Jaques de Vaucanson

Early Life:

Jaques de Vaucanson was born in Grenoble, France in 1709 

10th child to a poor family of glove makers

Jaques wanted to become a clock maker as a child. His mother being very religious took Jaques to church with her. While she was in confession Jaques would watch the clock until he memorized its’ mechanisms to such perfection he was able to recreate it at home.

When Jaques father died when he was seven he was sent to live and train with the Jesuits. It was a difficult place for Jaques and he did poorly unable to concentrate on lessons. He was even punished for having cogs and wheels to create a boat in his possessions. There was a stand off with the priests where he refused to learn until a teacher would help him make a boat that could cross the pond. After being punished a math teacher and monk decided to help Jaques.

 Later he became reacquainted with his love of mechanics after meeting the surgeon Claude-Nicolas Le Cat this is where his love of anatomy came from that will feature in his work.

At 18 he had his first automaton workshop in Lyon in 1727. Jaques created a robot that would serve the dinner and clear the table. Instead of being impressed one of the politicians found the robot to be an insult to the natural order and demanded the workshop to be destroyed.

This era was the time of the robots. They were all the rage in the royal courts though were often classified as toys or games.

Jaques was also greatly admired by the famous minds of his time. Voltaire even called him a "new Prometheus". 

Robots:

The Flute Player

The flute player while a marvel was Jaques first steps into creating not just a robot that would perform tasks but a robot that could imitate life. In 1737 the flute player was made as a life size Shepard that could play 12 songs.

It is said that the flute player came to him in a fevered dream during a four month illness.

Vaucanson had been told by a musician that the most difficult instrument to play and tune was a flute. The challenge was set and he decided to make an automaton that would not just mimic playing but would actually play the most difficult instrument.

This is what made the flute player unique in a court full of interesting automata was that the machine was playing the music as if it were alive using fashioned lungs that created the breath, fingers that moved, and a mouth that created the shapes need to make the music. The robot was playing the flute in an approximation of how a human would. He also created a tambourine player and a pipe and drum player based on the same principles.

The Digesting Duck:

When attendance and money fell of from his musicians in 1739, Jaques turned to something entirely new, the digesting Duck.

“…it was the same size as a living duck. It could drink, muddle the water with its beak, quack, rise and settle back on its legs and, spectators were amazed to see, it swallowed food with a quick, realistic gulping action in its flexible neck.” Gaby Wood

It is important to say the duck would grab pellets from the hands of visitors, gulp the food down a tube where the pellets would be “digested” in the duck’s stomach and then the duck would poop out the food. The entire food cycle in a robot duck all to the hilarity and enraptured crowd of France.

Research: 

This Eighteenth-Century Robot Actually Used Breathing to Play the Flute

By Kat Eschner

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM 

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

 Living Dolls: A Magical History Of The Quest For Mechanical Life by Gaby Wood The Gaurdia

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Please Hit That Subscribe & Like. Remember, sharing is caring.

Leonardo DaVinci’s Robots History Podcast for Kids. Robot Lion, first self-driving cart, and robot lion all from the 1400’s! Share and press like.

Early Life: 1452- 1519 born into a challenging circumstance in Florence, Italy, but was given an apprenticeship at a painter's studio. Fishing reference.

Robots:

Leonardo’s Mechanical Knight: 

The knight’s existence was discovered in 1957 by historian Carlo Pedretti.

Designed 1495 wearing German-Italian armor. According to records, it is believed the knight was built and at a celebration for Duke Ludovico Sforza in the court of Milan.

The knight worked via gear and pulley.

2002 the knight was rebuilt by robotics expert Mark Rosheim.

The knight went on to NASA helping in designing the planetary exploration robots.

Robotic Cart: 

1478 the design was based on clock works with the power coming from wound up springs to regulate the cart’s drive mechanism. The direction or steering could be programmed with pegs put in round holes which would guide the carts directions to move at specific times. The drawing were found in the early 1900’s by Girolamo Calvi who dubbed the cart “Leonardo’s Fiat.”

