View allAll Photos Tagged automaton
Man, Beast or Automaton? The Craw and Loupe Bros. Combined Shows. Precise date unknown. The origin of the Beast Behemoth is a mystery but it was rumored that it was secretly developed as part of the British war effort during World War One.
An automaton from the dead Ketfah civilization, the Ketfah Guardian is one of the twenty-or-so Guardians built to protect sacred temples.
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This will be on the 2015 BrickFair convention circuit.
Hedgehog Steambot Walker
by Brassbottom Workshop
"Hedgehog Steambot Walker: The AI companion in every battle."
(AI = Automaton Intelligence)
Sir Phileas Brassbottom prepares to present his automaton to the visitors as his assistant - Greasegob - welcomes them.
Vintage Paper automation. „Les Forgerons“ (The blacksmiths)
This over 100-year-old model was made in France, Nancy, after 1919. Size 29.5 x 40.7cm² (11.6 x 16.0 in²). For the assembly, a second template was printed mirrored for the back.
Entry for the FBTB.net Alphabet Fighter MOC Madness Tournament.
***************** probably should have written all this first time around *************
I was soundly beaten by the gracious & awesome Jack M. from Automaton Pictures' pilot Alterf Skendiv but not before shooting his D-Wing to SMITHERINES! Now he'll have to build another ship and i'm using BRAIN CONTROL to make him create a T-Wing! MUAHAHAHAHAH! Thanks for a great contest to both JM/AP/AS and my first opponent Clone Emperor for a great contest!
Also a big THANKS! to VolumeX for the photography tips, aside from the space wrinkles and awesome lens flare i think these are much better than the ones I took for the first round.
here's the rest of the pictures I never got around to posting, I'm still really happy with this ship especially considering I basically built it in one night. =-D
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Zippity Aviary's D-Wing Starfighter (ZeeAye Shipyards DWYCK-92 Scout/Patrol Fighter)
Here's where you put the story when you write it... getting tight on time lemme post this then write my nonsense and edit this! thought Zippity...
The message was garbled but ZeeAye knew what he had to do. First things first he would collect the necessary supplies and pay a visit to his favorite spice den, hopefully Tahsoka Ano was there, he kind of had a thing for her. Years ago Zippity had a contract that required a special ship. Dr. Aviary built the DWYCK with misdirection in mind... at first glance it seemed to have just two small blasters in the nose, about right for anyone who might have business in the Outer Rim. But Zippity wasn't just anyone...
The ship was powered by a new modification of the standard Girodyne sublight engines he'd ordered for so many of his commissioned ships, but he had a new wrinkle on the old workhorse. By redirecting the powerflow as only Doc Zip could he was able to double the power while maintaining his full cruising range and actually increased maneuverability. This was standard fare for Z.A., the real stroke of genius proved to be a completely new type of hyperdrive that could get point SIX past light speed! Of course Zippity didn't advertise that. He painted it brightly to affect the look of a cruising yacht and disguised the real weapons load... Docking port stabilizers? who needs em! Zippity disguised a pair of rapid fire laser canons where similar craft might have had docking clamps... he wasn't making friends or inspecting ships... he was there for The Job and to get out. He didn't think anyone would like what they got if they got in his way. A full salvo of Zippity Industries top of the line homing missles with multipurpose programmable warheads would easily take out a SUPER Star Destroyer.
Even though it was just made for a contract it soon became one of Zippity's favorite ship, almost as synonymous with his arrival as sabotage, meyhem and destruction.
Poor Alterf Skendif probably knew that the Gang Starr Guild wanted him out of business... he thought he could afford to deal with their annoyance, he was doing well... he couldn't know he was just a mark to the one man you couldn't afford to have coming for you. Zippity could feel the credits in his pouch already as he made his way through hyperspace Nice & Smooth
Thanks to Jack/Alterf/Automaton for the awesome competition and kind words this round!
Bicycles were built in this design as high wheels from 1870. Called “Ordinary” later “Penny-farthing. ” This template for a paper model was first printed in France, Nancy, in 1892. (41 x 29. 2 cm2). Simple assembly and a good wind for the drive necessary.
Manual automaton commemorating that one time Lovecraftian sea monsters attacked the city and drove half the people mad with soul-gripping terror. #neverforget #cantanyway
I got those dark blue panels from Legohaulic's destroyed spaceship at a Lego convention like seventy years ago and I never touched them again, until I needed a dark blue sea for this.
The lesson: hoard everything and dispose of nothing, because you never know when you'll need it again. If they find you crushed under a stack of old newspapers, killed by your own booby trap, this is simply the price you pay for a life of completion.
