Have you ever considered using a Wacom digitizing pad and stylus to capture the variations in pressure? The tablets will both capture the X/Y coordinates as well as the pressure and there are several different nibs available, including the softest spring loaded nib (as well as felt nibs if desired) that I suspect would work best to capture the effect. You may still need to spring load or weight the stylus because the spring loaded nib does not have as great a range of motion as the pen in your video, but you should still be able to capture much of the variation in pressure and manipulate that in Adobe Illustrator (or other modern vector editor) to better visualize the end result of those variations.
The Franklin Institute was a second home to me growing up and I remember the automaton well, on the ground floor directly across from the main elevator. By the time I donned a lab coat and roamed museum's floors as a "Demonstrator" in '74 it was no longer functioning but still on display. I'm glad they seem to be determined to keep it running again. Oh yeah... welcome back.
Your experiment would have been much easier if you had an adjustable pulpit. I wonder if the offset is not related to the fact the original pulpit was at slight angle.
You can read the blog - The wooden 'desk' we are using is Andy's tool that is used when the top of the case is removed for servicing. That glass top contains the original brass writing desk, and it is flat. The original pen is held completely perpendicular to the writing surface.
I think I've seen pen plotter pens based on valving like you sketch out, though my memory could well be mistaken. Refills are probably extinct anyway even if I do remember correctly. I wonder though if the original pen might have been some sort of brush pen instead? That would give some degree of line weight variation that's probably more linear than what a valving approach could do.
After reading over the blog entry, I think we can drop the brush pen idea. However, on digging a little into what I remember of the plotter pens, much to my surprise, the stylii are still produced not just for pen plotters, but also as technical drawing pens for hand drawing. Apparently, the sort of stylus you've sketched out is trademarked as the Rotring Rapidograph, and Rotring still produces pens and replacement nibs, also selling variants under the Koh-I-Noor name (the plotter pens I'd remembered were/are sold under the Rapidoplot name). There are other brands of technical pens that appear to be the same idea - the Staedtler Mars Matic feels especially familiar to me. Inkflow for these appears to be binary without any useful modulation between being on and off - these pens are meant to draw a defined line weight - but perhaps this was true of the original too.
What was it writing at the start. Sorry, I'm at work and had to just skip through a lot while my machine was doing ITS thing. Ha ha I love that cursive writing. So much more beautiful than this ⬅️
I'm wondering from what we know now with fine engineering. If anyone have made a modern versions of the Maillardet Automaton. Also are there any modern Automation's being made today. Using the old skills with out modern electronics.
Hi, good to see you are back :) Maybe an incline in the table surface, or a longer tip of the stylus, so it can travel further up and down on the z axis. A great piece of engineering.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area and visited the Franklin Institute many times and saw this automaton many times. It's nice to see it again. It's nice to see you "hacking" the stylus of such a unique piece of history. Thank you for sharing.
This machine has been around for a long time and many people have taken care of it so I'm sure that everyone knows what they are doing... but it would have been nice to explain why the counter balance must be adjusted instead of the table top. I think it's awesome that you were given this opportunity, not many people in the world would even be allowed to touch that machine let alone work on a restoration project. I'm really happy for you, that must have been an exciting day. :)
This is wonderful work you are doing. I wish you had more time with the Maillardet Automaton. I wonder if I could get my robot Dave to draw something? I hope you get to work with the Maillardet Automaton again soon. I look forward to your upcoming videos.
Absolutly fantastic and quite extraorinary Fran, someone should fund a build of a working replica...sadly I don't have enough to fund that myself! I wonder if that could be crowd funded, enough interest?
Your voice is like satin. Dreamy, even. This narration is an excellent way to use your voice. You could work sometimes as a narrator. A bit reminicent of Rikki Lee Jones...how is your singing voice? I could listen for hours....
First things first. it's good to see that you're posting, even if it's not in the usual format. Truth be told, methinks that this is a wonderful change of pace, and very informative. thanks for sharing! Secondly, for all the comments suggesting tilting the table, somehow I get the feeling that you're wanting to change the action of the Z-axis cam. In this way you're fixing the problem, instead of covering the symptom. I wish you the best of luck with this endeavor, should you get a chance to return to there to tweak some more on this really cool project! Last but certainly not least, the writing that this automaton creates is simply wonderful! Stay gold. SW =¡=
Thanks Fran. Absolutely fascinating! I have made a floating pen tip for my cnc router to make pen plots. It's interesting that we both found the G2 as a good (and cheap) ink source that works quite well. Let me know if there is anything I can do to forward your work here.
Fran it seem today that you could totally program one of these to forge signatures no? Btw I love your pedals. If you ever need an intern or helper I would love to be considered! I have over ten years of musical instrument retail sales and management experience. Plus I can work on guitar's and do setups! I'd love to help you out as you seem to now be rebuilding your pedal biz? Hit me up if you'd like to talk more! Thanks and all the best, Mike
Judging by the precise movements of the stylus even the correct ink formulation would be required to get an accurate viscosity for a proper ink flow to get a rendition of the drawings as intended by the creator(s) of the machine, because of the subtlety of the strokes shown.
... just two observations... back in the days of classic ink pens... the "pumping action" as you described would be used to broaden the strokes...the two halves of the stylus tip would split wider, and cause the width of the stroke to widen along with it. Also, the ink should not need any sort of valve to open/close to control the ink flow. Traditional ink pens would have an "ink feed" that would use the surface-tension of the ink to stop the flow... and allow more of a wicking-action to keep the ink flowing when needed.
Fantastic to see it from this angle and your ideas about the ink tube seem spot on. Thanks so much for showing us this. I'm way too far away to ever visit. I hope one day a simulacrum of the cams and mechanism might make it to the light of day. Best wishes and great work in such a limited time frame.
There would have been another machine that created the blueprints for the cams by recording the movements of someone. I assume that one is still lost? Has anyone built a new one? Has anyone made a reproduction of this one for additional study or to show in a fully finished state alongside the naked one? I agree the z-axis is very very important to how this machine works and plays a big role in why it is so much better than many of the more recent attempts at drawing automata.
and have you tried technical/ drafting pens? The Rapidograph uses a similar point and stem, though the weight at the top doesn't actually valve off the ink flow. adjusting the table might be easier than adjusting the hand
Could the original have been more like a caligraphy pen with a split nib? That reservoir has a stop ring for weight regulation of height floating within the hand tube, which would have obviated the plastic guide for the Pilot pen that you substituted for diameter purposes getting too close for the loose tolerances of the Z axis.
Read the blog - The pen is perpendicular to the paper surface at all times, not tilted, and must draw an extremely fine line in all directions. There is no maneuver for dipping - and fountain pens with their air exchange regulators were more than a century away.
