This video is an example of what I love most about your channel. We get a glimpse into how engineers, with limited methods, solved extremely complicate problems with cleverness and a kind of brute force will. It reminds me of the Arthur C. Clarke quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Except it is kind of in reverse. It's not the advanced technology that seems like magic, it is these early solutions by amazing engineers of the past.
All electromechanical engineering seems like magic to me. The amount of complexity they were able to model mechanically is phenomenal, given the lengths they would have to go to for certain features. Thousands of gears etc etc
When it was explained to me how 1960s era gigahertz frequency counters work using electronics that only work up to a few tens of megahertz by doing lots of fancy maths*, it dawned to me: Any sufficiently antiquated technology is indistinguishable from magic. (I think that was on CuriousMarc's channel) *) and so many more devices that do stuff that was considered impossible
I remember reading an article about the founder of Connection Machines (who make mainframes), and it mentions that in university he constructed an analog computer -- essentially an automaton -- in his dorm room out of fishing line which was capable of playing a perfect game of Tic Tac Toe.
The work you did on this automatron has historical significance. These early machines are the blueprint for many principals in industrial automation that heraled early mass production and the Industrial Revolution. This is huge ! Well done.
What seems almost more impressive is that the builder had to make an entire other machine to make the programing disks. Basically a mechanical means of converting Cartesian to polar coordinates with built in non-linear transformations due to the mechanics of the arm. I imagine it was done in a similar manner as your panto-graph setup. I wonder if the arm is back drive-able which would let you produce a disk with the automaton by replacing the follower with a cutter? I would assume there would be clues in the mechanism because you would need to account for backlash in the opposite direction as the writing. If I was tasked to build this, I think I would make a scaled-up replica of the arm and use scaled up engravings as you did with the panto-graph. How plausible would it be to install a new set of disks? That would seem like a very useful feature the designer would be crazy not to include. It would be pretty cool to map the mechanism in 3D which should allow the drawing-to-disk profile function to be derived and new cams made on an CNC machine for new drawings. I suppose you could also mechanically scan the cam profile.
Not really with the mechanism as it exists today but without the clockwork it could have been possible - but making the cams was a complex and likely multistage process, and the cam bank is extremely difficult to remove.
@@FranLab Darn. I just think it would be really funny to have a fully restored, extremely elegant, Victorian era clockwork mechanism drawing dick butts.
Reading your comment gave me this idea on how this could have been made: - Build a 3-axis pantograph where each axis has a separate stylus/engraver - Draw your design as you record each axis independently ( imagine like the tracing of an EKG or a seismograph) - ideally each line would be on the same piece of paper so you dont have to worry about synchronization - wrap each pattern onto a disc - use the discs to drive each axis on the automata I think the hardest part would be the wrapping onto the discs as there may be some distortion when you do this, one solution would be to engrave the discs directly then cut them to the engravings It would really interesting to see someone attempt to replicate the automaton.
@@brucesheplan696 I wonder, also, whether the original inscriptions might have been copperplate engravings, which could be traced by the pantograph onto the cam blanks for all three axes. It would require some pretty complicated mechanisms to synchronize the pantograph with the rotation of the cams, though...
@@Lucius1958 Remember that routers didn't exist back then, and even a drill press was likely to be hand-turned. You couldn't have just had a blank cam plate and milled it to correct depth as everything was moving. About the best you most likely could have done is to scribe a fine line on the side of the cam disk, and then take it out of the machine and hand-file it in a vise.
This was really cool because it shows what you actually do, not just what you do for RUclips. Goodness knows how many hours were put into building that automaton originally. Unless you try to build things like that you have no idea what it takes in terms of hours of experiments and re-engineering things.
Fran, if the brush hypothesis is correct, then there would be a few points of interest. First it would need to be a "fountain brush" with a controlled internal ink supply, something that's quite difficult to achieve for it is without a nib and feed. Then the ink would need to be a pure dye type, with no pigment or material to form a polymerized matrix. Then the bristles would need to be very bouncy so as to recover from any bending and springs back into its original position precisely: bristles like this do exist such as kolinsky but they do not last very long due to breakage. William K Rockman's two US patents, issued when he was living in NYC, tackled these issues directly, but a wet brush-head exposed to air for any period of time is certain to ruin the brush very quickly. If that be the case, the automaton would have been one that required the writing instrument prepared and installed before each demonstration by someone who understood the operation of the fountain brush in question.
I love automata. The BBC showed a fantastic documentary about them. What blew my mind was clock makers hand making screws with a thread diameter smaller than a human hair.
@@BenState i like discovering the easter egg messages some engineers have written and left for others to discover. they truly are humorous sometimes. i have made a few myself when designing circuit boards years ago. i am sure they got a few chuckles from fellow engineers. i mean who doesn't like smiley faces. i just could't resistor doing it. =o)
I've been obsessed with Maillardet's automaton my entire life!!! The fact that you got backstage passes to the greatest show on earth and got to come face to face with it makes me so excited for the future of this magical mechanical masterpiece 😃
Splendid! I knew nothing about brush pens, and am delighted to see how the line quality (ink flow and line width) appeared to be consistent over time. Most detectives would be satisfied with solving the crime. No, not our Fran. She has to replicate the crime in every detail! QED, in its purest form.
