Antique DIY Folk Art Automaton Project circa 1900

Here is an incomplete automaton for sale on eBay. While this would be a rather pricey, do-it-yourself project, much of the work is done and the materials provided. The seller even shares a vision for the completed piece. I find this to be an interesting concept: vintage one-of-a-kind DIY.

From the Seller's Description:
"The main figure of a man is articulated on his right side, at the shoulder, elbow and wrist. He is articulated on the left side at only the shoulder and elbow. He is whittling a piece of wood with a real metal knife. I believe he originally paused and lifted the object to examine it, then continued. He may have first had a clockwork movement but when I received it, someone had attempted to operate him with an old clock motor and an old porcelain electrical on off switch appearing to be from the very early 1900's."

The seller is offering the piece with many parts, a curved glass front, and a gear motor to power the automaton.

Here's the eBay listing with many photographs of the vintage woodcarver automaton project

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Coin-Op Fortune Teller Automaton with Film Strip

This coin-operated fortune teller automaton seems to have used a film strip to show a fortune in the "crystal" ball.

My guess is that the mechanism used a Geneva wheel to advance the film one (or some other odd number) of frames. When the film was in place, a small light bulb would probably have lit for a few moments, allowing the viewer to read their fortune.

Here's a tantalizing view of the actual mechanism:
You can see the old battery in the lower right. Hey...are those thread spools on which the film sat? I would love to get a chance to fix this piece up.

Here's the listing on eBay for the fortune teller automaton with answer strip and coin mechanism.

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Huge Automaton from Museum in Osaka, Japan

If you didn't happen to catch it, BoingBoing Gadgets had a post today about this giant automaton in Osaka, Japan.

Housed at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Science, it has recently been restored. Apparently, it is some 80 years old. I am not at all sure what it does, but would love to know.

Here is the link to many great photos of the Giant Automaton in Osaka, Japan.

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Vintage Speaking Book Uses Integrated Bellows

Here is a antique children's story book with integrated animal sounds. Presumably, the sounds accompany the story.

The nine unique noises are produced by small mechanisms attached to small air bellows and paper cones.The book also attempts the to make the sounds "Mama" and "Papa". Tricky, and very clever, indeed.

This is another gem from the folks at www.automatomania.com

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Mechanisms from The Sands Mechanical Museum

The Sands Mechanical Museum -- restorers of coin operated arcade machines -- contains coin-operated games, pinball machines, horse race games, arcade video games, and shooting games.

They mean it when they say "those things hidden from the player are almost as fascinating as the things visible. The motors, gears, electrical wiring, and gadgets have an appeal all their own."

Indeed, they offer an extensive section called Mechanisms Explained in which they have documented, photographed, animated, and described how a wide range of arcade machine mechanisms work. They offer mechanism explanations for the following:

• Ball bearing baseball "runners"
• Bingo display screen (mechanical)
• Various coin payout devices
• Coin counter units
• Coin rejector workings
• Coin slide mechanisms
• Credit recording unit
• Gear box based hunting game
• Photo booth camera with Geneva mechanism
• An early score keeping unit

The Sands Mechanical Museum is an extremely well documented online mechanical reference source.

Thanks bhaaluu!

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Automatons: Museu de Joguets i Autòmats

The Museum of Toys and Automata (Museu de Joguets i Autòmats) is located in the town of Verdú, outside of Barcelona.

The museum's collection is composed of over 1000 pieces and features many vintage automata. Most of the automata were manufactured in France during the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

This video clip features some of the pieces in the collection...and the song is really good!

Here is a link to Museu de Joguets i Autòmats.

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