In 2004 a working replica was made in Florence at 1:3 scale.

Take a look at these and then look up the Mars Land Rover.

Recreations and Applications to Current Robotics: 

Da Vinci Lions:

According to records he built two automated lions for the French King Louis XII in 1509. It is said that one could rear up on their hind legs and present lilies (the flower of France). The second was a gift to Francois I when he visited, you guessed it Lyons (a city in France) in 1515. The King was so impressed with his new mechanical pet he offered Leonardo a permanent home in the French court.

Unlike the cart and the knight, we have far more records of the lions. Michelangelo wrote on the second lion’s abilities and design.

The lion was powered by a key capable of 10 steps before needing to be turned again. 

In 2019 the lion was remade for The Italian Culture Institute in Paris. The lion was 10 feet long and 7 feet tall.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Name: Badīʿ az-Zaman Abu l-ʿIzz ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ar-Razāz al-Jazarī

Early Life :

Born 1136 CE

Born in Upper Mesopotamia. Like his father, he served as chief engineer at Artuklu Palace. His book: The Book of knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices includes all we know of al- Jazari's life and only includes inventions he created himself.

Wrote: The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Device descriptions of over fifty mechanical devices with instructions on how to build them. His book was so important because he wrote it with full instructions, not keeping any trade secrets, a DIY book.

Famous Inventions:

The camshaft: this invention is what truly makes something a programmable computer. These are not seen again in Europe until a few centuries later. While we will focus on his Automata he did invent ways to bring water up without electricity.

Automata: Moving peacock driven by hydropower.

Musical Robot Band: Remember the can system? Robotic musicians would float on the lake playing music according to which can was put in place. Why the lake? Water power or hydraulic power.

Clocks:

Elephant clock

Castle clock: 11 feet high displayed zodiac, solar, and lunar orbits. The clock had five robot musicians 2 falcons that would drop balls into buses

Best Website

to view the book and an easy breakdown for teachers and homeschoolers https://aljazaribook.com/en/

Bibliography:

Ben Kingsley describes Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock (1001 Inventions)

[FILM] 1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets - starring Sir Ben Kingsley (English Version)

Al-Jazari: The Mechanical Genius

by Salim Al-Hassani

https://muslimheritage.com/al-jazari-the-mechanical-genius/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lived: 1st century writing between 60-70 AD. 

Was a student of Ctesibius a man believed to be the head of the Museum of Alexandria. It is thought he was a teacher and lecturer there as well. Historians believe this since his writings appear to be lecture notes. He was also inspired by Inspired by Philo of Byzantium (3 centuries before wrote about the use of trapped and compressed air)

The museum was described to be a school that taught through experimenting and doing as well as by lecture. “Unusual blend of pure science with engineering . . . [and] applied technology . . . [where] much can be discovered through experiment.”

Wrote: Automata, the Pneumatica, the Dioptra, the Catoprica and the Mechanical

Hero used these techniques and expanded on them using water, steam, a need for the inventions, and a sense of humor.

From amusing tabletops (Hercules stands with a bow on the ground is an apple in front is a tree with a servant. If one lifts the apple Hercules draws his arrow and servant begins to hiss.)

In his treatise on pneumatics Hero outlines various birds that could move and sing according to which species they were be changing the pressure of air or water or the length of the tube. One of my favorites is the fountain surrounded by songbirds that would trill until an automaton owl would turn and notice them into still silence.

Hero also created a programmable cart that was powered by a falling weight. The ability for the cart to be programmed was created by strings wrapped around the driving axel. Pay attention to the rest of the book and see how many inventors use this invention as a starting point.

Hero is credited with the first robot which was used in his mechanical theatre. A theatre that ran a ten-minute play where actors, scenery, and sound were all mechanical and powered by gears and pullies. 

