4 ms·

I believe the shape of the letter is encoded into the cam, thus the ability to draw arbitrary figures such as the dog drawn in the video. This makes it far more

I believe the shape of the letter is encoded into the cam, thus the ability to draw arbitrary figures such as the dog drawn in the video. This makes it far more flexible that 26 letters with casing.

Animats 3y ago
Watch this video section of the mechanism.[1] That big wheel at the bottom with things sticking out at different heights is the programming wheel. The big stack of cams up above has all the motion control for each letter. Watch the cycle. Big stack of cams rotates a turn and generates some motions. Then the cam stack stops, a sensing feeler touches the wheel to get the setting for the next letter, the cam stack moves vertically to set up for the next letter, and the the cam stack starts rotating. At some point the programming wheel advances one position for the next letter. This logic is derived from the way better striking clocks work. They have a stepped cam called a "snail", which is the program for how many times to strike vs the time of day.[2] It's just a table from 1 to 12. But there's no reason it couldn't be an arbitrary function. It's beautifully made, but not mysterious. [1] https://youtu.be/ux2KW20nqHU?t=164 https://youtu.be/ux2KW20nqHU?t=164 [2] https://youtu.be/rxM7lk21F0E https://youtu.be/rxM7lk21F0E
- kragen 3y ago
  the crucial thing here is that the code selecting which letter to write next is a digital code, like the alphabet itself, not an analog one, though the letterform is then encoded in analog form on the cams vaucanson (and others) had previously devised a digitally controlled loom, though it didn't come into general use until jacquard's later improvements, and the pascaline and leibniz's stepped reckoner were controlled by digitally encoded numbers, but jaquet-droz's work may be the first machine controlled by a digital character encoding even if it was just a plotter rather than a theorem prover or something

I believe the shape of the letter is encoded into the cam, thus the ability to draw arbitrary figures such as the dog drawn in the video. This makes it far more flexible that 26 letters with casing.

Animats 3y ago

Watch this video section of the mechanism.[1] That big wheel at the bottom with things sticking out at different heights is the programming wheel. The big stack of cams up above has all the motion control for each letter. Watch the cycle. Big stack of cams rotates a turn and generates some motions. Then the cam stack stops, a sensing feeler touches the wheel to get the setting for the next letter, the cam stack moves vertically to set up for the next letter, and the the cam stack starts rotating. At some point the programming wheel advances one position for the next letter. This logic is derived from the way better striking clocks work. They have a stepped cam called a "snail", which is the program for how many times to strike vs the time of day.[2] It's just a table from 1 to 12. But there's no reason it couldn't be an arbitrary function. It's beautifully made, but not mysterious. [1] https://youtu.be/ux2KW20nqHU?t=164 https://youtu.be/ux2KW20nqHU?t=164 [2] https://youtu.be/rxM7lk21F0E https://youtu.be/rxM7lk21F0E

kragen 3y ago
the crucial thing here is that the code selecting which letter to write next is a digital code, like the alphabet itself, not an analog one, though the letterform is then encoded in analog form on the cams vaucanson (and others) had previously devised a digitally controlled loom, though it didn't come into general use until jacquard's later improvements, and the pascaline and leibniz's stepped reckoner were controlled by digitally encoded numbers, but jaquet-droz's work may be the first machine controlled by a digital character encoding even if it was just a plotter rather than a theorem prover or something