A MUST SEE: Victorian Automaton by Jaquet-Droz

Dream Cutter

Has anyone made this? Someone absolutely, has positively got to make a 3d version of this: http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton
Its a truly amazing piece of Victorian era craftsmanship that just oozes steam.. I am astonished at the complexity and elegance of how this marvel is made. Its a 250 year old mechanical computer, printer and automaton that is programmed to write "handwritten" calligraphic text the with full body animation and its 2000+ part mechanism fully encapsulated within the body of a a child. What do you think??

additional reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaquet-Droz_automata

I will make it if no better figure designer wants to take a crack at it. I will give it a go.

Dibbs or comment plz.http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton

IceScribe

That is a fantastic piece of clockworks. I am not sure what you would model. The doll with an interior of metal works? Would it be animated? There are several stories of automata, or wind up figures, such as "The Emperor's Nightingale" by Hans Christian Anderson,
and "Olympia" the lifelife doll in "The Tales of Hoffman" by Offenbach. Wikipedia has articles on both. I think there was a tale in "The Arabian Nights" about a mechanical horse. I'm sure there are more. The penmanship of the Jaquet Droz doll is probably the most amazing. I actually had to learn script handwriting with a pen nib and ink well in elementary school. It's not so easy to do without blots spatters smears and false ends running out of ink.

Dream Cutter

I would do it with a door flap on the rear to show a spinning flywheel (perhaps the cam-stack spindle movement and the programmable "daisywheel".) Then maybe have the option to have him go live marionette like "Chuckie" or put it in the glass display cart and make it a piece of a Victorian penny arcade :) Slightly adorable and subtly creepy.

IceScribe

All of your ideas sound promising. I kind of favor the glass cabinet, too.