0:00:02 > 0:00:06It's often said that if you really want to understand something,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10then what you should do is build it.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Now take something like your own hand.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20Do you really understand how it works, what it's made of,
0:00:20 > 0:00:21how it functions?
0:00:22 > 0:00:28Well, one way to find out would be to make a machine
0:00:28 > 0:00:29that behaves just like that.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35For a very long time, that was an impossible dream.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41The idea that there could be machines that could behave exactly
0:00:41 > 0:00:45like our own bodies seemed entirely out of reach.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55But then, around 300 years ago, this dream was made real.
0:01:00 > 0:01:01This is an automaton -
0:01:03 > 0:01:07a self-moving machine that simulates the actions of a living being.
0:01:11 > 0:01:18This elegant young artist first went on show in France in the 1770s.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22In those days, Europe was full of automata like these.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32They entertained kings and princes,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34and taught moral lessons to citizens.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39They raised deep philosophical questions,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and they would foment revolution.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Automata were masterpieces of art and engineering,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58forgotten wonders of an extraordinary age.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03This film is their story.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29For a very long time, the construction of machines that could
0:02:29 > 0:02:34move like humans or animals seemed completely fantastical.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42But in the Middle Ages, a new form of technology was developed
0:02:42 > 0:02:47that could begin to make complex, controlled and regular movements.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59This technology was mechanical clockwork,
0:02:59 > 0:03:04and it would be used in some of the very earliest automata.
0:03:09 > 0:03:10The development of clockwork
0:03:10 > 0:03:14was driven by a new type of social organisation -
0:03:16 > 0:03:18the burgeoning medieval city.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25For medieval city-states, clockwork offered a vital tool
0:03:25 > 0:03:27to help govern their population.
0:03:30 > 0:03:35The city was home to explosive tensions.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41The city air made people free, so it was said in the Middle Ages,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45and what that meant was a big urban problem.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Master and servants, traders and employees
0:03:48 > 0:03:50were at each others' throat.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53In the city, there was plague and there was fire
0:03:53 > 0:03:55and there was civil strife.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07The aim was to find a technique that could turn the city
0:04:07 > 0:04:11into a place of good order and of ideal government.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20Clockwork could offer the solution.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25The sound of the bells reached out across the city,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28bringing together its disparate groups,
0:04:28 > 0:04:34and offering regularity in a world entirely removed from nature.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Cities soon began building spectacular clocks
0:04:44 > 0:04:46to showcase their power.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54And these clocks would become home to some of the earliest automata.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13This is the Zeitglocke, a German word that means "time bell".
0:05:15 > 0:05:18For half a millennium, the Zeitglocke has stood in Berne,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20now the capital of Switzerland,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24and it's driven by an astonishing piece of clockwork technology.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36This is the machine at the heart of the Zeitglocke.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Its beat, its to-and-fro movement,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46is the beat that drives the time system of the city.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52These complex gears, coiled ropes and moving weights
0:05:52 > 0:05:58are a system designed more than 500 years ago,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00and they are still working perfectly.
0:06:03 > 0:06:10Right at the top of the machine is a device which turns the energy
0:06:10 > 0:06:14of the weights into the system that marks the minutes and the hours.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21Almost as soon as such devices were built,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24their fluttering, their oscillation,
0:06:24 > 0:06:29their regular movement was compared with the movement of the human body.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37The analogy between clockwork and the body
0:06:37 > 0:06:41inspired the engineers of the Zeitglocke to experiment.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47To combine clocks with art, with sculpture and with design.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53Clockwork could now be used to bring machines to life.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07In a world removed from nature,
0:07:07 > 0:07:12these automata offered regularity and order to the city.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15COCKEREL CROWS
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Here, a crowing rooster, the rural symbol of time,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22has been animated once more,
0:07:23 > 0:07:28transformed into a machine for the citizens to enjoy.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30COCKEREL CROWS
0:07:34 > 0:07:37The Zeitglocke and its theatre of machines
0:07:37 > 0:07:42was a vision of the world that the city dwellers had left behind.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54These machines and their show were designed to bring peace,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57order and harmony to the city of Berne.
0:08:03 > 0:08:08The great mechanical clocks of the medieval European towns
0:08:08 > 0:08:11were intensely public structures.
