Who needs c when this can be done with "machine" language?

jpanhalt said:

Sent by a friend: https://www.chonday.com/Videos/the-writer-automaton

Note: It was done 240 years ago. Have your speakers on.

John

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ericgibbs said:

Its only a clockwork mechanism, not programmable.

For its time its a superb piece of engineering.
E

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The writer is the most complex of the three automata. Using a system similar to the one used for the draughtsman for each letter, he is able to write any custom text up to 40 letters long (the text is rarely changed; one of the latest instances was in honour of president François Mitterrand when he toured the city). The text is coded on a wheel where characters are selected one by one.

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His brother, quite a bit more complex, can write any 40 character sequence of the Roman alphabet. As far as functionality is concerned this little fellow is the worlds oldest computer. He has an input device, which is used to set tabs on what could be considered short term programmable memory, a stack of 40 cams (some upper case letters are not present) represents the read only program. A quill pen is the output device. All of which predates Charles Babage by about 50 years. Babage himself was familiar with dolls of this type and writes about them in his autobiography. he may have actually seen these dolls while visiting Switzerland.

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It is programmable, and many historians consider it an early, mechanical computer. Babbage is, of course, considered by many to be the father of the digital computer. His computer was also mechanical. He came after Pierre Jaquet-Droz and referenced Jaquet-Droz in his writings.

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