Inside a clockwork monk

X-ray showing inside the head of a 16th-century automaton monk, probably built by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to Emperor Charles V of Spain. On Radiolab and in a long piece written for the Blackbird online journal of literature and the arts, professor Elizabeth King recounts the history of the monk and how it made its way to the Smithsonian Institution.

Submitterated by GuyinMilwaukee

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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alowishus

If you hear a knocking sound, don’t open the boot!
mkultra

I really don’t have anything insightful to add here, sorry, except to note that “Clockwork Monk” would be a great name for a band. That is all.
- wrybread
  
  > “Clockwork Monk” would be a great name for a band.
  
  or a domain name…. or a gmail address…
elliptic curve

But will it believe things for you?
- Anonymous
  
  It firmly believes the world is pink…
- Felton / Moderator
  
  If that’s a reference to the electric monk in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, then you beat me to it.
Naganalf

I wish the article title was 2 letters longer…
- Bucket
  
  Would those letters happen to be “ey”?
  If so, I concur.
nate_freewheel

At least there’s a corkscrew hiding in there.
Anonymous

Smithsonian Institution, not Smithsonian Institute!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Yup.
Bubba

I believe this is an accurate representation of an electric monk and the electricity will find its way in there somehow, in a believable fashion, which leads me to believe that there could be far more of us, er them than you would initially suppose.
Anonymous

This was discussed in a WNYC/Radiolab podcast no so long ago

I highly recommend radiolab
leidan

I couldn’t get the video to work but found a copy here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycyj76VPOtc). Both cool and creepy.
Anonymous

Elizabeth King is a sculptor. Her work is pretty amazing. It’s not mechanical, but there are some stop-motion videos out there made with her posable self portraits. http://www.youtube.com/user/elizabethkingstudio
tyger11

I prefer headless monks.