“Using pegs projecting from the axle, Heron could vary how the rope was wound around the axle, allowing the robot to change direction and move along a pre-programmed course. This primitive mechanism is very similar to a modern binary computer language; old fashioned punch cards operated on exactly the same principle.

Heron used the same system of ropes, cylindrical axles and knots to create a mechanical play of almost 10 minutes in length, including dropping metal balls onto a sheet of metal to resemble thunder.” Heron's Inventions, Martyn Shuttleworth

Hero is credited with creating the world’s first: 

Automatic Door Opener: 

vending machine

Steam engine: Described by NASA as a "rocket-like device," Hero's steam engine (called an aeolipile) was essentially:

A hollow sphere that can rotate about an axis passing through antipodal points, because of steam flowing out through two bend pipes placed at its equator.

In case you would like to build your own

Hero gave detailed instructions on how to build one:

Place a cauldron over a fire: a ball shall revolve on a pivot. A fire is lighted under a cauldron . . . containing water, and covered at the mouth by the lid . . . with this the bent tube . . . communicates, the extremity of the tube being fitted into the hollow ball. . . . Opposite to the extremity . . . place a pivot . . . resting on the lid . .. and let the ball contain two bent pipes, communicating with it at the opposite extremities of a diameter, and bent in opposite directions, the bends being at right angles . . . . As the cauldron gets hot it will be found that the steam, entering the ball . . . passes out through the bent tubes towards the lid, and causes the ball to revolve.

Mechanical Puppet Theatre: Animated figures acted out a series of dramatic events, including the repair of Ajax's ship by nymphs wielding hammers, the Greek fleet sailing the seas accompanied by leaping dolphins, and the final destruction of Ajax by a lightning bolt hurled at him by the goddess Athena.

Fire Engine: described by Heroas follows:

Take two vessels of bronze [made] to fit . . . pistons fitted to boxes. Let the cylinders [be connected] by means of the tube and be provided with valves . . . within the tube end opening outwards from the cylinders. In the bases of the cylinders pierce circular apertures . .. covered with polished hemispherical cups . . . through which insert spindles . . . connected with the bases of the cylinders. . . . The centre of the pistons fasten the vertical rods . . . and attach to [a] . . . beam . . . branching into two arms . . . and provided with small pipes through which to force up water . . . [and] producing a water-jet by means of the compressed air.

Fountain: •A standalone fountain that operates under self-contained hydro-static energy; now called Heron's fountain.

Bibliography

The Amazing Ancient Machines of Hero of Alexandria

https://gizmodo.com/the-amazing-ancient-machines-of-hero-of-alexandria-1533213972

The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, from the original Greek.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2009gen41532/

Heron's Inventions

Martyn Shuttleworth

https://explorable.com/heron-inventions

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Archytas of Terentum First Drone

mathematician, political leader (elected seven times), and philosopher

Alive and active during the time of Plato. We know this because he sent a ship to rescue Plato from Syracuse. (not the city → this guy).

We only have four fragments of Archytas' work. We mostly rely on writings that took place fifty years after his death to piece together his life.

350 B. C.

The first self-propelled flying device

Wooden mechanical dove capable of flapping wings and flying

200 Meters using compressed air and steam.

These are second-hand reports and many believe pulleys and counterweights were used since the first wind up bird was not invented until a few hundred years later by Hero of Alexandria who will talk about next week-This is only a theory since all records of the event state that-the bird actually flew but with no drawings of the workings of the dove we have to take guesses. Until a clever person or child recreates this original drone using materials and techniques of the times to see what was possible.

Bibliography

A Brief History of Robot Birds

The early Greeks and Renaissance artists had birds on their brains By Jimmy Stamp

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM 

MAY 22, 2013

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Archytas

First published Thu Jun 26, 2003; substantive revision Tue Aug 23, 2016

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I want to talk about Elizabeth Jennings her story is about the importance of challenging systems

A special thank you to Mo Rocca and his show Mobituaries for bringing Elizabeth Jennings to my attention and patching up a massive hole in my US. history education.

Elizabeth Jennings-Grahm Born free in 1827 to a freeborn father and a mother who was born into slavery. Her father Thomas L. Jennings was the first black patent holder in 1821 for developing a new clothes Cleaning method. He was able to purchase his wife's freedom though under the abolition law of 1799 She remained an indentured servant until 1827. Elizabeth grew up with well politically-active parents. Elizabeth grew up to become a school teacher at New York African Free School-and was the organist at her church.

During the 1850's the 'bus' was a horse-drawn wagon. These were not run by the city but by private companies that felt that they could refuse passengers or assign seating based on race. The rule was segregated carts or if no person objected then they could ride.

On July 16, 1854 Jennings was running late for service at church. Elizabeth and her friend Sarah Adams got on the trolley and was ordered off. She refused bravely holding window sashes and then the conductors' coat as she was thrown off. She jumped back on the train only to be forcibly removed by a police officer.

Her father took donations at church to sue the transportation company Third Avenue Railroad Company. Fredrick Douglas wrote about her case in his paper. The future president of the United States was her lawyer, Chester A Arthur. This is almost exactly one hundred years before Rosa Parks. with a jury of all white men, they ruled in favor of Elizabeth awarding her $250 about $8,000 today. She had asked for $500. Judge William Rockwell added 10 percent plus legal costs. This made the railway companies desegregate and began a ten-year process to full desegregation in 1865 of the New York public transportation system.

Elizabeth continued teaching for thirty-five years. She did go on to start and operate one of the first kindergartens for black children out of her home in her later years. She died on June 5 1901.

For a woman who used her bravery and her use of disobedience to challenge a corrupt system why have so many not heard her name? Thanks to a group of third and fourth graders from P. S. 361 lobbied in 2007 to name the street corner "Elizabeth Jennings Place" In 2019 Chirlane McCray announced a statue at Grand Central. please see our show notes for details or how you might help.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the start of black history month, we are going to head all the way back to the old west to meet a man who has been long thought to be the inspiration behind The Lone Ranger. Take a listen through and if you are familiar with the TV show or watched the latest movie let me know below what you think. Without any dispute Bass Reeves was one of the most feared lawmen of the west.

 Born 1838 in Crawford County, Arkansas as a slave. The slave owner was Confederate Colonel George Reeves and during the war. There are conflicting accounts as to what happened but on record, he said to have left to ensure his safety and his freedom.

Bass Reeves escaped into Oklahoma territory where he found help and friendship amongst the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole First Nations Tribes. During his time with The First Nations Tribes, he learned the skills that would make him one of the best lawmen of the west. He learned to track, shoot, ride, and fluently speak five First Nations Languages. By the way, if I am using First Nations and Native incorrectly please email me. I did an extensive search but I am open to corrections.

It is said that he left his master but that he went to the Union to fight. Other accounts have him moving to Arkansas to farm and marry Nellie Jennie (and have 11 children). Some accounts say both. 

Bass Reeves started as US Marshal in Oklahoma and the Arkansas Territories in 1875. Bass Reeves was never taught reading. He was said to have memorized how the suspect’s name looked on the paper ad was able to match it with the warrant. He was never said to have arrested the wrong person.

He was known for his relentless pursuits of criminals and while shot at many times was said to have never been hit by a bullet. He did come close having both his hat and belt shot off. His jurisdiction territory spanned seventy-five thousand square miles. It was said that when a deputy marshal rode out for a round trip of 800 miles a wagon and a cook who also served as a guard went along. This territory was supposed to be handled by 200 deputies unfortunately according to records only twenty to thirty worked at a time.

In total Bass Reeves accounted for over 3,000 felons using disguises (a fellow criminal hunted and shot at by law enforcement, a woman, or a preacher). Taking them in as they say dead or alive. Though according to the numbers he made sure to state of just over 3,000 he only had to kill 14 and only in self-defense.

After he retired at 67 he spent two years as a city policeman in Muskogee, Oklahoma. During those two years, there were no reported crimes in his new territory.

Historians have an incredible benefit to Bass Reeves working life in that he would often be followed by newspaper reporters who would give eye witness accounts. 

If you ever in the neighborhood go pay respects the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River named the Bass Reeves Memorial Bridge.

One of my favorite depictions of Bass Reeves was on a short-lived but amazing sci fi show Timeless. 

A thank you to Owlcation and the writer Readmikenow for a huge leg up on the structure of this episode

References:

CNN

The Washinton Post

The Muskogee Pheonix

The Oklahoma City Weekly Times-Journal

National Parks Service

Key words Oklahoma History, Midwest History, Arkansas History

The Washinton Post

The Muskogee Pheonix

The Oklahoma City Weekly Times-Journal

National Parks Service

Key words Oklahoma History, Midwest History, Arkansas History

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pandora:

The myth of Pandora can be read as a warning against artificial intelligence or AI. As the first AI being created (by Hephaestus) she did define the chaos of what AI can bring.

In Hesiod’s Theogony Pandora is made as a response to Prometheus giving the human’s fire. Zeus seemed to think that was just a step too far in the human power direction and not enough in the all-mighty Zeus and God power line up. 

So Zeus goes to his brilliant design and crafting god, Hephaestus, and asks him to create a woman. Depending on what you read she is made of earth or breathed into existence using fire.

The other Gods and Goddesses circle round giving her intelligence, beauty, and of course curiosity. Her name means “all gifted or all giving”. She is also given a box and told NOT TO OPEN IT.

The box contained the entirety of ills that can befall a civilization. Even if you have never heard the myth I bet you can guess what happens. After all of the horrible exits the box (or jar again depending on the reading) there is a tinkering sound. Pandora, I am guessing has a what else could go wrong attitude opens the box again. The tinkering sound is a ball of light which is hope.

So much to unpack here but I think this myth is an important one. Artificial intelligence offers us incredible convenience, progress, and for many in the disabled community's quality of life and communication. But do you think can go wrong? As we invent do we also have a responsibility to see what pitfalls our progress might hold? If we know a cliff is coming perhaps we can create some safety protocols. From our last chapter, you were supposed to think up a robot to do a task. You were going to think of what the task would be and what you would need to program the robot to do and how its’ design would help it in its’ task. Now I would like you to think about what would you do with your robot to make sure it does what you want it to do but does not do what it is not programmed to? 

Be sure to send this to us under our contact us at www.owlandtwine.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone and this is our first week of robots the history! Robots, can you tell excited I am?

Welcome to I can't believe this happened. We are going to start with ancient Greece and we're going, to begin with, the robot Talos.

Links:

Hephaestus

Minos

Zeus

Crete

Colossus of Rhodes

Do You Want To Contribute? Did you find the wrong fact? Do you have the right one? Would you like to let me know what skills you would give your room protection robot? Click here

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone and welcome to I Can't Believe that Happened, a short history podcast for kids and curious adults.. Thank you so much for your patience. I know that was a really long break and I am sorry but I think that your patience is going to be worth it because I have been researching for a new season and that is going to be the history of robots. 

I am so excited about this. I hope you are too. I was thinking, the history of robots we'd be going back to the 1950s and back to the Jetsons and if any of you were too young for the Jetsons see if you can head over to YouTube and find it. I hope you love Rosie as much as I did when I was a kid. We are actually going to be heading back to ancient Greece, and I know when you think ancient Greece, you are not thinking robots. That's what makes this so cool and I promise you there were robots in ancient Greece, and we have a lot of historical records to prove that. 

It's really cool. I cannot wait to introduce you. We're going to be doing this in segments because this is a massive topic. I had no idea how big it was until I started to research. The first thing we are going to do is to look at the mythology of robots, and I know it's a history podcast we work in facts. 

However, I think it is important to also understand where these facts came from and mythology like science fiction, like fairy tales is a way that we can dream about what doesn't exist yet. And it is really interesting to see what people dreamed of before they actually became a thing. So we will start with the ancient mythology of robots and then we will be going to go into the ancient world of Greece to meet the actual first robots. 

After we will head over to medieval turkey to meet an incredible engineer , artist, and creative person who created some of the most beautiful and amazing and intricate automaton robots. I cannot wait for you to see the elephant clock. That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen and when we say medieval it's really interesting because we don't usually think a beautiful intricate clever witty funny things, but this is absolutely unreal. 

If you go over to our website and you go look at the show notes or you go to or YouTube channel you'll get to see I'm going to post as many of these automaton robot videos as I can. Some of these automaton robots still exist, some of them have been built using the engineers notes and of those are stunning. 

From the medieval world, we're gonna start moving into the courts the Royal Courts where engineers were patronized by the Royals and created some amazing things. So get ready to meet Leonardo da Vinci's working full-size knight. You will meet some very cool people one of my favorites were going to meet someone who invented roller skates. 

Also, by the way, and helped stylize a system that really changed how things went from just one or two movements. To something that almost felt like alive. It's really cool. You'll get to meet all of these people and then we're going to move into the late 1800s and the early 1900s where automatons and robots became part of advertising. 

They were in carnivals and boardwalks. They were also something that were sold often as dolls, so if you think about something that's more rudimentary like a music box you opened up and the ballerina spins, that's a very basic automaton, but some of these toys and the late 1800s. Were unreal and amazing what they could do. 

So we'll get to meet them and then we're going to go up to the present day because you're going to see how even something that was invented as far back as the medieval era still influences our design today and how even NASA engineers look backwards to create things like the Mars Rover. 

So, I hope you join us this is going to be a full year. I am only about three quarters or so I done with my research right now and I'm going to be making some books. I hope you enjoyed. Those and you can always buy them and go over to www.owlandtwine.com website and that's where everything from this podcasts to all of my illustrations, story telling games, and books that I have written and illustrated live. 

Please go to the show notes by going to I Can’t Believe That Happened where I'll be posting and collecting as many of these videos as I can find so you can actually see these automaton robots in action. It is really amazing and cool. I hope you subscribed to the Podcast that would be really kind of you and if you have a few minutes and you'd like to do something very kind for the podcast. 

I just run this on my own. I have not gotten advertisers yet, so it's really wonderful that you guys share this I would not have the Reach that I have It's amazing and humbling to see other countries and the reach that this podcast just had That's all thanks to you guys sharing and to your Facebook groups to your friends your family your teachers, that's been amazing. 

Thank you so much. So if you have a few minutes anyone do something kind hit subscribe and share these episodes. I really appreciate it. There's one other thing. I really want to try this here and it's gonna be a complete experiment. So bear with me and see if this works out, but I wanted to play a game with everyone and I hope you're interested in trying this. 

Every episode I am going to have one wrong Fact in the episode And what I'm hoping is that you guys will actually start researching some of the things I'm saying. And if you find that one wrong fact before the next episode comes out. I hope you'll go over to owl and twine.com and send me a message and let me know which fact I got wrong and what the real fact is. 

So let me know what kind of prices you would like for that. I was thinking I would give your name out as a shout out on the next episode or we could even talk about maybe downloading some of the books that I have. I've written a bunch of kids in illustrate kids books. 

Let me know. And had a www.owlandtwine.com and send me a little note and let me know what you think and what you would like to have done the most. I hope you enjoy this new game. I'm very curious to see how it will go. Have a great week everyone come back next week. 

I will be talking to you about pretty much the world's first major robot security systems, so we're gonna meet Talos who was the robot security system for the ancient island of Crete, I'll see you all next week. Thank you so much and hit subscribe if you can. Take care.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.