Excellent work, and a fascinating video! As someone who's both a watchmaker, and into calligraphy & vintage pen collecting as hobbies, it is absolutely and instantly obvious that a brush would've been the only type of pen/nib that could possibly produce the variable line widths (AKA "shading" in proper writing parlance) the automaton originally did. Any conventional flexible nib regardless if it's gold, steel, quill; antique or new, simply will not write when held vertically; nor when moved across paper in an upward direction. All nib/pen types other than brushes produce shading via direct downward pressure to spread the nib open, while being pulled down the paper toward oneself. That's the only way they function: Upward strokes and/or never removing the nib off the paper, as the automaton writes, would only rip the paper and damage the nib itself. So it is indeed a brush or nothing for proper and original results here. The other pen types that will "work" are ballpoints, rollerballs, and stylographics certainly. However as you say, _none_ of those will produce anything but uniform lines. *I would hope if they ever start exhibiting this automaton again, they'd take your suggestions into account rather than slowly damaging it over time by forcing it to write with a standard ballpoint.* A ballpoint is a workaround that will A) not produce any shading eg; line width variation as it properly should, and B) causes wear & tear on the delicate mechanism. It's forcing it to apply significant downward pressure on a hard, inflexible ballpoint; when it was originally designed for a brush which would be almost literally weightless in terms of pressure required eg; putting zero strain on the mechanism. It pains me to see incredible, one-of-a-kind clockwork mechanisms of such genius getting slowly ruined by simple ignorance...
I am brand new. I've been watching your videos for a total of 4 minutes or so. You are INCREDIBLE. Thank you. I don't know what it is yet, but you're fun, and the tech and science information you're sharing flows right up my nerdy, maker, sciency arteries right into my heart. Fantastic!
I cant imagine in a thousand years having such amazing penmanship. I'm convinced that even if i spent a decade with a clock maker, they couldnt refine my particular 'style' of chicken scratch.
Rather than 3D printing something to hold the pen in the pentagraph, the first thing I thought of when you said you needed something to write X, Y & Z repeatedly just like the automaton was that you were going to replace the print head on a 3D printer with a brush holder. Then it would be fairly trivial to have the 3D printer perfectly replicate the pen movements of the Automaton. After all, that is exactly the motions a 3D printer is designed to replicate with high precision and precise velocity. X, Y, & Z movement of a vertical print head, or in this case, brush. The pentagraph was an inspired choice. I have one myself and it didn't even occur to me. Once the Z axis was involved my mind went straight to the 3D printer.
this is the first video i have seen of yours found it on my home page... the thumbnail suckered me in to watching it. (good job) i just have to say "You go Girl" i truly admire your patience to do this task let alone make a video of it. i cant imagine how much time was put in to making the original Automaton, things like this just blow me away. I truly believe the previous generations were way smarter than the people of today because of things like this. Thank you so much for everything you done to make this possible.
creating this machine: amazing, creating this machine in the 1790s: mindblowing..it's a treasure & a miracle that it made it to the Franklin Museum- thanks for sharing
The game Syberia piqued my imagination when I played it years ago, and I never realised such complex clockwork-robots actually existed until your video. This Maillardet Automaton takes the imagination to unusual places, particularly with respect to intense amount of tinkering and refinement (and the time it must have taken) that must have been required. All the hours you spent (with modern tech at your side) gives insight into the immense amount of time it must have taken to create the original automaton. Fascinating video, and seeing your work gave remarkable insight into what an achievement the automaton was.
I was gifted an original drawing by the Maillardet Automaton in 2012 by a senior curator at the Franklin Institute, who has since passed away (it was actually the english poem that you used as your tester!). I was a college student intern there at the time who had watched Hugo, and I couldnt believe he gave me such a cool piece of history. It's still one of my most prized possessions. My rendering is clearly done with a ballpoint pen, as you stated in the video. I alway assumed the original writing instrument was a quill, so this video was super cool to watch! I would have never guessed a brush pen in a million years.
Quite amazing. I saw the Automaton as a kid in the early 60s. It's wonderful to see it in action again. Your commitment, persistence, and creative problem solving are truly impressive. Well done!!! Hope your hands have recovered from the vibrations.
I was just at a hardware store with your Origin router on demonstration. It indeed does not look like an easy thing to become acclimated with. It seems to me an odd sort of tool to adapt for use with CAD renderings. That automaton is absolutely mesmerizing. THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH FRAN, for doing the research that you do to bring us your content that is all educational and very entertaining! You are an invaluable lector and a very inspirational, top notch human being!!
To get z-axis control you could use a conical stylus so that it would move down in a wider part of the groove. The width of the line would control the depth. You would need to have a smooth engraving to work on as some others have said, but one way might be to use a cnc router and code in the depth for each part of the line according to its width. With both of these working (?) you may be able to lock up the hinge on the stylus arm so that the z movement of the stylus would control the z movement of the pen, and effectively apply more pressure where the line needs to be wider. This might (?) reduce the skill required. Another thought about the lines crossing - with metal plates for the templates and some registration pins or a frame it would not be difficult to substitute templates so that no template would have too many difficult crossings like the fine lines crossing the thick oval. Great project, really got me thinking!
I'm totally with you regarding 3D printing. It cracks me up seeing RUclipsrs print square blocks or simple standoffs etc. fabricating simple shapes and tools is still faster and easier with good ol' fashioned hand tools and simple materials.
She's alive, fantastic engineering across the centuries, original concept is astounding. Thanks Fran for leaving us this legacy. Sincerely wishes from the UK. John.
Automatons have fascinated me since I was a child. The engineering behind them blows the doors off of the mechanical engineering of today. A truly lost art. Glad you are digging in! Wonderful video.
I'm very annoyed the algorithm didn't surface this for me when it was first published, this is exactly the sort of content I come to RUclips for, and I've been subscribed to you for years! Fantastic video Fran, thank you for everything you do.
