Word: panharmonicon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Hero of Alexandria wrote a book, De Automatis, that described a mechanical theater with robot figures that marched and danced in various temple ceremonies. But the king of all robotmakers was Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (1772-1838), creator of the metronome, who also constructed an automatic orchestra called the Panharmonicon, which could simulate violins, cellos, clarinets, flutes, trumpets, drums, cymbals and triangle. For this contraption, the inventor commissioned Beethoven to compose his Vittoria Symphony, Maelzel also toured America with a robot chess player that was actually operated from inside by a hunchbacked Alsatian dwarf named Schlumberger...
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