The word automation is generally used to describe these early animation attempts in history. In an 1828 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, automation was defined as “a self-moving machine or one which moves by invisible springs.” But Isaac Asimov stated in his book Robots, “Just as technology changed man’s ability to create devices in his own image, it filtered into definitions of those devices. The evolution of automation definitions, for example, reflects changes in the ways ‘self movement’ could be achieved”

During the last 50 years, the word automation gave way to the word robot. The word robot  was introduced in a 1920 play called R.U.R by Karel Capek. R.U.R. is a play about artificial men and women (robots) whose design has been simplified to permit speedy manufacture by simply leaving out feelings and emotions—hence they only have the capacity to work. Then, someone finds a way to implant emotion into the robots, and they take over the world—eliminating most humans. A problem arises in this story: the robots may not be able to manufacture themselves. In the end, two robots fall in love and the audience gets the feeling that these two may be the “new” Adam and Eve of the robot world.

The word robot (from robota) came from Capek’s Czech language meaning labor or work. However, in Czech, robot carried the negative connotations of slavery or forced labor. In its first citing of the word robot, the 1934 Webster’s Dictionary described the word has having a heritage from the play R.U.R. and meaning “any automatic apparatus or device that performs functions ordinarily ascribed to human beings.”

Once again Isaac Asimov stated, “The origin of the word robot was itself a comment on technology’s role in society. Whereas automation definitions reflected the technology of the day, robot definitions remained vague regarding the technology required to make them run. Forty years after robot entered the English language, a definition of industrial robot finally specified what was meant technically, but world consensus was not reached and definitions continue to vary from language to language.

In order to better understand where we are and how we got here in terms of the illusion of life, the following selected and abbreviated history of automatons and, eventually, lifelike robots are included below:

As early as 2,000 years ago in the Hellenistic World of Alexandria in Egypt, it is reported that the public gardens were enhanced for visitors’ entertainment by having water fountains with moving statues driven by water pressure. Some of these figures turned their bodies, and moved their arms and legs.

Mechanical animated figures used on clocks to ring bells or chimes are known as Jacquemarts. The first Jacquemarts were installed on the clock of the Notre Dame Dijon in the 13th century. Shakespeare even wrote about their incredible, alluring performances.

Some of these early automatons have stood the test of time and still perform today. Constructed originally in 1497, two bronze mechanical animated men strike a bell in a clock tower every hour high above the Piazza San Marco in Venice.

An automation monk was thought to have been built by a Spaniard (either Juanelo Turraino or Giovanni Torriani) during the 1500s. Through a spring motor, the monk turned its head and eye from side to side, bowed, opened and closed its mouth, moved both arms, and simulated a walking motion while rolling on wheels.

The Strasbourg clock, which was built in 1574, featured a rooster of cast iron that appeared everyday at noon and sounded the hour by opening its beak, spreading its feathers, flapping its wings, and crowing. It was built as a religious reminder of St. Peter’s denial of Jesus.

In 1738, Jacques de Vaucanson displayed a duck that he designed and built. This incredible piece of work could pluck grain fro a keeper’s hand, drink water and wine, simulate swallowing and digestion, and even excrete material. The duck had an entire act that it would perform, and Vaucanson would often show the inner workings to prove that it was indeed a machine of great complexity. The wings alone had over 400 articulated pieces.

Around the same period, Vaucanson also built two human-looking automatons that played instruments. One played the drums and the other played the flute. Vaucanson’s mechanical flutist was considered a virtuoso and nothing short of remarkable. It was said that few humans had mastered the flute as well as Vaucanson’s android. In total, it played 12 different songs, and audiences found it difficult to believe that a mechanical device could play so beautifully.

Around 1770, Pierre and Henri-Louis Jacquet-Droz, a father and son team, designed and fabricated three amazing human-figure automatons: the Scribe, the Draftsman, and the Musician. The Scribe and the Draftsman were both designed and fabricated to resemble young boys, and were dressed in elegant attire. The Scribe could dip a pen in ink and write up to 40 letters. By modifying its internal control cams, the Scribe could be programmed to write any text.

The Draftsman could execute elaborate drawings of such figures as Louis XV and even a battle ship under sail. But the Musician represented Jacquet-Droz’s best work. The Musician was designed and fabricated to resemble a girl of 16 who actually played the organ. The Musician seemed almost alive as it pressed the keys with its fingers, moved the body and head to the rhythm of the music and glanced around the room. At the conclusion of its performance, it would take a little bow – all of these actions driven by a clockwork mechanism through cam actuators.