Most channels have annoying intros, you don't! I love the way your groove fits your personality. The rest of the video is great but I wanted to let you know that we appreciate that part too!
you know what I always see in amazing people is the uncanny ability to put your head down and just keep going the drive to do something to the end separates great people. bravo.
Thank you so much for telling this story. So clearly reasoned and fascinating! the footage of the 'naked' Maillardet is an intimate and very special sight to see!
@@tactileslut i doubt it. the mechanical parts are too strong and positively driven to cause mere linen to restrict its moves. This thing was transported many miles, in pre-modern transport, and ran and ran and ran many times to perpetrate the lie of machine intelligence. ... ahem, I mean to say that we don't even know if machines have lives, let alone intelligence.... perhaps a very small intelligence? like the kind that keeps the climate control consistent? This machine looks very strong, but also looks very precarious. Does it require absolute level installation? Lots of linear shaft movements.... But still, if it will run through the moves, you can expect the result will be within margin of error. Many automaumata machines use this same machine-to-gestural maneuver. Not only could it run for a long time still, it could be copied. Scaled. Modified.
So nice to see you again Fran. I went on a field/bus trip to the Franklin Institute when I was in Junior High School. I was fascinated and hooked on museums from then on. Living in Baltimore, I took many trips to the Smithsonian Museums and National Zoo. Conscription into the US Army ended my college career in 1968 where I majored in Anthropology. Thru some miracle I was hired to work by The National Museum of the American Indian as it was being built on the Mall. I worked there for 4 years from 2000 to 2004. It was the best and lowest paying job I had ever had.
Brush pen. Oh, I think you're exactly correct in working out what the automaton was set up to use. That's brilliant. Now I've worked out that my stationer actually has the Tombow N15 black brush pen in stock, and they are only seven bucks. I've just got to have one. I know what I'm doing first thing tomorrow morning. I can't get a blackwing pencil anywhere in this country to save my life, but brush pens in sooooo many colours are there to play with. I'll start with black and see what happens from there... Regarding 3D printing... yeah it's hard to start with. Learning 3D modelling software is an investment (same as any CAD really). Once you have the skills it's quick and easy though. I just got a piece of test gear (watch pressure testing unit) that turned up with a smashed thumbscrew for the pressure lid. I got a $15 (6.5%) refund and an apology for poor packing from the supplier, and one hour later I had a new thumbscrew with the original threaded brass insert installed on the unit. The casual observer would not even notice the difference to the twin part on the other side (but my part is better ;-) I'm using FreeCAD which has a steep learning curve and lots of idiosyncrasies, but I can get the job done pretty quickly these days and I enjoy the experience. I don't count the printing as "work", though it seems frustrating to wait ten or twelve hours for a print sometimes. It's not that bad - I just start it in the morning and get on with other things. Currently I'm printing tool holders for my new watchmaking bench.
With a more sophisticated CNC system, it might be possible to adjust the depth of the pantograph template to control the Z height. This would be similar to the grooves in a record that encode both left and right channels. This would require programming in the line width and using some sophisticated coding probably to turn that into a height level. So it'd not be super simple.
Yeah, just use a 3d printer: enough precision, no need for much force. Programmable with G-code. There's a gross negligence of "thinking with 3d printers" in this video. Adapt a pantograph not using parts you make with your time rather than the 3d printer's time, develop useless skills with said adapted machine rather than learning some modelling or programming.
fran needed to prove a concept, not make art. your approach may also work, but she’s the one who actually did the thing. i hope you enjoy your projects and your workflow.
You are brilliant Fran! I really appreciate how you yielded to make the pen holder manually rather than 3D printing something. That technology is great, but I am pretty sure the bulk of your audience probably can relate to your method here than going to CAD and plotting it out through that method
Layers and layers of excellence! I learned so much in just this one video of yours, and you have so many others with totally different topics. Your skills and knowledge make me feel so fortunate to have found your channel!
That’s a brilliant solution! My first thought was a flexy nib too, but as soon as you mentioned the vertical orientation, I could see that wasn’t it. I admit I’m surprised that all you could get was 15 minutes with the original!
Very interesting. Got to admit I thought you were going make a pen holder for a 3D printer. And then use the printer's Z axis motion with the brush pen to render the artwork's varying line width. So for awhile I was thinking "What's this all about!" Thank for making this video.
I am so keen on automata that I named my two shih tzu Android and Automaton, so perhaps you can guess that I find this one of the most interesting videos on youtube or anywhere else. How have I not been subscribed to your channel already. Well that is now remedied.
Fran this is an amazing video! Your detective work, and approach to replicate this very complex technology YOUR own way is nothing short of inspiring. Many thanks for sharing.
i think that counter force is adjustable because it would de-calibrate as a fixed option. However - the way that we wrote with pens was different back then. Try writing a page with typical pens of the day.
Well done Fran! I sincerely hope that you get to personally validate your work on the actual machine. As a caligrapher, and watercolor painter, I believe you have absolutely nailed it!
An interesting bit of research! As soon as you mentioned variable width calligraphy as a result of vertical movement I immediately concluded that it must have used some sort of brush, since that is a natural technique when you are painting or writing with a brush. I hadn't known of Japanese brush pens, but I think you are right that one of those would have been what was used.
I remember this device making a drawing for me at the Franklin Institute when I was a boy in about 1955. The placard read "Ask guard to operate" and, apparently with some misgiving the guard did, while saying "Its just an old machine, an old machine." It was in the room with the massive searchlight with its frenal lenses, a tiny steam engine made of two silver spoons, and a large stamping machine. Many (many!) years later on a visit to the Guinness museum in New York I asked some of the experts on such automatons if they knew of the machine, and one said he did, and was unhappy that it was being used, or had been used on anything like a regular basis.
