What do the Lumiers Brothers, George Meilles, Maillardet, clocks, trains, magic and automata have to do with the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret? Read it and find out.
The Lumiere Brothers were pioneers in the movie making industry. They didn't believe that it would ever become popular.
The first motion picture camera
This picture is from a movie made by the Lumiere Brothers. People in the audience were so shocked at seeing a train coming toward them that they screamed and ran from the theatre.
George Melies, the father of special effects in movies.
From the movie, A Trip to the Moon
People were amazed by this movie
Maillardet used his knowledge of precision watch making to produce some of the first automata
An automaton
These are pictures produced by the rebuilt automaton at the Franklin Institute.
This is Brian Selznick, author and illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. His beautiful artwork, done with a charcoal pencil, won him the Caldecott Award for the best picture book in 2007
This is the automaton that was given to the Franklin Institute in Philidelphia in 1928. It had been in a fire and was delivered in pieces. They carefully reconstructed it and to their amazement the automaton could write three letters and draw seven pictures. They had no idea who had originally built this machine. Imagine their delight when the automaton solved the mystery for them. At the end of his letter he wrote... " Written by the automaton made by Maillardet."
Follow the link and watch a video clip of this automaton drawing.
Then click on automation demonstration 11/4/07
