Distant ancestor of the modern programmable computer

[Chuckt]

The Writer Automaton, Switzerland

A 240 year old doll that can write, a clockwork creation by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker. The doll is able to write any custom text up to 40 letters long, and it uses a goose feather to write, which he inks from time to time, including a shake of the wrist to prevent ink from spilling. His eyes follow the text being written, and the head moves when he takes some ink. You can view this doll in person at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland.

Video by BBC and lesterfontayne

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton

[brad]

I have seen this before!

One of my work friends showed me a couple of years ago and I was amazed!

I have to say, it is one thing to program software where you can easily delete and modify code by pressing some keys, it's another thing altogether to be programming with actual mechanical cogs and links and so forth. Simply amazing!