Amazing. It had me enthralled. I have used pentagraphs in my art but nothing like this. I have been fascinated for years with the automatons and you have filled in the blanks for me. Thank you.
Love this! Stoked to see you’ve had the bandwidth to be working on a complex top secret project while still getting settled after this last move. Your passion project videos are my favourite!
What i would like to see is how the master encoded the original master discs used to create the automatons movements. This is all the little round discs which sit in parallel and guide the automatons movements. Could they also have been derived through tracing a form with a pantograph?
Wow. Amazing work, combining several things I love; creative construction, reverse engineering, automatons (the brilliant drawing kind featured in Hugo, no less), Fran's dulcet tones and amazing history. Lovely through and through. That said, even in the face of the note on backseat what-if babbling about 3D printers, I do note this is a place they could have a role. Or more particularly, the hardware FDM printers evolved from; pen plotters. I had an HP 7550A pen plotter, and it used felt tipped pens and programmable pressure. You could do much the same using a 3D printer (or similar 3D CNC mechatronic rig) with a pen clamped to the tool head. You were halfway there feeding the miniature shaper mill, having already done the centerline trace, the next step would be to add a width track and render it out into Z axis. Using a conical tip, it can also be engraved rather than painted. Another potential step is scanning the original cams, which would have a clearer outline that could be traced and transformed for replicating the renders; and better still, could be a reversable process, allowing the creation of new cams for different drawings and similar machines. Thank you so much!
Wow, what a video! While the "modern" (read, post 1850s) iridium tipped nib with a ball instead of a sharp point at the end could absolutely do that 2d movement, it would have to be at a different angle than the body of the pen, so while it would be possible to get that effect it wouldn't make sense for the time and the design of the automaton, which just further cements your answer as being the right one. I'd love to see it running with the correct writing instrument some day, now you've shown just how fascinating such a small detail is!
I used a machine very much like that one many years ago for making control tags... Excellent platform for the experimentation you were doing... Absolutely loved the detail and each process you tried to work out... Your conclusion was rock solid and so very satisfying at the end! Great work!
Never heard of this device before. This is just beyond amazing. An 18th century robot-like device made purely of mechanical components which is even somewhat programmable. Essentially a primitive mechanical computer.
If you were to repeat this experiment I'd use corian solid surface material for a template. The resulting groove from a standard vee bit would be much smoother and pantograph stylus ready. Additionally, if you created a file to send to a service bureau for outputting on standard cnc router you could vary the groove depth to control the z-axis height, provided you first worked out an algorithm to equate depth of cut to line width. Of course this assumes you'd be open to letting a portion of the work be done my the service bureau
Hi Fran. Amazing! I've always been fascinated with automaton writing. Great video. Your talents, skills, craftsmanship and dedication (almost OCD?)are just incredible. And you always seem to be pushing boundaries. Fantastic! Or should I say Frantastic? Thank you for the work and sharing your journey.
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This video is an example of what I love most about your channel. We get a glimpse into how engineers, with limited methods, solved extremely complicate problems with cleverness and a kind of brute force will. It reminds me of the Arthur C. Clarke quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Except it is kind of in reverse. It's not the advanced technology that seems like magic, it is these early solutions by amazing engineers of the past.
All electromechanical engineering seems like magic to me. The amount of complexity they were able to model mechanically is phenomenal, given the lengths they would have to go to for certain features. Thousands of gears etc etc
"Any sufficiently advanced engineer is indistinguishable from a wizard"?
When it was explained to me how 1960s era gigahertz frequency counters work using electronics that only work up to a few tens of megahertz by doing lots of fancy maths*, it dawned to me:
Any sufficiently antiquated technology is indistinguishable from magic.
(I think that was on CuriousMarc's channel)
*) and so many more devices that do stuff that was considered impossible
Any insufficiently advanced technology is distinguishable from magic.
I remember reading an article about the founder of Connection Machines (who make mainframes), and it mentions that in university he constructed an analog computer -- essentially an automaton -- in his dorm room out of fishing line which was capable of playing a perfect game of Tic Tac Toe.
The work you did on this automatron has historical significance.
These early machines are the blueprint for many principals in industrial automation that heraled early mass production and the Industrial Revolution. This is huge ! Well done.
I've always found these machines super fascinating, and listening to you talk about it? 10/10
You're cool as hell Fran.
What seems almost more impressive is that the builder had to make an entire other machine to make the programing disks. Basically a mechanical means of converting Cartesian to polar coordinates with built in non-linear transformations due to the mechanics of the arm. I imagine it was done in a similar manner as your panto-graph setup. I wonder if the arm is back drive-able which would let you produce a disk with the automaton by replacing the follower with a cutter? I would assume there would be clues in the mechanism because you would need to account for backlash in the opposite direction as the writing. If I was tasked to build this, I think I would make a scaled-up replica of the arm and use scaled up engravings as you did with the panto-graph.
How plausible would it be to install a new set of disks? That would seem like a very useful feature the designer would be crazy not to include. It would be pretty cool to map the mechanism in 3D which should allow the drawing-to-disk profile function to be derived and new cams made on an CNC machine for new drawings. I suppose you could also mechanically scan the cam profile.
Not really with the mechanism as it exists today but without the clockwork it could have been possible - but making the cams was a complex and likely multistage process, and the cam bank is extremely difficult to remove.