0:08:11 > 0:08:17From Berne, across the whole of Europe, the clocks of the cities
0:08:17 > 0:08:22taught their citizens lessons in morality and virtue.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27But all that was soon to change, and to change really dramatically.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31These automata would become private.
0:08:32 > 0:08:39Mechanical theatres that showed the universe and the world
0:08:39 > 0:08:42to the few princes and rulers who governed them.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56One of the largest and most spectacular
0:08:56 > 0:08:59of these new, private automata was built in the 1740s
0:08:59 > 0:09:05in the rich and prosperous town of Salzburg in Austria.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14It would be created especially for the Hellbrunn Palace,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18a fabulously extravagant summer retreat,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23designed to satisfy the private pleasures of the ruling classes.
0:09:26 > 0:09:31This was a place of lavish excess, its gardens filled
0:09:31 > 0:09:37with strange devices designed to entertain and to titillate.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43But one machine surpassed them all in scale,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47ambition and technical sophistication.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52An automaton in the form of an entire working city.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05The automaton was commissioned in the 1740s by this man,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Archbishop Jakob von Dietrichstein.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13For him, the machine was the vision of a perfect society.
0:10:15 > 0:10:22A city populated by well-behaved, obedient automaton subjects.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31The magnificent mechanical theatre.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36Imagine that you were a member of the privileged audience here,
0:10:36 > 0:10:42invited by the Prince to see this extraordinary automaton,
0:10:42 > 0:10:45this amazing spectacle.
0:10:45 > 0:10:49What you're looking at is a harmonious,
0:10:49 > 0:10:55orderly and entertaining vision of the way the city works.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Or rather, the way the city should work.
0:11:06 > 0:11:13As the machine comes to life, almost 200 figurines begin to move.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16The city becomes a kind of vast mechanical opera.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Beneath, water pressure turns a wheel that is connected
0:11:42 > 0:11:46via a series of gears to the entire machine.
0:11:50 > 0:11:55Here, this metalwork acts like a set of instructions, guiding each
0:11:55 > 0:12:00of the figures to perform their actions at different intervals.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Above the mechanism, the workers execute their tasks perfectly,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17mechanically, automatically.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24Meanwhile, an elegant and aristocratic audience
0:12:24 > 0:12:28keeps watch with the most minimal of movement.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36This is a prince's vision of a utopian society.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46But there's a darker side to this seductive spectacle.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49The machine that runs the theatre was designed and built
0:12:49 > 0:12:53by a salt miner, Lorenz Rosenegger.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58The salt miners generated the wealth on which the city relied
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and which funded this machine.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05But the salt miners were radicals, insurrectionaries.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Many of them Protestants.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12A decade before this theatre was built, almost all the Protestants
0:13:12 > 0:13:17in Salzburg had been expelled by the order of its ruler.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23Rosenegger, indeed, conducted the work on this theatre
0:13:23 > 0:13:27under armed guard to keep him at his job.
0:13:27 > 0:13:32It was a technical masterpiece, but for the salt miners
0:13:32 > 0:13:37it was a machine that represented the tyrannic power that ruled them.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54The Hellbrunn mechanical theatre perfectly encapsulates
0:13:54 > 0:13:59the contradiction at the heart of all 18th century automata.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04These were machines built as entertainment
0:14:04 > 0:14:07for a fabulously wealthy court society.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14But their mechanical ingenuity, their artfully carved exteriors,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20their very soul came from poorly paid artisan workers.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26What's more, the creativity of those workers
0:14:26 > 0:14:31would revolutionise the automata so beloved by the aristocracy.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46In the 18th century, artisans in the workshops of Europe
0:14:46 > 0:14:51began developing ingenious ways with which to miniaturise
0:14:51 > 0:14:53the components of clocks and watches.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01With these new smaller mechanisms, automata changed.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05They no longer had to be rooted to the spot.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15Thanks to the miniaturised components,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19automata could now simulate new kinds of movements
0:15:19 > 0:15:23and even make complex and naturalistic sounds.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36'To see how some of these amazing feats of miniaturisation
0:15:36 > 0:15:40'were achieved, I've come to meet Jonathan Betts,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44'Senior Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.'
