Comments on: "..watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it..."

"..watched him seize a silver fish from under the water and hold up his head and go through the customary and elaborate motions of swallowing it..."

fire&wings — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:02:44 -0800

The Silver Swan is a life-size musical automaton built in 1773 from silver and glass, now housed in the Bowes Museum in County Durham.

The clockwork swan rests on a "stream" of glass rods in which little silver fishes swim. When activated the swan preens itself then appears to catch one of the fish before swallowing it in a display which lasts around 40 seconds. The mechanism, built by John Joseph Merlin (who also brought us the rollerskate) includes "six camshafts, a quadrant-and-pinion, chains running up the slender neck and a pair of spring-operated lazy tongs." While this 235 year old swan is still eating fish daily, its real life counterparts prefer underwater plants and cereal crops.

By: athenian

athenian — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:17:23 -0800

A good friend of ours from Darlington got married in the Bowes Museum and before the ceremony, they made the swan do its thing. It was very impressive.

By: sleepy pete

sleepy pete — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:26:26 -0800

Wow, that was really great. Thanks for pointing this out.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:37:16 -0800

See it in action. (1, 2, 3, 4)

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:37:59 -0800

nm. didn't see the youtube links buried inside.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:55:47 -0800

ironically, swans seldom, if ever, eat fish...

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:05:04 -0800

That neck movement is much more fluid than I would've thought. 1773, eh? Not bad!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:56:41 -0800

But, hey, Bowes Museum directors, if you're reading this: howsabout putting a high quality, well-filmed video clip of this amazing machine on your own website? It's a shame that all we have to see of the swan in action are crappy shaky-cam youtube clips.

By: [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST]

[NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:12:21 -0800

Check out this automaton that plays the harp.

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:30:52 -0800

Great stuff! The swan is impressive enough, but the harpist is the one that's going to haunt my dreams.

By: sir_rubixalot

sir_rubixalot — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:59:33 -0800

I've had nightmares about that harpist; maybe now the Swan can come and save me. It shall carry me to safety on its glorious silvery back while I feed it ~~fish~~ underwater plants and cereal crops. Truly amazing stuff.

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:01:44 -0800

The swan is great, saw it the last time I visited England, but the harpist... urgh...

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:04:00 -0800

automatons, previously.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:55:26 -0800

Hey, Dave Faris, thanks for linking back to your earlier post. I'd missed that one. Great stuff!

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:12:19 -0800

How beautiful. What an amazing automaton. It seems to me in our rush to digitalize and computerize everything that there are still real pleasures to be had from analog creations. This clockwork bird is truly beautiful. It's amazing that after over 200 years it's still doing its thing. Thanks for sharing.

By: padraigin

padraigin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:43:06 -0800

And then it dies? (shoutout to the DoReMefites!)

By: thomas j wise

thomas j wise — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:14:31 -0800

That swan is just lovely. Three of its near contemporaries: the Writer (and its internal workings), the Organist, and the Artist.

By: Jody Tresidder

Jody Tresidder — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:54:24 -0800

A post that cures whatever ails you - if only briefly! Absolutely love that the swan maker genius was called Merlin and that his work directly inspired a young Charles Babbage! (You just couldn't make this stuff up.) Great links - and thomas j wise's "The Writer" is a marvel too.