
By Daderot (I took this photograph.) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Henri Maillardet was the inventor, and the machine is known as Maillardet’s Automaton, Maillardet’s Draughtsman-Writer, or Maelzel’s Juvenile Artist. Two of the three poems it could produce were in French, while the third was in English, and the images it drew included two versions of Cupid, a ship, and a Chinese temple.
In 1928, Maillardet’s Automaton was delivered to the Franklin Institute. The machine was in pieces and had been damaged in a fire, but they managed to restore it to its original functionality. It required additional work in 2007. But the Franklin Institute still holds this piece, and even runs it a few times a year. You can watch it at work in this video.
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