“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre <3
And it works! Turn the crank clockwise, the magician lowers the cup, raises it, and the ball has disappeared. Turn the crank counterclockwise, the magician lowers the cup, raises it, and the ball is back.
Hard as it was, it was damn fun, and damn rewarding. I've never called a MOC sexy; this was a first for me. Right when I got the mechanism to work: "Oh, that's sexy."
A video of the automaton in action should be the next item in my photostream.
The Odyssey 5 is not only manned by a small crew of minifigures, but there are also a group of robots, droid, and automatons that help to keep the Odyssey 5 on course and in clean working order as well.
(from left to right)
The "Droid" as he is referred to, is a simple maintenance unit that is designed to assist in the routine fixes and odd mechanical jobs around the Odyssey 5. The droid has only the most rudimentary of programming and mindlessly goes about his work without interacting much with the human crew.
The "Robot" is a multipurpose unit designed to aid the crew of the Odyssey 5 in all manner of scientific experiments and surface explorations. Robot is the most social of the automatons on board the Odyssey 5, though that is not saying much. Robot is also programmed to assist in communicating with alien species and his memory banks are filled with countless bytes of helpful information that the astronauts may need while on their galactic adventures.
Bot is a simple assistant unit. One of the most mass produced units in the CSF. Bots are built to assist in all manner of menial tasks, such as heavy lifting and holding really heavy things for long periods of time. Bots are known to have quirky programming and over time each bot forms a distinctive personality.
La Lessiveuse
Antique mechanical paper model from Imagerie d' Epinal N°11 likewise N°1008. Size 29,5 x 40,1 cm² (11.6 x 15,75 in²) ca. 1900 Sand powered. A woman on her knees washing clothes.
Exclusive for the April Round of CYOT, This Magician Automaton features working parts and a low 3li and up li maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Verdigris/108/178/25
Long before the Iron Giant began hurtling towards Rockwell, there was a prototype model, which landed on Earth close to 34 years earlier than the Iron Giant's 1957 landing. They were very similar robots, made by an Ancient race of beings that wanted to gather as much information about the Universe as possible. They first created this prototype model, as seen here: it was made mostly of brass, copper, and iron, but was powered by a highly advanced Fusion reactor that was powered by metals the robot consumed, usually uninhabited asteroids floating through space. The Brass Automaton was armed with a unique staff and like the later Iron Giant, would only fire it's weapon as a self defense mechanism which would only activate as a last resort for self preservation. The Brass Automaton was armed with a detachable staff capable of firing immense power blasts, whereas the Iron giant featured built-in weapons that become visible when seriously threatened. Unlike the Iron Giant, this prototype was not able to re-assemble itself as it had a error in it's programming.
(In reality, this is a recolored and modified version of Hachiroku24's Iron Giant model. I made it into steampunk color with a giant staff as a weapon. I am writing a backstory for the model with inspiration coming from the BIONICLE Generation 1 story-line with the Mata-Nui Robot, the Great Beings and so on. You can see Hachiroku24's original model here: www.flickr.com/photos/91426193@N02/40096928715/in/faves-5... )
War for steam-o-lite is raging on the Red Planet: the forces of Her Majesty struggle with the Kaizer's fierce soldiers. The outcome is uncertain. Who will prevail?
Celebrate Second Life’s 13th Birthday with Us!
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Visit this location at The Automaton: SL13 Stupendous Stage Left in Second Life
They were plodding like brutes, like automatons. The eyes were the worst. They were in truth like the eyes of a dead man, not blind, but staring, unfocused, unseeing.
Romania's exhibition at the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Work in progress photographed in Athens, April 2016.
There's a lot to be said for the fabric of the cosmos. Quantum Loops? Strings? Turtles all of the way down? Regardless, if you are going to twist the fabric of reality, it helps to have a spacesuit. And maybe a towel.
Looking at this, I'm actually starting to feel like my implementation of the Rule 90 cellular automaton is actually correct. It looked cool regardless so I let it stay, but it's supposed to generate infinite Serpinski Gasket variants and it seems to have.
From the shoot with santa_sangre.
Lightpainting details: Just my 60 LED lightpainting Feather running CircuitPython, plus a Neewer NW-581 flash into my new umbrella-style foldable softbox, triggered with a Phottix Ares trigger at the beginning of the exposure.
Exclusive only in Mesh Avenue Event September round on the 10th @ 12AM slt
SLURL: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lions%20Hill/38/139/1999
Product Info: 100% original mesh winding key with animated gears, avatar animation for unwound state and winding sound effects. Also includes unscripted version. Available in 3 colors: Brass, copper & tin.