0:15:48 > 0:15:52When we say small, I think it's really interesting to think a bit
0:15:52 > 0:15:57about just how small the technologies that go into
0:15:57 > 0:16:00watch-making in general and some of the automata is.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05So you have got here
0:16:05 > 0:16:11some equipment to cut a screw.
0:16:11 > 0:16:17Yes, this is just an example of how the really tiny stuff was done.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Maybe it would be clearer if we start with how it's done
0:16:20 > 0:16:23on a scale we can see more easily.
0:16:23 > 0:16:30In the 18th century, screws were made by forcing a plain steel rod
0:16:30 > 0:16:32into this thing called a screw plate,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and each one of these holes has a screw thread in it,
0:16:36 > 0:16:40and if you force this piece of steel rod into that hole and turn it
0:16:40 > 0:16:45as you do so, it will form a thread on the shaft.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47This is the basically the same thing as a screw plate,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50but it has a single hole in the middle.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52It's going to be difficult for you to see, but right at the centre
0:16:52 > 0:16:57is a tiny little hole and that hole has a screw thread on it.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59And it's working on exactly the same principle?
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Exactly the same principle. You just had to be very, very careful
0:17:02 > 0:17:05because there is virtually no metal in the pin that you're forcing
0:17:05 > 0:17:09into the hole, and it can very easily break off inside there.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11But that's basically how it works,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16and an example here of the kind of tiny screw...
0:17:16 > 0:17:20This is from a small watch balance, and if I just place it there,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24you can see on the scale of one penny, just how tiny it is.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32'This tiny screw and its ingenious manufacturing process
0:17:32 > 0:17:36'are just one example of the amazing techniques
0:17:36 > 0:17:38'developed by the clock trade.'
0:17:42 > 0:17:46There is a tendency for people to forget that every single one
0:17:46 > 0:17:50of these things has to be made by someone.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53They don't grow organically.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57The craftsmen starts with sheet metal and blocks of metal
0:17:57 > 0:18:01and castings, and everything has to be formed in one way or another.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Creating these intricately machined components
0:18:08 > 0:18:13was an extremely difficult job for the artisans,
0:18:13 > 0:18:18and the work took place in distinctly insalubrious settings.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Automata may have been put on show in palaces and courts
0:18:29 > 0:18:33and elegant gardens, but they relied completely
0:18:33 > 0:18:40on the extremely skilled work of badly paid and ingenious artisans.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Men and women of the clock trades.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48These trades centred on the working-class districts
0:18:48 > 0:18:51of the great European cities.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56In London, for example, around Clerkenwell, there would be streets
0:18:56 > 0:19:01in which each house would specialise in a different component
0:19:01 > 0:19:03of a watch or clock,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07and then a master would arrive and put those components together.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18The distributed and coordinated labour of a vast artisan workforce
0:19:18 > 0:19:21was essential to making clocks and automata.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29But life as an artisan in the clock trade was tough.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36In places like this, gathered round a table would be half a dozen
0:19:36 > 0:19:43workers devoted entirely to one specific task of the trade.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47They'd be preparing the spring drives that were
0:19:47 > 0:19:50the source of energy for each clock.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55They'd be cutting a gear of exquisite tininess
0:19:55 > 0:19:58inside the watch work itself.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04This was hard, painful labour that required the most intense attention.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09Lit only by candlelight, one's eyes could fail.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11You could damage your limbs,
0:20:11 > 0:20:15and yet, while this was challenging and difficult work,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20it was also innovative. It was here that new tools, new machines,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23new kinds of designs were constantly being developed.
0:20:31 > 0:20:38The artisan workforce was a source of constant gradual innovation.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52What had once needed an entire clock tower could now be made to fit
0:20:52 > 0:20:55snugly into the palm of one hand.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18The miniaturisation and technical sophistication of the masterpieces
0:21:18 > 0:21:23of the clock trade had at least one really important consequence.