In 1805, three Swiss brothers of the Maillardet family designed and built an automaton that actually wrote in two languages—French and English. This figure would even return to a word to dot an “I” or cross a “t” and also could draw landscapes. This automaton was converted to a female character in 1812 and was programmed to draw a clipper ship.

Around the same time, one of the Maillardet brothers, Jean David, built a fortune-telling automaton called the Great Magician Clock. Seated on top of a large mantelpiece clock, was a figure of a magician. When an enameled question was placed into a little drawer at the top of the machine, the fortune teller stood up, rolled its eyes, waved a magic wand, and shutters would open to reveal the answer.

The first human-looking automatons may have been the following piece of mechanized artwork from around he mid-1800’s:

“Don’t Miss It! The World’s Most Wonderful, Marvelous, Impressive, Exhibition Ever Seen In This Country – A mechanical Reproduction of the Last Supper. A mammoth table, 24 feet in length, with Christ and the Twelve Disciples all seated around the table; in large life-sized wax figures, with human like expressions on their faces, human hair, dressed in beautiful robes, the most startling sight is when you see them moving their heads, hands, arms, eyes, and lips; do everything but talk. Beautiful table cover, silver dishes, and the foods, see the electrically driven machinery with thousands of moving parts. This mammoth construction weighing over two tons is now on tour of the world. “

This marvelous animated production was the work of the late William M. Stephens, a German artist and mechanical genius who lived in the early mid 1800s. The figures were beautifully and reverently contoured out of wax (cero-plastic), and they resembled, as do the other aspects of background, costuming, and atmosphere, the da Vinci original which stephens once had an opportunity to carefully study in Milan. Stephens was an unobtrusive artisan whose animated masterpiece was discovered after his death at the age of 72. The animation mechanism was fabricated almost entirely out of wood, and it was controlled by hundreds of hidden wheels and gears. He spent 40 years of his life working on the project but, unfortunately, died before the mechanical, life-sized reproduction of The Last Supper could be presented at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893.

After his death, this masterpiece lay in storage for years with a huge mortgage on it. Early in the 1900s, Aflred E. Beasley, a vacationing American, paid off the mortgage on Stephen’s creation and shipped it back to the United States (it weighted almost 2 tons). Beasley motorized the original mechanisms and showed it at the Century of Progress Exhibit in Chicago for two years in 1933 and 1934. After that presentation, Beasley toured the country with the exhibit. He accompanied the exhibit with deep organ music and dimming lights, and he had a narrator tell the biblical story. From the religious accolades it received, it must have been a very reverent piece of animation.

In 1847, Robert Houdin, a magnificent French magician, designed and built an automaton that performed on a trapeze bar. This mechanical wonder, called Antonio Diablo, would go though an entire act, including nods, bows, handstands, rolls, and flips. At the conclusion of is performance; it would jump clear off the bar into the waiting arms of a human assistant. Antonio performed for over 40 years in various theatres across Europe.

In 1877, Thomas Edison reduced his phonograph invention to a size small enough to fit into a child’s playdoll. Five hundred dolls were manufactured that played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” when you turned a crank on the doll’s back (a prototype for Teddy Ruxpin?).

In 1889, a patent was also registered for a talking gypsy fortuneteller that utilized a phonograph to reproduce the audible fortune message. When a coin was dropped into the machine, the gypsy turned its head, moved its mouth, rolled its eyes, and spoke aloud 1 of 11 different fortunes in a “clear” female voice.

In 1928 at the London Exposition, a steel-covered, human-looking robot made a presentation to the visitors. As part of its act, it raised from a seated position, bowed to the audience, delivered a short speech and sat back down until a new audience appeared. (One hast to wonder if Disney was ever in the audience. This robot has an uncanny resemblance to the Abraham Lincoln’s performance that Disney designed.)

In 1939, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing built a larger than life, human-looking robot called Electro,  and a companion mechanical dog named Sparko (obviously the robot’s best friend). Electro moved its mouth, arms, hands, and body through a series of electric motor actuators. Electro’s voice was supplied by a phonograph machine stored in its chest. Sparko walked, sat, and barked; it was also driven by electric motors. Together they appeared at the New York World’s Fair and were an instant success. Their creator, J.M. Barnett was proud of his achievement, but he believed that robots could never really take the place of man.

In 1950, a Scotsman named Frank Stuart built the world’s first robot elephant that stood nearly nine-foot tall. The elephant was 12 feet long, made from 9,000 different parts, and powered by a 10-horsepower engine. It was covered with a half-inch thick “hide” made from paper. According to Stuart, “The sale price of $3,000 is expected to bring many dollars to Britain as parks acquire a popular animal that doesn’t have to be fed.”