The Bowes Museum is an art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, and opened in 1892.
It contains paintings by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, together with items of decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes, and objects of local historical interest. Some early works of Émile Gallé were commissioned by Coffin-Chevallier. There is an eighteenth-century Silver Swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
The Bowes Museum was purpose-built as a public art gallery for John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, Countess of Montalbo, who both died before it opened in 1892. Bowes was the son of John Bowes, the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, although he did not inherit the title as he was deemed illegitimate under Scottish law. His grandmother was Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
It was designed with the collaboration of two architects, the French architect Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson of Newcastle. The building is richly modelled, with large windows, engaged columns, projecting bays, and mansard roofs typical of the French Second Empire, set within landscaped gardens. An account in 1901 described it as "... some 500 feet in length by 50 feet high, and is designed in the French style of the First Empire. Its contents are priceless, consisting of unique Napoleon relics, splendid picture galleries, a collection of old china, not to be matched anywhere else in the world, jewels of incredible beauty and value; and, indeed, a wonderful and rare collection of art objects of every kind."
Among those with less favourable opinions was Nikolaus Pevsner, who considered it to be "... big, bold and incongruous, looking exactly like the town hall of a major provincial town in France. In scale it is just as gloriously inappropriate for the town to which it belongs (and to which it gives some international fame) as in style".
Construction on the building began in 1869; Bowes and his wife left an endowment and 800 paintings. Their collection of European fine and decorative arts amounted to 15,000 pieces.
A major redevelopment of the Bowes Museum began in 2005. To date, improvements have been made to visitor facilities (shop, cafe and toilets); galleries (new Fashion & Textile gallery, Silver gallery and English Interiors gallery); and study/learning facilities. The three art galleries, on the second floor of the museum, were updated at the same time.
The museum holds temporary exhibitions, and has shown works by Monet, Raphael, Turner, Sisley, Gallé, William Morris, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
The BBC announced in 2013 that a Portrait of Olivia Porter was a previously unknown Anthony van Dyck painting. It had been found in the Bowes Museum storeroom by art historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor who had observed it on-line at the Your Paintings web site. The painting itself was covered in layers of varnish and dirt, and had not been renovated. It was originally thought to be a copy, and valued at between £3,000 to £5,000. Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean Museum, confirmed it was a van Dyck after it had been restored.
Barnard Castle is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit and paintings by Goya and El Greco.
It sits on the opposite bank to Startforth and is 21 miles (34 km) south-west of the county town of Durham. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland to the north-east, Darlington to the east and Richmond in North Yorkshire to the south-east. The largest employer is GlaxoSmithKline, with a manufacturing facility on the town's outskirts.
Before the Norman conquest the upper half of Teesdale had been combined into an Anglo-Norse estate which was centred upon the ancient village of Gainford and mortgaged to the Earls of Northumberland. The first Norman Bishop of Durham, Bishop Walcher, was murdered in 1080. This led to the surrounding country being attacked and laid waste by the Norman overlords. Further rebellion in 1095 caused the king William II to break up the Earldom of Northumberland into smaller baronies. The Lordship of Gainford was given to Guy de Balliol.
The earthwork fortifications of the castle were rebuilt in stone by his successor, Bernard de Balliol I during the latter half of the 12th century, giving rise to the town's name. The castle passed down through the Balliol family (of which the Scottish king, John Balliol, was the most important member) and then into the possession of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. King Richard III inherited it through his wife, Anne Neville, but it fell into ruins in the century after his death.
The remains of the castle are Grade I listed, whilst the chapel in the outer ward is Grade II listed. Both sets of remains are now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.
John Bowes lived at nearby Streatlam Castle (now demolished). His Streatlam stud never had more than ten breeding mares at one time, but produced no fewer than four Derby winners in twenty years. The last of these, "West Australian", was the first racehorse to win the Triple Crown, in 1853.
Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier founded the Bowes Museum, which is of national status. Housed in its own ornate building, the museum contains an El Greco, paintings by Goya, Canaletto, Boucher, Fragonard and a collection of decorative art. A great attraction is the 18th century silver swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
Although never a major manufacturing centre, in the 18th century industry centred on hand loom wool weaving, and in the early 19th century the principal industry was spinning and the manufacture of shoe thread.
Walter Scott frequently visited his friend John Sawrey Morritt at Rokeby Hall and was fond of exploring Teesdale. He begins his epic poem Rokeby (1813) with a man standing on guard on the round tower of the Barnard Castle fortress.