0:21:23 > 0:21:30These clocks were able to stay stable and working and vital
0:21:30 > 0:21:33against changes in their environment.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36That principle is called homeostasis.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39It means that however the environment changes,
0:21:39 > 0:21:45temperature, pressure, the bumps and knocks of everyday life,
0:21:45 > 0:21:50these machines will keep on going reliably and regularly.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Now homeostasis is so important that for some scientists,
0:21:54 > 0:21:58that was the definition of life itself.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02And so, with these techniques provided by the clock trades,
0:22:02 > 0:22:08a huge breakthrough was possible in the design of automata.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Automaton makers could perhaps not just imitate
0:22:21 > 0:22:24but simulate living beings.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38One man in particular
0:22:38 > 0:22:42began to pioneer the simulation of living things.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51His name was Jacques de Vaucanson, and he succeeded in building
0:22:51 > 0:22:55some of the most beautiful and complex clockwork beings of the era.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Vaucanson was convinced that there was no significant difference
0:23:03 > 0:23:05between humans and machines.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11He spent his nights attending anatomy classes,
0:23:11 > 0:23:17studying in extreme and gory detail the way the body worked.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27By looking closely at human anatomy,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32Vaucanson hoped that he could reconstitute it using clockwork.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39His ideas were part of a novel way of thinking about the human body
0:23:39 > 0:23:42that began to emerge in the 18th century.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50Vaucanson's contemporaries began to see
0:23:50 > 0:23:55that the way in which the human body works is essentially automatic.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01Automatic is the key word in the way they describe what humans do.
0:24:01 > 0:24:07So here's a writer in the 1740s, a friend of Vaucanson.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12He asks, "Doesn't your body leap back in terror
0:24:12 > 0:24:15"when you come upon an unexpected precipice?"
0:24:15 > 0:24:19"Don't your eyelids close automatically
0:24:19 > 0:24:21"at the threat of a blow?"
0:24:21 > 0:24:25"Don't your lungs automatically work?" he says,
0:24:25 > 0:24:28"continually, like a bellows?"
0:24:28 > 0:24:33And it was exactly those ideas that Vaucanson would use
0:24:33 > 0:24:38to engineer a machine that could simulate life itself.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42GIRL PLAYS FLUTE
0:24:50 > 0:24:54By studying the activity of flute playing in great detail,
0:24:54 > 0:24:59Vaucanson was able to build a device that actually played the flute.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07There was no music box hidden inside this masterpiece.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12Mechanical lungs and a silver tongue controlled the movement of air.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Clockwork fingers precisely covered the holes...
0:25:22 > 0:25:25..and Vaucanson even got hold of real skin
0:25:25 > 0:25:28with which to clothe his extraordinary machine.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36The automaton took Europe by storm.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40It was a glorious celebration of the combination of engineering,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43artistry and the study of anatomy.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53Unfortunately, Vaucanson's flute player does not survive.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59What made such a splash in the 18th century disappeared somewhere
0:25:59 > 0:26:03in Eastern Europe in the 19th century,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06and its whereabouts, or indeed, its survival,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08are now completely unknown.
0:26:08 > 0:26:14But at the time, this machine inspired a whole generation to ask
0:26:14 > 0:26:18about whether there's any difference at all
0:26:18 > 0:26:21between mere machines and living beings.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Vaucanson's work had inspired philosophical debate
0:26:30 > 0:26:32and much technical innovation.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39But for all his visionary ideas, his success was based on the mastery
0:26:39 > 0:26:43of one seemingly simple mechanical device.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52A circularly-shaped piece of metal, known as a cam.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02The beauty of the cam lies in its versatility.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Anything that the machine needs to do can be cut
0:27:06 > 0:27:09into the undulating surface of the cam.
0:27:14 > 0:27:20The edge of the cam is simply a way of turning circular motion
0:27:20 > 0:27:24into up and down, or backwards and forwards motions.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28And these motions can be of the most various kind.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31A feather, a bellows.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34The movement can be of an amazing range of things.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39The possibility for variation and design becomes infinite.
0:27:44 > 0:27:50Cams function as a kind of mechanical memory for a machine.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52The more detailed and intricate the edge of the cam,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55the more complex the actions it can store.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05Automaton builders focused on this device,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09constantly refining and developing the cams.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Devices would be built that contained
0:28:20 > 0:28:23whole stacks of miniaturised cams.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41One of most remarkable realisations of cam technology
0:28:41 > 0:28:44is a device in the shape of a small boy.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52It's perhaps the world's most astonishing surviving automaton.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04What's on this card is a piece of writing
0:29:04 > 0:29:08made by a 240-year old machine.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12One of my favourite machines,
0:29:12 > 0:29:17one of the most magnificent automata of the 18th century.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19It's this boy, this writer.
