Production Details:

Hardback
160pp

Description:

Automata and mechanical toys delight children and adults alike with the beauty of their design and the excitement of their movement. This book explains how the mechanisms work and celebrates many leading makers. With over two hundred illustrations including lavish photographs of finished pieces, it is sure to inspire the beginner and tempt the collector and enthusiast.

The history of automata and mechanical toys covers the early inventors from Hero of Alexandria, through the mechanical marvels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to contemporary automata and the influence exerted by Calder's Circus, Sam Smith and Cabaret Mechanical Theatre.

· Advice on how to get started covers tools, materials and techniques; and tricks of the trade draw upon the author's wide experience.
· Step-by-step instructions with clear colour photographs and plans for making automata mechanisms culminate in making one adaptable piece incorporating, separately, shafts, cams and followers, cranks, linkages, ratchets, drives, gears and levers.
· Theme projects based on the author's Twelve Days of Christmas and a Jumping Jack encourages readers to invent or discover their own ideas.