A few years ago the Science Museum had a nice Robots exhibition. Whilst the modern robots were interesting the most fascinating thing was the "writing boy" C18 automata. They had also had the Bowes' Swan for a while but I missed it. With my daughter up in Durham I promised myself a trip, and finally saw the swan play on Sunday. I's a bit of a "blink and you'll miss it", I guess its less than a minute but the movement of the head and neck as it looks around and then drops down to "catch" a fish is wonderful. All driven by clockwork and a toothed brass disc.
The other really neat bit was the "water". This was a series of glass rods, each with a different "screw" spiral on the outside, all being rotated giving a wonderful impression of flowing water.
Well worth a visit (and the Museum also has a well known painting of Napoleon), and I'd certainly go again and be more ready for the short duration of the animation. It plays at 2pm every day.
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