Science Art: Kircher’s fanciful design for a hydraulic organ, complete with dancing skeleton, from Musurgia Universalis, 1650.

14 January 2018 grant Featured, Science Art 0

from https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_97xCAAAAcAAJ#page/n372/mode/1upClick to embiggen

A hydraulic organ from the 17th century, as commemorated by Athanasius Kircher. It has a robotic skeleton! And a waterwheel!

There are some more wondrous instruments in the German Jesuit polymath’s music book with the very long title, which I discovered through “Frolicsome Engines” on the Public Domain Review.