I just found this out quite by accident while researching technology in the Ottoman Empire for one of my Everway games. The idea of clockwork robots in the Victorian Era is actually totally legit, and might have happened in real life, had the Ottomans (who invented the first one) sent it as a gift to England rather than to Japan. Just imagine... http://www.netpano.com/haber/3445/ABDULHAMID/HAN/AND/ROBOT/TECHNOLOGY
Maybe the first ones actually built. But IIRC Leonardo DaVinci designed an animatronic soldier way back in the 16th century; an actual clockwork knight. It couldn't actually fight of course, but (if I understand it correctly) it was designed to move realistically enough that from a distance someone might be fooled into believing that an actual soldier was guarding an installation. http://funpremium.com/15-greatest-da-vinci-war-machines/ http://www.leonardo3.net/leonardo/books I robot di Leonardo - Taddei Mario - english Leonardo robots 1.html http://www.allonrobots.com/leonardo-da-vinci.html
All this, and no mention of the Chess-Playing Turk? A riddle for the ages, that always played a perfect game. Even Edgar Allen Poe, creator of the mystery novel, wrote on how it may have worked. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
Well, yeah, but despite that it was at least as complicated as the other novelties posted above. Also, I can't find any other sources on this Ottoman Robot, Essence. That and the linked article is a garbled mess. Where did you find out about this again?
Yes, of course, even though it was using human software, the hardware must have been a thing to behold. I guess that refers to the fact that it had a little guy inside?
