Page 35 - Studio International - October 1969

2a Detail from `Sun-god Tablet', with a scene No. 26687; Painted wooden horse with wheels (the 5a British Museum, Burney 108, folio 42 V.
representing Nabu-apal-iddina, king of Babylon, string is original) from Oxyrhynchus. Roman period, A sixteenth-century ms. of Hero's Pneumatics. The
about 870 B.C. worshipping in the shrine of the C. A.D. 200. No. 38142; Two clay birds mounted on owl and birds automaton is an example of Hero's
Sun-god in the city of Sippar. Stone, 7 in. wide, a spindle. Roman period ( ?) after 30 B.C. No. use of mechanical and fluid principles in one
111 in. high, thickness 2 in. in centre, tapering to 26544-5; Ivory figure of a dwarf. Middle Kingdom work. The birds do not sing when the owl faces
1⅝ in. at ends. The tablet was found in 1881. c. 2,000 B.C. No. 58409; Height approx. in.; them; when it turns away, they sing again.
British Museum No. 91,000. Wooden bird's head. Date and provenance uncertain. This can be repeated many times. As water fills an
This is one of the most profound images achieved No. 37477; Toy consisting of a bound prostrate man airtight container, the escaping air causes birds
by man. By adoring, focusing, imprisoning—thought being worried by a hound, wood. New Kingdom ( ?). to sing. When the container is emptied via a
—man starts the journey to the stars. This image is c. 1200 B.C. No. 26254; Toy cat with inlaid eyes of siphon, their song ceases. The left-and-right
based on an earlier one, and before that, men sought glass, movable jaw fitted with bronze teeth, wood. motion of the column supporting the owl is
to merge with, and influence, the course of planets. New Kingdom ( ?) c. 1000 B.C. No. 15671; Figure determined by the discharge of water, and a
The three symbols below the arch are the moon, sun of a roaring lion, steatite. New Kingdom. weighted cord.
and Venus. c. 1200 B.c. No. 36117. 5b The same subject. From Schmidt, Book 1: XVI.
(This is the earliest representation having links with The dog (No. 26254) can still be moved up and
the subject of puppeteers that I have come across. down, hinged on its wooden peg. A hole in the 6a British Museum, Burney 108, folio 80 R.
It may usefully be compared with what is possibly back of No. 36117 passes through the body to the The Miliarium is a kind of bath oven or
the earliest European related subject, the two figures mouth, and in this way the tongue was samovar, possibly for table use. Activated by steam
manipulating cords and toys or puppets from a probably activated. pressure, a figure blows on to charcoal contained in
twelf-century ms. Note the repetition of a table in 3b Toy cat with inlaid eyes of glass, movable tubes in the central column—thus speeding
each work. In Max von Boehn. Dolls and Puppets. jaw fitted with bronze teeth, wood. New Kingdom ( ?) up the heating of the water. The open tap in the
London, 1932. P. 288.) c. 1000 B.C. British Museum No. 15671. top of the device will not release very hot water
2b A photograph showing the edge of the moon (1) 3c Three ivory figures in the Cairo Museum. until cold water is added to the warm water in the
and earth (2) taken by the Russian automatic Egypt, Middle Kingdom, c. 2000 B.c. From Lansing. base. Through the deployment of steam, water, and
station Zond-Six flying at a distance of 3,300 These dancing figures were manipulated on pipes, a bird and triton produce thrush-twitter and
kilometers from the edge of the moon, and 388,000 their axis by means of strings arranged in the ivory trumpet sounds.
kilometers from earth. Picture released on 30 Novem- base. Comparing the British Museum figure of a
ber 1968. dwarf (illustration 3a) with the Cairo Museum 6b The same subject. From Schmidt, Book 2: XXXV.
2c MOON . . . TRANQUILITY BASE . . . THE EAGLE pieces, one notes the absence of a hole This and the related work (Schmidt, Book 2:
HAS LANDED. July 1969. This is the symbol of man's for the string in its base. Maybe this was never XXX I V), are magnificent examples of principles
first landing on the moon. Worn by the U.S. team meant to be in motion. embodied in Alexandrian automata, which only
of three men. loth century science, technology, and kinetic art
2d 'First Man on the Moon' is the inscription across 4a, b, c These illustrations from the works of Philo have caught up with.
the bottom of this American commemorative convincingly demonstrate the advanced state
stamp issued in September 1969. It was designed by of Alexandrian automata before Hero. They are 7 An automaton from the works of the Benū Mūsā
Paul Calle. reconstructions by Carra de Vaux based on c. A.D. 840. 'The figure of a bull which drinks from a
two Arabic and one Latin mss. From Le Livre des filled basin when it is placed before it, and
3a Egypt: mechanical direction. Objects representing appareils pneumatiques et de machines simultaneously emits a sound as if it is thirsty.'
Egyptian mechanical figures in the British Museum. hydrauliques par Philon de Byzance. In Notices et Hauser, plate IV, figure 6.
From the rear left: Painted wooden horse with Extraits des Manuscripts de la Bibliothèque
wheels, from Akhimin. Roman period, c. A.D. 200. Nationale. Paris, 1903. Vol. 38. 8a Wiedemann and Hauser base their translation of