Friday, February 17, 2023

“A Pantomime Pen Talk”

Two miniature figures, one indicating by his smile that an easily filled fountain pen is a source of pleasure while the other seems to have gone the limit as to patience in filling his pen with a rubber bulb filler, are part of a Chicago stationer's show window exhibit. Motion is imparted first to one of the figures and then to the other by a small electric motor and proper connections within the cabinet. The leaves of a small cardboard book on the front side of the cabinet are turned slowly enough for spectators to read the statements. [Popular Electricity Magazine, January 1912. Click for a larger view.]

See also this stationery-store-window automaton.

comments: 4

Anonymous said...

another fountain pen automaton story

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92066979/1909-02-20/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1777&index=0&rows=20&words=automatons+fountain+pens&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=automaton+fountain+pen&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

Michael Leddy said...

What a crazy story. For a moment I thought it was going to be something about an automaton writing dark scary stuff of its own, in the manner of a chatbot.

Anonymous said...

short film of automatons

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/cinetopicalities-in-brief-no-103/query/automaton

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks, reader.