Charles Dickens (Boz) and his illustrator Hablot Browne (Phiz) stayed at the King's Head in Barnard Castle while researching his novel Nicholas Nickleby in the winter of 1837–38. He is said to have entered William Humphrey's clock-maker's shop, then opposite the hotel, and enquired who had made a certain remarkable clock. William replied that his boy Humphrey had done it. This seems to have prompted Dickens to choose the title "Master Humphrey's Clock" for his new weekly, in which The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge appeared.
William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hilaire Belloc, Bill Bryson and the artist J. M. W. Turner have also visited the town.
In May 2020 Barnard Castle came to national attention when Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was discovered to have driven to the town with his family during the COVID-19 pandemic, while at a significant risk of having the disease himself owing to contact with the infected Prime Minister. (Cummings developed symptoms the next day.) Following media allegations that he had broken lockdown regulations by driving to the town, he told how he drove there to test his eyesight to reassure his wife that he was able to drive them back to London the next day.
Barnard Castle is for all purposes (historic, ceremonial and unitary authority) located in County Durham. Barnard Castle has a Town Council governing a civil parish. The Town Council elects a ceremonial Town Mayor annually.
It is part of the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency, which as of 2019 is represented in parliament by Dehenna Davison of The Conservative Party. All four Durham County Councillors whose wards (Barnard Castle East and Barnard Castle West) include part of Barnard Castle are Conservative.
The local police force is Durham Constabulary. The town is the base for the Barnard Castle division, which covers 300 square miles (780 km2). This division is within the force's south area.
Between 1894 and 1974 the town was administratively part of Barnard Castle Urban District. The administrative and ceremonial county boundary was adjusted in 1974. Barnard Castle became administrative centre of the Teesdale district of County Durham non-metropolitan county until its abolition on 1 April 2009 and the county council became the unitary authority of County Durham.
The most important employer in Barnard Castle is GSK, which has a large pharmaceutical manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the town which employs around 1,000 people. GSK has invested £80 million into the plant since 2007. Barnard Castle School follows GSK in second place, employing 183 people.
Barnard Castle has road connections to Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and central County Durham via the A688 and Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, and Middlesbrough by the A67. Barnard Castle is also four miles (6.4 km) from the A66, with access to the M6 to the west and the A1(M) to the east. The B6278 also connects Barnard Castle with Middleton-in-Teesdale. The old road bridge over the River Tees was built in 1569 and is Grade I listed.
Barnard Castle railway station was closed for passenger trains in 1964. A Bill was approved in 1854 for a line from a junction with the Stockton & Darlington Railway at Darlington to Barnard Castle and opened on 9 July 1856, with intermediate stations at Broomielaw, Winston, Gainford and Piercebridge. The terminus at Darlington only lasted five years. In 1856 the South Durham & Lancashire Railway proposed a line from Bishop Auckland to Tebay via Barnard Castle and Kirkby Stephen but only the western section was built with the Company receiving its Bill in 1857.
The line opened on 8 August 1861 from a second terminus at Barnard Castle to a junction with the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway at Tebay with intermediate stations at Lartington, Bowes, Barras, Kirkby Stephen, Ravenstondale & Gaisgill. The two stations at Barnard Castle were some distance apart; the earliest station became a through station and closed to passengers on 1 May 1862, but remained in use as a goods depot. The second station was closed for passenger trains under the Beeching cuts in 1964 and completely on 5 April 1965 and the site was eventually built on by GlaxoSmithKline.[30] Today rail access is via Bishop Auckland, or Darlington. There are two bus routes provided by Arriva North East which connect Barnard Castle to Darlington, the X75 (Via Staindrop) and X76 (Via Winston) and there is also the 79, provided by Hodgsons Coaches, which travels from Barnard Castle to Richmond.
Barnard Castle School is an independent co-educational boarding school located on the eastern edge of the town. Teesdale School is an 11–18 comprehensive school on the outskirts of the town, just off the A688.
There are three primary schools serving the town. Green Lane school is a primary school for 4–11 year olds. St Mary's is a Roman Catholic school situated on Birch Road near the church of the same name. Montalbo Primary School and Nursery is for 3-11year olds.
The Bowes Museum was purpose-built to house the collection of John and Josephine Bowes. The museum is built in the style of a French chateau, in extensive grounds, and is by far the largest building in the town. It contains paintings by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, together with a sizable collection of decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes, as well as older items from local history. It is famous for the Silver Swan automaton, which played every day at 2pm until it seized up in 2020, it is currently undergoing repairs.
The Witham Arts Centre on the Horse Market, presents a variety of events, including drama, cinema, music, spoken word and children's events as well as being the town's visitor information centre.