0:29:20 > 0:29:27He was built in Switzerland by Pierre Jaquet-Droz,
0:29:27 > 0:29:29one of Switzerland's greatest clockmakers.
0:29:31 > 0:29:32And the aim was, I think,
0:29:32 > 0:29:38to mechanise reason and automate the passions.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43Jaquet-Droz was about 50 years old in the early 1770s,
0:29:43 > 0:29:48when he designed and built this masterpiece.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54Inside the boy are almost 6,000 parts.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02What's astonishing is that every one of these crafted components
0:30:02 > 0:30:07have been refined and miniaturised to fit completely
0:30:07 > 0:30:10inside the body of the boy himself.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19What Jaquet-Droz did was to use the technologies of homeostasis,
0:30:19 > 0:30:25of miniaturisation, to build really a true automaton.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30Inside the little writer is all his source of energy
0:30:30 > 0:30:32and all the machinery that drives him.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35He works on his own.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16At his core is a great stack of cams.
0:31:22 > 0:31:29As these cams move, three cam followers read their shaped edges
0:31:29 > 0:31:33and translate these into the movement of the boy's arm.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47Working together, the cams control every stroke of the quill pen,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51and exactly how much pressure is applied to the paper,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57so as to achieve beautiful, elegant and fluid writing.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09With this sublime machine,
0:32:09 > 0:32:15Jaquet-Droz had reverse-engineered the very act of writing.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25But the mechanical boy contained one perhaps
0:32:25 > 0:32:27even more astonishing feature.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34The wheel that controlled the cams was made up of letters
0:32:34 > 0:32:37that could be removed and then replaced and reordered.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45These allowed the writer, in principle,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48to make any word and any sentence.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52In other words, it allowed the writer to be programmed.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01This beautiful boy is thus
0:33:01 > 0:33:07a distant ancestor of the modern programmable computer.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26The Writer was one of the most technologically advanced objects
0:33:26 > 0:33:32of the 18th century, but it was also one of the most socially exclusive.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Like many other automata of the age, it was a private spectacle,
0:33:40 > 0:33:45only to be seen by the very privileged few.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49But that was soon to change.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56At the end of the 1700s, the playthings of the aristocracy
0:33:56 > 0:33:59would be turned against their patrons
0:33:59 > 0:34:01in the most dramatic way imaginable.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12Late 18th century automata were pricey, expensive.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17They were for posh people, for well-heeled gentry,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21for aristocrats, courtiers, monarchs.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26When Jaquet-Droz brought his machines to Paris,
0:34:26 > 0:34:32he made sure that only the extremely wealthy could see them
0:34:32 > 0:34:36by charging ludicrously inflated prices,
0:34:36 > 0:34:42and then proclaiming that no servant would be allowed in to see the show.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48The courtiers and the automata that fascinated them
0:34:48 > 0:34:53began to resemble each other, too closely.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59Because the resemblance was spotted by radicals, republicans
0:34:59 > 0:35:04and revolutionaries, and they exploited it mercilessly.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14A science fiction novel written in the 1770s to attack
0:35:14 > 0:35:21the aristocratic regime described courtiers as bodies without souls,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23covered in lace.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29Automata that might look like humans, but weren't.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Radical pamphleteers pointed out that
0:35:43 > 0:35:46while it was easy to be an automaton, like the king,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51it was very hard to build one, like the artisans.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56Craftsmen were surely nobler than royalty.
0:36:05 > 0:36:11The leaders of the French revolution simply described the king
0:36:11 > 0:36:15that they executed as a crowned automaton.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22By describing monarchy as that kind of automatic machine...
0:36:25 > 0:36:28..it became possible to destroy it.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40The machinery of life and death helped inspire the protagonists
0:36:40 > 0:36:41of the French Revolution.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55As the court society that had funded and built
0:36:55 > 0:36:58many of grandest automata collapsed,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01these extraordinary machines would begin to change again.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08Automata became highly sought-after commodities
0:37:08 > 0:37:12in the newly emerging worlds of global trade.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25The late 18th century was a period of dramatic crisis.
