonders about not only the provenance, the period and the relative brilliance of such contraptions but also the initial impetus for the actual making of the device.

One cannot help themselves from wondering

  * what prevailing mores - and pressures - led to the devising 
   of such relatively complex gadgets. 
  * what the availability of skilled labor was in those times
  * how expensive or cheap such (bonded ?) labor was
  * how freely or sparsely knowledge was shared in those times
  * how guilds & ancestral orders controlled the dissemination 
  of such knowledge & trade-craft, often limiting it to very few
  trusted members outside the immediate family or clan, after
  decades of indentured internship and servitude.
  * what other existential pressures the inventor faced in the 
  making of the contraption Eg. Sedition laws, Canon law etc.

I tend to think that most of the inventors of these devices made them under some form of extreme duress or state sanction - not very unlike say the much-debated working conditions that prevailed during the construction of the Pyramids [2].

I am somehow inclined to believe that they did not enjoy the same somewhat lofty treatment bestowed on painters, architects and sculptors.

This is semi-informed speculation.

I'd love to read more on the topic from scholarly sources.

[1] The Antikythera Mechanism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpLcnAIpVRA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eUibFQKJqI

[2] Who Built the Pyramids?

http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/who-built-the-pyramids-ht...

Edit: formatting

Yes its strange to think, under guild systems of suspicion and secrecy, that anything like these amazing contrivances could be designed and built. Were these Newton-grade geniuses? Skilled mechanics? Nerds of another age?

Just saw a so-so documentary on glass, which included the insight that Venice has had glass guilds for 500 years. During the whole time they've flourished under a system of knowledge sharing, where the old masters taught anyone (in the guild) who would listen, their techniques. Made Venice an amazing place, for glassmaking and lensmaking.

There are Automatons on display at the Museum of Art and History in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Totally worth a visit.

We also have one in China, in the Forbidden City. It was a present by certain western diplomat in 1700s/1800s. I'm pretty sure this kind of thing was actually quite popular back at that time.

Is that a wind-up?

Really amazing. Previous discussion on HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6678947

Reply on news.ycombinator.com