@@FranLab Darn. I just think it would be really funny to have a fully restored, extremely elegant, Victorian era clockwork mechanism drawing dick butts.
Reading your comment gave me this idea on how this could have been made:
- Build a 3-axis pantograph where each axis has a separate stylus/engraver
- Draw your design as you record each axis independently ( imagine like the tracing of an EKG or a seismograph) - ideally each line would be on the same piece of paper so you dont have to worry about synchronization
- wrap each pattern onto a disc
- use the discs to drive each axis on the automata
I think the hardest part would be the wrapping onto the discs as there may be some distortion when you do this, one solution would be to engrave the discs directly then cut them to the engravings
It would really interesting to see someone attempt to replicate the automaton.
@@brucesheplan696 I wonder, also, whether the original inscriptions might have been copperplate engravings, which could be traced by the pantograph onto the cam blanks for all three axes. It would require some pretty complicated mechanisms to synchronize the pantograph with the rotation of the cams, though...
@@Lucius1958 Remember that routers didn't exist back then, and even a drill press was likely to be hand-turned. You couldn't have just had a blank cam plate and milled it to correct depth as everything was moving. About the best you most likely could have done is to scribe a fine line on the side of the cam disk, and then take it out of the machine and hand-file it in a vise.
This was really cool because it shows what you actually do, not just what you do for RUclips. Goodness knows how many hours were put into building that automaton originally. Unless you try to build things like that you have no idea what it takes in terms of hours of experiments and re-engineering things.
WOW! This is amazing! Great work Fran.
Fran, if the brush hypothesis is correct, then there would be a few points of interest. First it would need to be a "fountain brush" with a controlled internal ink supply, something that's quite difficult to achieve for it is without a nib and feed. Then the ink would need to be a pure dye type, with no pigment or material to form a polymerized matrix. Then the bristles would need to be very bouncy so as to recover from any bending and springs back into its original position precisely: bristles like this do exist such as kolinsky but they do not last very long due to breakage. William K Rockman's two US patents, issued when he was living in NYC, tackled these issues directly, but a wet brush-head exposed to air for any period of time is certain to ruin the brush very quickly. If that be the case, the automaton would have been one that required the writing instrument prepared and installed before each demonstration by someone who understood the operation of the fountain brush in question.
I love automata. The BBC showed a fantastic documentary about them. What blew my mind was clock makers hand making screws with a thread diameter smaller than a human hair.
try electronics
@@BenState Production is done with computers. They don't carve silicon or make the chips individually on a workbench by hand.
@@BenState i like discovering the easter egg messages some engineers have written and left for others to discover. they truly are humorous sometimes. i have made a few myself when designing circuit boards years ago. i am sure they got a few chuckles from fellow engineers. i mean who doesn't like smiley faces. i just could't resistor doing it. =o)
I've been obsessed with Maillardet's automaton my entire life!!! The fact that you got backstage passes to the greatest show on earth and got to come face to face with it makes me so excited for the future of this magical mechanical masterpiece 😃
Splendid! I knew nothing about brush pens, and am delighted to see how the line quality (ink flow and line width) appeared to be consistent over time.
Most detectives would be satisfied with solving the crime. No, not our Fran. She has to replicate the crime in every detail! QED, in its purest form.
Excellent work, and a fascinating video! As someone who's both a watchmaker, and into calligraphy & vintage pen collecting as hobbies, it is absolutely and instantly obvious that a brush would've been the only type of pen/nib that could possibly produce the variable line widths (AKA "shading" in proper writing parlance) the automaton originally did. Any conventional flexible nib regardless if it's gold, steel, quill; antique or new, simply will not write when held vertically; nor when moved across paper in an upward direction. All nib/pen types other than brushes produce shading via direct downward pressure to spread the nib open, while being pulled down the paper toward oneself. That's the only way they function: Upward strokes and/or never removing the nib off the paper, as the automaton writes, would only rip the paper and damage the nib itself. So it is indeed a brush or nothing for proper and original results here. The other pen types that will "work" are ballpoints, rollerballs, and stylographics certainly. However as you say, _none_ of those will produce anything but uniform lines.
*I would hope if they ever start exhibiting this automaton again, they'd take your suggestions into account rather than slowly damaging it over time by forcing it to write with a standard ballpoint.* A ballpoint is a workaround that will A) not produce any shading eg; line width variation as it properly should, and B) causes wear & tear on the delicate mechanism. It's forcing it to apply significant downward pressure on a hard, inflexible ballpoint; when it was originally designed for a brush which would be almost literally weightless in terms of pressure required eg; putting zero strain on the mechanism. It pains me to see incredible, one-of-a-kind clockwork mechanisms of such genius getting slowly ruined by simple ignorance...
They could make that ball pen spring loaded and/or use a felt pen to reduce risk of damage.
I am brand new. I've been watching your videos for a total of 4 minutes or so. You are INCREDIBLE. Thank you. I don't know what it is yet, but you're fun, and the tech and science information you're sharing flows right up my nerdy, maker, sciency arteries right into my heart. Fantastic!
I cant imagine in a thousand years having such amazing penmanship. I'm convinced that even if i spent a decade with a clock maker, they couldnt refine my particular 'style' of chicken scratch.
Rather than 3D printing something to hold the pen in the pentagraph, the first thing I thought of when you said you needed something to write X, Y & Z repeatedly just like the automaton was that you were going to replace the print head on a 3D printer with a brush holder. Then it would be fairly trivial to have the 3D printer perfectly replicate the pen movements of the Automaton.
