These awesome robots still work after 240 years - CNET

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Swiss watchmaker Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz was a genius with clockwork. He did not confine his efforts to timepieces, but also constructed automata -- clockwork robots. The most famous of these are three automata known as the Jaquet-Droz Automata, constructed between 1768 and 1774 in collaboration with his father Pierre, who owned the family business and oversaw the project, and brother Jean-Frédéric Leschot.

Astonishingly, the purpose of these marvels of gears and springs was not invention and ingenuity for their own sake, or even to be follies purchased and enjoyed by the wealthy. They were to demonstrate the clockmaking skills of the Jaquet-Droz family, as an advertisement to sell watches.

The three automata, which still function today over 240 years later, perform different tasks.

The Musician, the figure of a fine lady, plays music by pressing the keys of a custom-designed keyboard with her fingers. She moves her head, looking around, and lowers her gaze, leaning her body forward at times with the music. Her chest expands and contracts, as though she is breathing. Over 2,500 pieces went into her construction, and the five pieces of music she plays were composed by Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz, who was something of a polymath.

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