Daily Archives: January 28, 2009

Point of infinity …

A blog has to start somewhere.  Delectra in one form or other has been online since 1995, then under the name webo.  This was mostly to document the amazing Jaquet-Droz automatons.   The ultimate goal will be to duplicate the Musician doll.   A complex task which is progressing slowly.

My interest in the automatons was an attempt to combine my interest of historical costuming and music, with puppet making.  I found I was attracted to the asthetic of Brass and Steel.  This was in the mid 1970s, when I started this project.

Since that time,  I have had to master many disciplines.   Not all directly related to automata.  This blog will detail some of these interests.   My current focus at this point of infinity, is building and working on pipe organs.  The doll plays a pipe organ after all.

Another focus of interest is early computing.  The Babbage engines, and the Antikythera device.   Most of the focus on this blog is intended to detail and document the progress, making working models of these using rapid prototyping.

Since the show must go on, plans are afoot, to re-create a 19th century marionette puppet show of Tale of Two Cities.  Progress on this will be documented here as well.

The remainder will relate to philosophy.