The oldest actual automata mentioned in the article is explored (including mechanics and a demonstration) in this YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBl

The oldest actual automata mentioned in the article is explored (including mechanics and a demonstration) in this YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBlusUD3Kg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBlusUD3Kg Note that Hero is credited, and the date is 10-70 AD, but Hero's contribution was to posit the mechanism by which the theatre worked, which was first described by Philon of Byzantium in the late third century BC! [Source: My thesis, submission deadline 28 September 2018 ;)]