After all, that is exactly the motions a 3D printer is designed to replicate with high precision and precise velocity. X, Y, & Z movement of a vertical print head, or in this case, brush.
The pentagraph was an inspired choice. I have one myself and it didn't even occur to me. Once the Z axis was involved my mind went straight to the 3D printer.
this is the first video i have seen of yours found it on my home page... the thumbnail suckered me in to watching it. (good job) i just have to say "You go Girl" i truly admire your patience to do this task let alone make a video of it. i cant imagine how much time was put in to making the original Automaton, things like this just blow me away. I truly believe the previous generations were way smarter than the people of today because of things like this. Thank you so much for everything you done to make this possible.
creating this machine: amazing, creating this machine in the 1790s: mindblowing..it's a treasure & a miracle that it made it to the Franklin Museum- thanks for sharing
The game Syberia piqued my imagination when I played it years ago, and I never realised such complex clockwork-robots actually existed until your video. This Maillardet Automaton takes the imagination to unusual places, particularly with respect to intense amount of tinkering and refinement (and the time it must have taken) that must have been required.
All the hours you spent (with modern tech at your side) gives insight into the immense amount of time it must have taken to create the original automaton.
Fascinating video, and seeing your work gave remarkable insight into what an achievement the automaton was.
I was gifted an original drawing by the Maillardet Automaton in 2012 by a senior curator at the Franklin Institute, who has since passed away (it was actually the english poem that you used as your tester!). I was a college student intern there at the time who had watched Hugo, and I couldnt believe he gave me such a cool piece of history. It's still one of my most prized possessions.
My rendering is clearly done with a ballpoint pen, as you stated in the video. I alway assumed the original writing instrument was a quill, so this video was super cool to watch! I would have never guessed a brush pen in a million years.
I could listen to Fran and Joe Pera talk to each other for hours.
Quite amazing. I saw the Automaton as a kid in the early 60s. It's wonderful to see it in action again. Your commitment, persistence, and creative problem solving are truly impressive. Well done!!! Hope your hands have recovered from the vibrations.
I was just at a hardware store with your Origin router on demonstration. It indeed does not look like an easy thing to become acclimated with. It seems to me an odd sort of tool to adapt for use with CAD renderings. That automaton is absolutely mesmerizing. THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH FRAN, for doing the research that you do to bring us your content that is all educational and very entertaining! You are an invaluable lector and a very inspirational, top notch human being!!
You are a most skilled and patient person. Congratulations on your outstanding achievements.
To get z-axis control you could use a conical stylus so that it would move down in a wider part of the groove. The width of the line would control the depth. You would need to have a smooth engraving to work on as some others have said, but one way might be to use a cnc router and code in the depth for each part of the line according to its width. With both of these working (?) you may be able to lock up the hinge on the stylus arm so that the z movement of the stylus would control the z movement of the pen, and effectively apply more pressure where the line needs to be wider. This might (?) reduce the skill required. Another thought about the lines crossing - with metal plates for the templates and some registration pins or a frame it would not be difficult to substitute templates so that no template would have too many difficult crossings like the fine lines crossing the thick oval. Great project, really got me thinking!
Basically a record groove. I wonder if you can untangle the crossovers with some asymmetric left and right gain in the text-parallel direction.
Esto Fidelis is my old school motto. To understand the future you must be faithful to the past. You are a light on that Fran.
the side stroke the machine does its super impressive.. the actual feedback from the pen is the part of the writing.. really amazing
How fortunate you are to have been able to interact so closely with that machine. I'm sure only a select few has had the privilege.
And not a single 3D printed object insite (yay)! Pure genius Fran.
Fran, have you ever considered a cross pollinating collab with Adam Savage?? This sort of thing just seems up his alley.
I'm totally with you regarding 3D printing. It cracks me up seeing RUclipsrs print square blocks or simple standoffs etc. fabricating simple shapes and tools is still faster and easier with good ol' fashioned hand tools and simple materials.
She's alive, fantastic engineering across the centuries, original concept is astounding.
Thanks Fran for leaving us this legacy.
Sincerely wishes from the UK.
John.
Fran, I'm impressed but absolutely not surprised they had you work on this restoration. Your skill and expertise is world-class.
Fran is probably the most multi-talented person I have ever seen!
Automatons have fascinated me since I was a child. The engineering behind them blows the doors off of the mechanical engineering of today. A truly lost art. Glad you are digging in! Wonderful video.
Frans voice is so relaxing in addition to what her audience learns and absorbs in her awesome videos
I'm very annoyed the algorithm didn't surface this for me when it was first published, this is exactly the sort of content I come to RUclips for, and I've been subscribed to you for years!
Fantastic video Fran, thank you for everything you do.
Most channels have annoying intros, you don't! I love the way your groove fits your personality. The rest of the video is great but I wanted to let you know that we appreciate that part too!
Fran - I remember this from childhood trips to the institute! What a privilege to be able to work with this machine!
My brain kept asking if a pen could be connected to a 3D printer head. I told it to shut up and enjoy the precision you were able to achieve.
Videos like this one are why I’ve been a patron of yours for as long as I have~ love this video =]
you know what I always see in amazing people is the uncanny ability to put your head down and just keep going the drive to do something to the end separates great people. bravo.
Thank you so much for telling this story. So clearly reasoned and fascinating! the footage of the 'naked' Maillardet is an intimate and very special sight to see!
Given the careful balance of pen and arm, do you think the weight and floppy inertia of the sleeves would have messed with the rendered image?
