44. Great Inventions

You can read my book review of THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick in this Friday's Variety. I'll link to it here when it comes out. ANewInvention

The book is fabulous. It tells the story a boy--orphaned, working as a timekeeper in a train station, and stealing parts to fix an automaton that will write. The boy, Hugo Cabret, believes the writing automaton has an important message for him, possibly from Hugo's father.

The story captures the mystery and intensity of a boy alone in a larger world. It also reminds us of a time when mechanical marvels were thought to be magical (that's almost the way I view how my computer works now!).

So here's a look at some old time mechanical marvels.

An 18th century French writing doll.



And a look inside at how it works.




And a 19th century doll writing kanji.



And if you want to understand how it works, here's a little article explaining the mechanical principles. Automatons

You can see a small sample of the variety of automatons at this gallery . And see a picture of yet another writing automaton here: Renee's

And if you want to read more, or make your own, here's a place to get more books and tools. AmazonHasEverything

But if you don't want to spend money, you can get a quick glimpse of the history of automatons, i.e. robotics (and learn where that term came from if you don't already know), here: HistoryofRobotics

And if you're interested in the film by Geroge Melies referenced in THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, you can watch it here: ATripToTheMoon

The fascination with machines is as old as humankind. And a good story about a kid who is fascinated with a machine--well, that's THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET.