automaton

[traineau]

Dear forum members please  have a look at this amazing video

http://www.paksc.org/video/amazing-video/294-the-writer-250-year-old-programmable-automaton#.VBy1EaR0zIU

[steiconi]

I've always been fascinated by this automaton. 
A friend saw it in person and had the card on which the automaton wrote. 
There is a companion doll--a girl--that draws a picture.

[RJBowman]

The hand is guided by bumps on a series of cam wheels. Three cams are read at a time to control three axes of motion. Everything you need to control repetitive motion industrial machinery is there.

I've seen documentation of a few similar writing automatons, but this may be the only one that had a changeable character sequence.