Skip to content

Main Navigation

  • Home
  • The Ig Nobel Prizes
    • 2022 Ceremony
    • About the Igs
    • 24/7 Lectures
    • The Ig® Archive
    • Past Ig Winners
    • Donate to the Igs
  • Publications
    • Magazine (Annals of Improbable Research)
    • Newsletter (mini-AIR)
    • Classics
  • Podcasts & Videos
    • Podcast
    • Improbable TV
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
  • Press Clips
  • Luxuriant Hair Clubs for Scientists
  • Store
  • Info / Contact Us
  • About Marc Abrahams
This is Improbable Too
Shop the Improbable Research Store
Get books about improbable research and the Ig Nobel Prize

Tag: automaton

Ballet for machinery and a chair

February 4, 2013 Marc Abrahams

Arthur Ganson‘s ballet for machinery and a chair: (Thanks to investigator Vaughn Tan for bringing this to our attention.)

Arts and Scienceautomaton, ballet, chair, machine

Shoe-related automaton: The Shock of the New

September 22, 2012 Marc Abrahams

Another clever automaton by Keith Newstead, this one fully fleshed out, about shoemaking, and about other things:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, shoe making

Mechanical high security, on paper: The paper safe

March 2, 2012 Marc Abrahams

In an age when security — especially security on paper — is all the rage, Rob Ives designed this all-paper working safe:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, paper, safe, security

Tipu’s Tiger

January 27, 2012 Marc Abrahams

Maggie Koerth-Baker, Boing-Boing’s ace science observer, is doing a series of essays about “My Favorite Museum Exhibit”. The Bishop of Durham’s rectum, on which we have spent an inordinate amount of time and space, because it has a curious back story, is there. (Well, actually, the Bishop’s bottom, what’s left of it, is in the […]

Arts and Scienceautomaton, India, London, soldier, tiger, Tippoo, toy, Victoria and Albert Museum

Sketchy Automaton: A slippery customer

March 27, 2011 Marc Abrahams

A nice sketchy prototype of a clever paper automaton storytelling machine by Keith Newstead, with a twist ending:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, design

Rat-eating-soldier automaton

February 8, 2011 Marc Abrahams

Video (with dull commentary) of a nineteenth century automaton of a French soldier eating rats every five minutes or so:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, Rats, soldier

How he engineered the tug-of-war gizmo

December 11, 2010 Marc Abrahams

Tom Haney explains, in words and pictures, how he engineered his two-part (three if you count the connective rope) tug-of-war-automaton: The mechanism for this piece is mostly in the base of the woman. However, the piece does not operate unless the 2 bases are at the proper distance from each other. The woman does not […]

Arts and Scienceautomaton, engineering, tug of war

Rob Ives’ Swine Flew

October 16, 2010 Marc Abrahams

Rob Ives‘ automaton called “Swine Flew”:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, fly, invention, Ives, pig

Chris Eckert’s waiting machine

October 9, 2010 Marc Abrahams

A waiting machine, made by Chris Eckert:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, eckert, invention

Tony and Dali and an elephant

August 8, 2010 Marc Abrahams

Mechanical engineering, history, art, and semiotics all come together or fall apart in this automaton called “The Temptation of St. Anthony, After Salvadore Dali“:

Arts and Scienceautomaton, Dali, Elephant, St. Anthony

Posts navigation

  • 1
  • 2
  • ❯
Buy This Issue
Subscribe
  • Arts and Science
  • Boys Will Be Boys
  • Ig Nobel
  • Improbable Investigators
  • Improbable Sex
  • Improbable TV
  • LFHCfS (Hair Clubs)
  • Magazine (AIR)
  • mini-AIR
  • Newspaper column
  • Podcast
  • Research News

"The benefits of carrying rhinos upside down and other absurd investigations of 2021" @LaVanguardia https://t.co/kCqhRAFlLU

— Improbable Research (@improbresearch) December 31, 2021

Subscribe to MINI-AIR

loader

Follow AIR & Ig folk on Twitter and Facebook!

AIR personnel
Improbable Research
Marc Abrahams
Robin Abrahams
Fiona Barclay
Gary Dryfoos
Rose Fox
Martin Gardiner
Erwin Kompanje
Julia Lunetta
Gwinyai Masukume
Kees Moeliker
Mason Porter
Sid Rodrigues
Geri Sullivan

Ig Nobel Prize winners
Dan Ariely
Craig Bennett
Elena Bodnar
Glenda Browne
John Culvenor
Deepak Chopra
Theodore Gray
Jasmuheen
Karl Kruszelnicki
Donatella Marazziti
Dan Meyer
Geoffrey Miller
Sun Myung Moon
Gauri Nanda
Dr. Nakamats
Ron Popeil
Andrea Rapisarda
Dorian Raymer
Daniel Simons
Richard Stephens
Brian Wansink
Anna Wilkinson
Philip Zimbardo
Rolf Zwaan


Copyright ©2022 : .