0:37:27 > 0:37:31European society, economics, politics
0:37:31 > 0:37:33were completely transformed.
0:37:33 > 0:37:39The old world of court society, with its princes and its prelates,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43gave way to a new, expansive world
0:37:43 > 0:37:46of international trade and global networks.
0:37:47 > 0:37:53Into the European sphere erupted new kinds of peoples.
0:37:53 > 0:37:55Aliens, exotic, foreign.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00And European machinery changed, too.
0:38:00 > 0:38:07The automata would soon take on the appearance of these strangers.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Automata would become foreign and exotic beings.
0:38:26 > 0:38:32These two extraordinary machines represent some of the first of a new kind
0:38:32 > 0:38:37of automaton that began to appear towards the end of the 18th century.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42It's likely that they were made for the great London dealer,
0:38:42 > 0:38:47entrepreneur and automaton salesman, James Cox,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50some time toward the end of the 1700s.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56And they were made specifically to be exported to China.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05At the very end of the 18th century, Europeans were desperately trying
0:39:05 > 0:39:10to find anything they could sell to the rich and powerful Chinese.
0:39:12 > 0:39:18James Cox soon realised that while the Chinese were deeply uninterested
0:39:18 > 0:39:21in the most of the trinkets that the West produced,
0:39:21 > 0:39:26the one thing they did desire was automata.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37Cox's ambition was to use his automaton business
0:39:37 > 0:39:43to reverse the appalling trade imbalances between China and Europe.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49The point was that China made goods Europeans lusted after -
0:39:49 > 0:39:52tea and porcelain and silk.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57And the Chinese didn't seem to want anything that Europe produced,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59and this was the exception.
0:39:59 > 0:40:05Cox openly boasted in London that by manufacturing
0:40:05 > 0:40:08and then exporting clocks like these,
0:40:08 > 0:40:14he could make, as he put it, Asian luxury serve the arts of Europe,
0:40:14 > 0:40:22and at last win cash for the really cash-strapped European trades.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31With the Chinese buying up automata in large quantities,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36London workshops and showrooms expanded and flourished.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42As money poured in from the east, lavish exhibitions,
0:40:42 > 0:40:47attended by fashionable London residents, were held to help promote
0:40:47 > 0:40:51and sell these new and highly exclusive commodities.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04In this new world, automaton builders started to gain
0:41:04 > 0:41:10celebrity status, none more so than James Cox's star employee,
0:41:10 > 0:41:14a brilliant Belgian emigre to London, Joseph Merlin.
0:41:17 > 0:41:22Merlin cultivated a deliberately eccentric public reputation.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29He'd appear at showrooms and fashionable parties dressed up
0:41:29 > 0:41:32as a barmaid, with her own drinks stall,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34playing the fiddle...
0:41:36 > 0:41:41..and travelling around the room on his own new-fangled invention -
0:41:42 > 0:41:43roller skates.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52Everything Merlin did was news,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56and what happened to him became meat for gossip columnists.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Sometimes things didn't go entirely smoothly.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02He was at a party in Soho, and of course he turned up
0:42:02 > 0:42:05with his roller skates, playing his violin,
0:42:05 > 0:42:10passing drinks round the room, and I've got here a report
0:42:10 > 0:42:13of what happened next, written by a journalist at the time.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18"Having no means of retarding his velocity
0:42:18 > 0:42:24"or commanding his direction," we're told, "Mr Merlin impelled himself
0:42:24 > 0:42:31"against a mirror of more than £500 value, and dashed it to atoms,
0:42:31 > 0:42:37"and broke his violin to pieces and wounded himself most severely."
0:42:39 > 0:42:43But although Merlin may not have been brilliant as a roller skater,
0:42:43 > 0:42:48he was unparalleled as a designer of automata,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53and these machines would astonish the late 18th century public.
0:43:00 > 0:43:06Merlin's masterpiece was a fabulous swan made entirely of silver.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16It's one of the most revered automata of the age,
0:43:16 > 0:43:20and it features both ingenious clockwork engineering
0:43:20 > 0:43:22and visionary artistic flourishes.