@@tactileslut i doubt it. the mechanical parts are too strong and positively driven to cause mere linen to restrict its moves. This thing was transported many miles, in pre-modern transport, and ran and ran and ran many times to perpetrate the lie of machine intelligence.
...
ahem, I mean to say that we don't even know if machines have lives, let alone intelligence.... perhaps a very small intelligence? like the kind that keeps the climate control consistent?
This machine looks very strong, but also looks very precarious. Does it require absolute level installation? Lots of linear shaft movements.... But still, if it will run through the moves, you can expect the result will be within margin of error. Many automaumata machines use this same machine-to-gestural maneuver. Not only could it run for a long time still, it could be copied. Scaled. Modified.
You have just showed us a tremendous project that must have taken several weeks to accomplish.
Bravo Fran you are awesome.
So nice to see you again Fran. I went on a field/bus trip to the Franklin Institute when I was in Junior High School. I was fascinated and hooked on museums from then on. Living in Baltimore, I took many trips to the Smithsonian Museums and National Zoo. Conscription into the US Army ended my college career in 1968 where I majored in Anthropology. Thru some miracle I was hired to work by The National Museum of the American Indian as it was being built on the Mall. I worked there for 4 years from 2000 to 2004. It was the best and lowest paying job I had ever had.
Brush pen. Oh, I think you're exactly correct in working out what the automaton was set up to use. That's brilliant.
Now I've worked out that my stationer actually has the Tombow N15 black brush pen in stock, and they are only seven bucks. I've just got to have one. I know what I'm doing first thing tomorrow morning. I can't get a blackwing pencil anywhere in this country to save my life, but brush pens in sooooo many colours are there to play with. I'll start with black and see what happens from there...
Regarding 3D printing... yeah it's hard to start with. Learning 3D modelling software is an investment (same as any CAD really). Once you have the skills it's quick and easy though. I just got a piece of test gear (watch pressure testing unit) that turned up with a smashed thumbscrew for the pressure lid. I got a $15 (6.5%) refund and an apology for poor packing from the supplier, and one hour later I had a new thumbscrew with the original threaded brass insert installed on the unit. The casual observer would not even notice the difference to the twin part on the other side (but my part is better ;-)
I'm using FreeCAD which has a steep learning curve and lots of idiosyncrasies, but I can get the job done pretty quickly these days and I enjoy the experience. I don't count the printing as "work", though it seems frustrating to wait ten or twelve hours for a print sometimes. It's not that bad - I just start it in the morning and get on with other things. Currently I'm printing tool holders for my new watchmaking bench.
She already has a 3D printer...
@@eDoc2020 Yeah I know. Fran doesn't like modelling, which is why I was talking about that. I was trying to be encouraging.
Your respect for the maker/s of this machine must have increased with this whole exercise. Thank you.
lovely film Fran. fascinating process well described and filmed. Congratulations
And that Fran is why you should be a national treasure. Thanks for all your work.
I love seeing obsessive passion projects like this. Another absolutely fantastic video from fran
With a more sophisticated CNC system, it might be possible to adjust the depth of the pantograph template to control the Z height. This would be similar to the grooves in a record that encode both left and right channels. This would require programming in the line width and using some sophisticated coding probably to turn that into a height level. So it'd not be super simple.
Yeah, just use a 3d printer: enough precision, no need for much force. Programmable with G-code. There's a gross negligence of "thinking with 3d printers" in this video. Adapt a pantograph not using parts you make with your time rather than the 3d printer's time, develop useless skills with said adapted machine rather than learning some modelling or programming.
fran needed to prove a concept, not make art. your approach may also work, but she’s the one who actually did the thing. i hope you enjoy your projects and your workflow.
You are brilliant Fran! I really appreciate how you yielded to make the pen holder manually rather than 3D printing something. That technology is great, but I am pretty sure the bulk of your audience probably can relate to your method here than going to CAD and plotting it out through that method
I never realized how much I needed to know the answer to this mystery until Fran solved it.
This channel is so great, love it from day one!
This is AWESOME you are working on this!! So awesome!
Amazing work Fran. What tenacity and patience.
Layers and layers of excellence! I learned so much in just this one video of yours, and you have so many others with totally different topics. Your skills and knowledge make me feel so fortunate to have found your channel!
That was fascinating and I have to add your perseverance at this was inspiring! One of your best videos, thank-you.
That’s a brilliant solution! My first thought was a flexy nib too, but as soon as you mentioned the vertical orientation, I could see that wasn’t it. I admit I’m surprised that all you could get was 15 minutes with the original!
Thank you Fran, I hadn’t seen this before now - Henri was my great great grandfather, so this was brilliant, Paul
Fran, your tenacity towards your projects are an inspiration to all.
Makes absolute sense that it would be a Japanese calligraphy brush. Glad you could prove it.
Very interesting.
Got to admit I thought you were going make a pen holder for a 3D printer.
And then use the printer's Z axis motion with the brush pen to render the artwork's varying line width.
So for awhile I was thinking "What's this all about!"
Thank for making this video.
I am so keen on automata that I named my two shih tzu Android and Automaton, so perhaps you can guess that I find this one of the most interesting videos on youtube or anywhere else. How have I not been subscribed to your channel already. Well that is now remedied.
That's beautiful, Fran.
Fran this is an amazing video! Your detective work, and approach to replicate this very complex technology YOUR own way is nothing short of inspiring. Many thanks for sharing.
Hey it's the Maillardet Mechanical Turk (Engineer?) ! :) What an amazing contraption, I envision a future with a writing automaton in every home!
i think that counter force is adjustable because it would de-calibrate as a fixed option. However - the way that we wrote with pens was different back then.
