49 Items Tagged

Automata

Wonder Is Everywhere: The Defender of Time, a Plan to Bomb the Moon, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.

April White May 12, 2023

Musée des Automates

A centuries-old quest to create artificial life is alive and well in the French town of Limoux.

El Papamoscas

For more than half a millennia, this automaton has rung an hourly bell.

London, England

Giants of St. Dunstan-in-the-West

A pair of club-wielding guardians stand watch over London's first public clock to feature a minute hand.

mechanical instruments

Podcast: Maillardet’s Automaton

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.

The Podcast Team July 26, 2022

Salt Street Watchmaker

An automaton perched above an classic clock and watch store

Video • Wonder From Home

Show & Tell With a Master Magic Auctioneer

This Gigantic Laughing Kookaburra Is Out to Brighten Your Day

A sculptor hitched the cackling bird to a trailer and is taking it on the road.

Jessica Leigh Hester June 8, 2020

What It’s Like to Build a Traditional Japanese Automaton From Scratch

All you need is a good imagination. And a whole lot of patience.

Isaac Schultz June 4, 2020

Video • Wonder From Home

Show & Tell With Antiquarian Horologist Nico Cox

Video • Wonder From Home

Show & Tell: The Mechanical Magic of Scotland’s House of Automata

Basel, Switzerland

Museum Tinguely

An interactive exhibition space dedicated to the kinetic sculptures of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely.

Overheard at Atlas Obscura in 2018

From bioluminescent fungus to random bone houses, here's what we talk about at the office.

Ella Morton December 27, 2018

Rüdesheim am Rhein, Germany

Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet

This marvelous array is one of the largest collections of mechanical instruments in Europe.

Aguascalientes, Mexico

Automaton Clocks of Aguascalientes

Public clocks around the city chime with bullfights, cockfights, old railways, and other local traditions.

Vending Machines in the U.S. Once Dispensed More Than Chips and Cookies

Where did the pie and hot dogs go?

Paula Mejia December 13, 2017

Southwold, England

Under the Pier Show

A chaotic collection of coin-operated slot machines designed to delight and disturb in equal measure.

How an Antiquarian Horologist Brings Tiny Machines Back to Life

The minutiae of restoring 18th-century technology.

Tao Tao Holmes February 6, 2017