Our Workshop has become an Interactive Experience thanks to the latest technology from the BBC. Use your mouse to scroll around our workshop and see us working, surrounded by moving Automata. Can you spot the Crocodile and do you know why it’s there? BBC Reel The Strange Dolls that come to Life
Automata Evening – London – SOLD OUT
All tickets for this event are now Sold Out. The master of creative crazy contraptions Heath Robinson has a museum devoted to him and his work. It is located in Pinner on the outskirts of London (Pinner tube station) and Michael Start of The House of Automata is delighted to present a talk and demonstration on the 16th of August at 6.30pm. …
Automata – perhaps the definitive history in one article.
The following article sent to me courtesy of Steve and Jere Ryder from the Morris Museum in New Jersey. Home of the Guiness Collection of Automata. Click on “Read More” for the live link. https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/ancient-androids/
Spring (repair) is here
On a large automaton of Little Tich, the 19th century music hall performer. The large mainspring was found to have its hole torn out from the barrel hooking. This is a fairly common repair, a result of ‘overwinding’. The secret to the repair is the process of softening the steel prior to punching and shaping a new hole. The new end …
Automatacon 2018
We are excited to be attending the 2018 Automata Convention in Morristown, USA in May 18th-20th. The schedule is now live and on the Sunday at 1pm we will be presenting a talk on the importance of Automata in Films and the Media. There is a full and varied Schedule of fascinating presentations by experts and enthusiasts from around the world, all …
Satyr Head (Magicians Clockwork Prop) at Auction
A Satyr Head Magicians prop made by us about 10 years ago and performed regularly on stage in the USA is coming up for sale at Potter & Potter auction in the USA on the 16th of December. It has traditional brass clockwork mechanism and produces cards from the mouth and the top of the head. We are not the …
The House of Automata – The Movie!
A short film about The House of Automata by acclaimed Edinburgh photographer Euan Myles and ace film maker Jonnie Lewis (Trainspotting 2). They capture the magic and appeal of automata in this 6minute documentary film set in our North of Scotland workshop. (I never thought I would be skipping through the woods in the sunset clutching Bontems Singing birdcages!). Click HERE to …
It’s Alive! Exhibition of Automata – Edinburgh
Now finished. Stats for Exhibition: 60,000 Visitors to the exhibition and 1000 watching our live demo’s! IT’S ALIVE! MECHANICAL MARVELS ARE MOVING IN TO THE MUSEUM OF CHILDHOOD on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, in a free exhibition from the House of Automata (22 June – 18 September 2017). It’s Alive! from the House of Automata will provide the first free, interactive and atmospheric …
Phantasmagoria Show – August 2016
An adventure in projection with many moving and mechanical slides projected in a grand drawing room. The animations date from 1820 and accompaniment is by epic piano playing, the gramophone, music box and Theremin . This takes place in the Victorian seaside resort of Nairn (favoured by Charlie Chaplin) as part of theNairn Book and Arts Festival. Wednesday 31st August 2016 7pm …
New Website
The Classic House of Automata website, much loved and rich in content, has now become a bit of a museum piece. The new site aims to be less of a cluttered victorian mantelpiece and should be easier to navigate and explore. Gone is that feeling of ‘falling down a rabbit hole’ and becoming disorientated in a mechanical wonderland as soon as …