0:43:28 > 0:43:35By using clockwork to drive these simple glass cylindrical rods,
0:43:35 > 0:43:40Merlin was able to mimic the extraordinary complexity
0:43:40 > 0:43:41of moving water.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53As the light catches the twisted and imperfect surface of the rods,
0:43:53 > 0:43:57it creates the unmistakable reflection of water
0:43:57 > 0:43:59on the underside of the swan.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06The craftsmanship and artistry of the creature was breathtaking.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23BELLS CHIME
0:45:00 > 0:45:02A mechanical marvel.
0:45:02 > 0:45:08When we look at the swan executing its actions with extraordinary
0:45:08 > 0:45:14precision, a masterpiece combining the clockmaker's art and the skill
0:45:14 > 0:45:20of the master jeweller, we can easily imagine the effect
0:45:20 > 0:45:24this device must have had on London audiences in the 1770s.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30It made Merlin's reputation as the social celebrity
0:45:30 > 0:45:32he'd always wanted to be.
0:45:34 > 0:45:40Celebrity culture at the time flocked to see this device, to gawp
0:45:40 > 0:45:46in amazement at this triumph of beauty and of technical skill.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55The success of devices like the swan and the celebrity of their makers
0:45:55 > 0:45:58established a huge audience for automata,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03and as the market expanded, new builders emerged,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07creating ever more ingenious ways to wow the public.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14The most eminent of these was Wolfgang von Kempelen.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22A man whose mechanical ability seemed, to many,
0:46:22 > 0:46:24almost supernatural.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31Von Kempelen became famous for creating a device
0:46:31 > 0:46:37far in advance of any machine that had ever been built.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54This is one of the masterpieces of late 18th century engineering.
0:46:55 > 0:47:00Automata could draw, they could play music,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05they could write and now, apparently, they could play chess.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Imagine you were in a showroom in London's West End in 1784.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14This is what you would see.
0:47:15 > 0:47:21You would be shown in to a darkened chamber lit by candles,
0:47:21 > 0:47:28and on stage in front of you, a machine in the shape of an oriental,
0:47:28 > 0:47:34a Turk with his cushion, his pipe and in front of him, a chessboard.
0:47:34 > 0:47:40The chessboard sits on top of this large cabinet and inside,
0:47:40 > 0:47:46marvels of 18th century gearing and wheel work.
0:47:46 > 0:47:50The master of ceremonies shows you how elegant
0:47:50 > 0:47:54and splendid this machinery is.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56And then he closes the doors.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04The machine has to be wound up...
0:48:10 > 0:48:15..and his pipe and his cushion removed.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24And now the Turk is ready to play chess.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Clockwork seemed to be mimicking human reason.
0:49:05 > 0:49:11One of the great hopes of the age had finally been realised.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16At last, the mind could be simulated by clockwork engineering.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33The Turkish chess player went on tour throughout Europe.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Almost everywhere he went, he won.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43In cafes, academies and courts,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46the Turk was able to invent new chess openings
0:49:46 > 0:49:52and to destroy the reputation of numbers of expert players.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00As almost nothing else could, at the time,
0:50:00 > 0:50:05the Turk demonstrated just how ambitious, just how endless
0:50:05 > 0:50:10the possibilities were for engineering, mechanism and design.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31But this amazing machine would do much more than merely entertain.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35It would inspire one of the most important inventions
0:50:35 > 0:50:37of the Industrial Revolution.
0:50:45 > 0:50:47In the middle of the 1780s,
0:50:47 > 0:50:52a group of wealthy English gentlemen met together for dinner.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56And at their dinner party, they discussed one of the really major
0:50:56 > 0:50:59problems of the British textile trades.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02The problem was, could the process of weaving -
0:51:02 > 0:51:06one of the most complicated activities in industry -
0:51:06 > 0:51:10could there be a machine that could do something like that?