Try writing a page with typical pens of the day.
Absolutely incredible! Mad props Fran!
Glad to see that you did cross that 't' in 'youth'
Well done Fran! I sincerely hope that you get to personally validate your work on the actual machine. As a caligrapher, and watercolor painter, I believe you have absolutely nailed it!
I swear I use to watch your videos several years ago, glad I find your channel again!
Amazing work, Fran! A significant contribution to history and curatorship!
An interesting bit of research! As soon as you mentioned variable width calligraphy as a result of vertical movement I immediately concluded that it must have used some sort of brush, since that is a natural technique when you are painting or writing with a brush. I hadn't known of Japanese brush pens, but I think you are right that one of those would have been what was used.
Interesting analysis of a complex machine along with the proof of concept!
I remember this device making a drawing for me at the Franklin Institute when I was a boy in about 1955. The placard read "Ask guard to operate" and, apparently with some misgiving the guard did, while saying "Its just an old machine, an old machine." It was in the room with the massive searchlight with its frenal lenses, a tiny steam engine made of two silver spoons, and a large stamping machine. Many (many!) years later on a visit to the Guinness museum in New York I asked some of the experts on such automatons if they knew of the machine, and one said he did, and was unhappy that it was being used, or had been used on anything like a regular basis.
What a fine early example of numeric control! Overshadows my beloved Monotype text composition system for sure.
nice work Fran, what a great show of your supurb talents, creativity and technical skills..you are one of my favorite RUclips channels of all time..
Fascinating. One of your best videos ever!
Wow! This is amazing Fran! 🤩
These automaton from centuries ago are very fascinating.
As an artist and inventor, this was very cool,, i love making things,, so i loved watching you on your cool project.
7.15.2023
Wow. That was awesome.
I learned a lot about the joys of
proof of concept and dedication.
Well done!
Thank you.
Wonderful video Fran. Thank you for putting in all the hours of work.
Super groovy wood working bench Fran !
Wow Fran, this video was facinating. You're amazing.
Amazing. It had me enthralled. I have used pentagraphs in my art but nothing like this. I have been fascinated for years with the automatons and you have filled in the blanks for me. Thank you.
A proper Anarchist's toolbench - much love for you from a west-coast fan
Love this! Stoked to see you’ve had the bandwidth to be working on a complex top secret project while still getting settled after this last move. Your passion project videos are my favourite!
What i would like to see is how the master encoded the original master discs used to create the automatons movements. This is all the little round discs which sit in parallel and guide the automatons movements. Could they also have been derived through tracing a form with a pantograph?
This is so insanely cool and complicated for such a small detail.
Wow. Amazing work, combining several things I love; creative construction, reverse engineering, automatons (the brilliant drawing kind featured in Hugo, no less), Fran's dulcet tones and amazing history. Lovely through and through.
That said, even in the face of the note on backseat what-if babbling about 3D printers, I do note this is a place they could have a role. Or more particularly, the hardware FDM printers evolved from; pen plotters. I had an HP 7550A pen plotter, and it used felt tipped pens and programmable pressure. You could do much the same using a 3D printer (or similar 3D CNC mechatronic rig) with a pen clamped to the tool head. You were halfway there feeding the miniature shaper mill, having already done the centerline trace, the next step would be to add a width track and render it out into Z axis. Using a conical tip, it can also be engraved rather than painted.
Another potential step is scanning the original cams, which would have a clearer outline that could be traced and transformed for replicating the renders; and better still, could be a reversable process, allowing the creation of new cams for different drawings and similar machines.
Thank you so much!
Thanks, Fran! I enjoy your videos and exploration of the past!
$$$$ Thank YOU Kirk $$$$ Kiiiiirk!
This is an enthralling look at some great engineering work, yours and the automaton creator’s.
Mind-blowing work, Congratulations Fran!! 👏
Wow, what a video! While the "modern" (read, post 1850s) iridium tipped nib with a ball instead of a sharp point at the end could absolutely do that 2d movement, it would have to be at a different angle than the body of the pen, so while it would be possible to get that effect it wouldn't make sense for the time and the design of the automaton, which just further cements your answer as being the right one. I'd love to see it running with the correct writing instrument some day, now you've shown just how fascinating such a small detail is!
I used a machine very much like that one many years ago for making control tags... Excellent platform for the experimentation you were doing... Absolutely loved the detail and each process you tried to work out... Your conclusion was rock solid and so very satisfying at the end! Great work!
Never heard of this device before. This is just beyond amazing. An 18th century robot-like device made purely of mechanical components which is even somewhat programmable.
Essentially a primitive mechanical computer.
There's one in the 2011 film "Hugo". Great movie! ^_^
Never seen your videos. But I have to say this intrigued me in a way no other video has ever done so before.
Professor Trelawney explaining how a clockpunk boy's writing works has made my life complete. :)
If you were to repeat this experiment I'd use corian solid surface material for a template. The resulting groove from a standard vee bit would be much smoother and pantograph stylus ready. Additionally, if you created a file to send to a service bureau for outputting on standard cnc router you could vary the groove depth to control the z-axis height, provided you first worked out an algorithm to equate depth of cut to line width. Of course this assumes you'd be open to letting a portion of the work be done my the service bureau
Friggin INCREDIBLE work!!
Hi Fran. Amazing! I've always been fascinated with automaton writing. Great video. Your talents, skills, craftsmanship and dedication (almost OCD?)are just incredible. And you always seem to be pushing boundaries. Fantastic! Or should I say Frantastic? Thank you for the work and sharing your journey.