250年前の機械仕掛けの白鳥が、まるで生きているかのように動く。1773年にジェームズ・コックスとジョン・ジョセフ・マーリンによって手作りされた。
This 250-year-old mechanical swan still moves like it's alive. Handcrafted in 1773 by James Cox and John Joseph Merlin.
byu/Justin_Godfrey inDamnthatsinteresting
【動画】250年前の機械仕掛けの白鳥がマジで生きてるみたいだと話題
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The video doesn’t do it justice. It sits on rippled glass rods that rotate giving the illusion of waves and flowing water. Little silver fish bob up between the rods, while the swan reaches down to catch them. A fish appears in the swan’s beak, when the swan sits up. The fish is flipped around in the beak and then swallowed. It’s been close to thirty years since we visited the Bowes Museum, so I don’t remember what all the swan did. At that time, they limited activating the swan to once an hour to reduce wear on the mechanism. I guess it’s once a day now. Anyway, I remember it made quite a noise as the clockwork gears and levers went through the complex routine. Truly amazing.
Such an amazing piece. I’m a sucker for old automatons.
How does a buyer change their mind after commissioning work! That’s fucked up 😡
Automatons are so incredibly fascinating, and few are as beautiful as this one. Uniting human craftsmanship with the beauty of nature. Tell me this doesn’t feel divine in some way!
Really missed the opportunity to call it an automaswan.
Glad to see swans will have their own terminators to battle
Of course a guy named Merlin was pulling off some magic hundreds of years ago
[Video for further details](https://youtu.be/cOGBP-5SxiI?si=GKsiAfEQBtRRm0tp)
This thing was ahead of its time. Those two did some great engineering.
r/buyitforlife
Older than the US and more functional as well.
That’s insane I couldn’t imagine the effort that would go into making something like that today let alone 250 years ago. I wonder what it cost to make back then.
I do not like the cobra chicken.
Obadiah Stane: Michael made these in 1800‘s . With abunch of old tools!!!
First post in a while that actually fits the sub’s title to a T.
for some reason i was waiting the entire time for the feathers to start moving lmao
Stop looking at me, swan!
County Durham!!!
The text blocking the most interesting part of this video makes this a lot less interesting to me. Who thought that was a good idea?
That must have felt like magic, or witchcraft. 250 years ago!
I really do know that’s ahead of its time, but I was also expecting a bit more…
I can see now how ETA Hoffmann got the inspiration for Coppelia. These automatons look amazing.
Imagine being so clever that you could think and construct something so unique and beautiful. I would like to watch a documentary on the creators.
They don’t make mechanical swans like they used to. Picked one up the other day, immediately hit the shitter once it bit the neighbor boy.
Good product, just needs to be more durable like this one
So dipshit buyers with insane demands cancelling last minute hasn’t changed in 250 years.
Why does this make my heart glow
No luck catching them swans then…
$10 says it’s just some 270 year old Turk inside /s
It survived that many years without being repaired? That’s pretty insane
Absolutely genius
Why did this make me feel emotional
This thing is so cool. Love every time I come across it.
>rich people commission artwork then don’t pay
History of the World, Part 1
That’s one amazing swansong from those guys.
You know this blew some minds back in the day swing something move like this even if it was a short amount of time
You know this blew some minds back in the day seeing something move like this even if it was a short amount of time
Absolutely stunning piece!!
Older than America
Automaswan
This was a recreation of a skinwalker the creator had seen while bird watching, it’s actually a very interesting story, [Article](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=hjYh8jEBKY_bCX7-)
[The Musee Mecanique](https://museemecanique.com/) in San Francisco is a great stop with several vintage scenes. None quite like this. But with a pocket full of quarters you can browse and see all sorts of mechanical automations, nickelodeons, early pinball… Just a great spot.
Merlin is a bit of a legend tbh. Invented in-line skates too.
It’s an impressive sculpture, but the chimes seem really off. I couldn’t make-out any kind of rhythm.
I hate to be that person, but who puts subtitles in the way like that? Just slapped in the middle covering the action… Anyway, the swan is incredible!
I randomly came across this documentary about Automatons that featured this swan. Its worth a watch if you’ve got an hour to spare [Here](https://youtu.be/6Nt7xLAfEPs)
They really just made it do a bunch of lefts and rights with a couple sips of fake water and called it a day.
…..It was alive before??!?!? When did it die?
>This 250-year-old mechanical swan **still moves like it’s alive.**
definitely master craftmem
Oh my god my granny used to take me to see this all the time when I was a kid 🙁
That fish in the beak was crazy.