0:51:10 > 0:51:12Well, one of the guys at dinner
0:51:12 > 0:51:16had seen the Turkish chess player down in London,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21and he had been completely amazed by what this machine could do.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25He reckoned that if there was a machine so ingenious
0:51:25 > 0:51:29that it could play chess, surely it would be possible
0:51:29 > 0:51:33to design a machine that could weave cloth.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57These are mechanical power looms.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01What used to be done by hand, weaving,
0:52:01 > 0:52:04is now done by automatic machinery.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10The men who first designed machines like this had been inspired
0:52:10 > 0:52:14by the Turkish chess player, and I don't think it's too fanciful
0:52:14 > 0:52:18to see in the components of this mechanical animal,
0:52:20 > 0:52:26things that absolutely resemble the moving components of the Turk.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31The picking arm that throws the shuttle backwards and forwards
0:52:31 > 0:52:35really does look like the mechanical arm
0:52:35 > 0:52:39the Turk uses to move pieces across the chessboard.
0:52:48 > 0:52:54Once upon a time, automata had been there for entertainment, and now
0:52:54 > 0:52:59a range of automatic machines like this would revolutionise the world.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The Turkish chess player had helped inspire
0:53:07 > 0:53:12the mechanisation of weaving and the transformation of industry.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19But the machine was not all it seemed.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Its amazing ability relied on something
0:53:24 > 0:53:27none of its audience was aware of.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39In the end, the Turk's secret was revealed.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46As you can see, I'm sitting here inside the Turk.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51Despite appearances, there was more than enough room inside
0:53:51 > 0:53:56the cabinet for a fully-grown human being to sit in some comfort.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02From inside, the operator could guide the Turk's arm,
0:54:02 > 0:54:06picking up and moving pieces at will.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12And they could follow the course of the game by looking up
0:54:12 > 0:54:16from underneath at the chess board on top of the cabinet.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22So the Turk was an experiment about confidence.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Instead of being a magnificent automaton,
0:54:29 > 0:54:34it was in fact a magnificently arranged device
0:54:34 > 0:54:39in which a human pretended to be a machine
0:54:39 > 0:54:42that was pretending to be a human.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47A vision of the fluidity, the ambiguity
0:54:47 > 0:54:53that characterised the boundary between humanity and technology,
0:54:53 > 0:54:55between people and machines.
0:55:04 > 0:55:10Now that machines of industry could really do what humans did,
0:55:10 > 0:55:13the mechanical marvels of the industrial age
0:55:13 > 0:55:17began to make vast swathes of artisans and craftsmen redundant.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28Having finally succeeded in building devices that could mimic
0:55:28 > 0:55:33the actions of the human body, the artisans had unwittingly
0:55:33 > 0:55:37created machines that would now be used to replace them.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49But the story of automata does not end here.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55This is The Draughtsman.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57It is a stunning example
0:55:57 > 0:56:00of what is perhaps automata's greatest legacy -
0:56:01 > 0:56:06the ability to store memory and then reactivate it at will.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16All the information to recreate this intricate picture is held
0:56:16 > 0:56:22in a complex stack of cams that guides the movements of the pencil.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30This idea of storing information in the changing surface of a disc
0:56:31 > 0:56:33would, amongst other things,
0:56:33 > 0:56:37inspire the birth of the technology of recorded sound.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50This vinyl disc is materialised memory,
0:56:50 > 0:56:56and it works exactly the way a cam in any automaton works.
0:56:56 > 0:57:03The groove that the needle follows encapsulates permanently
0:57:03 > 0:57:08and reliably an extremely complicated amount of information.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15Placed on a record player, that information can be recaptured...
0:57:18 > 0:57:21..with a machine that is in many ways
0:57:21 > 0:57:26the descendent of 18th century automata.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30GRAMOPHONE PLAYS "Symphony No. 7" by Beethoven
0:57:33 > 0:57:36Recording technology doesn't just capture sound.
0:57:38 > 0:57:41It also tries to bring it back to life.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47We live in a world of technologies that try to achieve this.
0:57:50 > 0:57:55In cinema we have a machine that captures the light...
0:57:57 > 0:58:00..and then brings it back to life.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04We think these are new technologies
0:58:06 > 0:58:10but the story of automata shows just how old they are.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12COCKEREL CROWS
0:58:12 > 0:58:17Automata are machines that allow us to experience again
0:58:17 > 0:58:21the movements of a world we thought we'd lost.
0:58:27 > 0:58:31They were built by people who dreamt of a new relation
0:58:31 > 0:58:36and better relation between humanity and technology.
0:59:09 > 0:59:12Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd