How Is Maillardet's Automaton Still Wowing Us After 200 Years?
From BrainStuff by iHeartPodcasts
May 8, 2026 · 9 min
About this episode
This episode explores the fascinating mechanics and history of Maillardet's Automaton, a 200-year-old mechanical doll that creates drawings and poems.
Around the year 1800, Swiss clockmaker Henri Maillardet created a mechanical doll that moves like a person as it produces drawings and poems with a pen on paper -- it's programmed for seven in total, without having any electrical parts. Learn how it and other automata work in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/maillardets-automaton.htm See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Topics covered
- automata
- mechanical dolls
- history of technology
- artificial intelligence
- drawing machines
Keywords
- Maillardet's Automaton
- mechanical doll
- Henri Maillardet
- automata
- drawing machine
- history of technology
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: iHeartPodcasts
Books & works: Maillardet's Automaton
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