The Barnard Castle Meet is an annual carnival festival held on the second bank holiday weekend in May, the schools' summer half-term week. The Meet, as it is known locally, has grown from the North East Cyclists' Meet dating back to 1885, and since the early 1900s the town has staged a carnival and grand procession through the town centre on the bank holiday Monday. The weekend is now probably the largest event in the Barnard Castle and Teesdale calendar. There are around twenty separate events that the Meet Committee asserts 'reach every corner of the community'. In recent years the committee has staged its own music event showcasing local and national talent on the Sunday and Monday, with all technical and musical support from Teesdale Community Resources (TCR).
The TCR Hub is a community centre on the edge of the town with a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities.
The Barnard Castle Band, founded in 1860, is a brass band based in the town, well known outside the area as a result of the march Barnard Castle by Goff Richards.
Notable people
Anne Fine – children's writer. Twice Whitbread Prize winner
Arthur Henderson – Winner of Nobel Peace prize (1934). Former MP for Barnard Castle and first Labour cabinet minister
David Harper - BBC TV Antiques Presenter
Glenn Hugill – television presenter and producer
David Jennings – composer
Ian Usher – traveller, adventurer, writer and speaker. Sold "entire life" on eBay in 2008
Former residents
Joshua Harold Burn, 1942, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University
Bob Chatt, footballer for Aston Villa
Siobhan Fahey, singer/songwriter from Bananarama/Shakespears Sister lived here for a short time as a child
Hannah Hauxwell, English farmer who was the subject of several television documentaries
William Hutchinson, 18th-century historian
Roderick Murchison, President of both the Royal Geological and the Royal Geographical Societies
Cyril Northcote Parkinson, writer and inventor
Henry Witham, geologist and philanthropist
Lúc Carrigan was said to be piloting one of the Rebellion's signature Xyloplanes during the Battle of Yorkshire, during which he managed to destory the Queen's flagship dirigible H.M.S Death Star , killing the nefarious Grand Duke Tarkin and achieving the first real victory against the British Empire.
The Xyloplane, named for its unusual wood construction in the back engines and propellors, is of Welsh design, and was built to be a craft for the burgeoning Imperial Army. However, the Welsh people soon grew tired of the Empire's many trespasses against their nation, and thus joined with the Rebellion, bringing the Xyloplane with it.
The ship is equipped with a powerful boiler that operates its four engines, as well as two high-pressurized torpedoes- the weapon that was said to have brought about the end of the Death Star. The ship is often nicknamed the "X-plane", for the distinctive shape its wings form during flight.
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My steampunk X-Wing, built for FBTB's MOC Madness 2014: Steam Wars Returns!
Partly inspired by this sketch.
Celebrate Second Life’s 13th Birthday with Us!
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Visit this location at The Automaton: SL13 Stupendous Stage Left in Second Life
The Bowes Museum is an art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, and opened in 1892.
It contains paintings by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, together with items of decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes, and objects of local historical interest. Some early works of Émile Gallé were commissioned by Coffin-Chevallier. There is an eighteenth-century Silver Swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
The Bowes Museum was purpose-built as a public art gallery for John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, Countess of Montalbo, who both died before it opened in 1892. Bowes was the son of John Bowes, the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, although he did not inherit the title as he was deemed illegitimate under Scottish law. His grandmother was Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
It was designed with the collaboration of two architects, the French architect Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson of Newcastle. The building is richly modelled, with large windows, engaged columns, projecting bays, and mansard roofs typical of the French Second Empire, set within landscaped gardens. An account in 1901 described it as "... some 500 feet in length by 50 feet high, and is designed in the French style of the First Empire. Its contents are priceless, consisting of unique Napoleon relics, splendid picture galleries, a collection of old china, not to be matched anywhere else in the world, jewels of incredible beauty and value; and, indeed, a wonderful and rare collection of art objects of every kind."
Among those with less favourable opinions was Nikolaus Pevsner, who considered it to be "... big, bold and incongruous, looking exactly like the town hall of a major provincial town in France. In scale it is just as gloriously inappropriate for the town to which it belongs (and to which it gives some international fame) as in style".
Construction on the building began in 1869; Bowes and his wife left an endowment and 800 paintings. Their collection of European fine and decorative arts amounted to 15,000 pieces.
A major redevelopment of the Bowes Museum began in 2005. To date, improvements have been made to visitor facilities (shop, cafe and toilets); galleries (new Fashion & Textile gallery, Silver gallery and English Interiors gallery); and study/learning facilities. The three art galleries, on the second floor of the museum, were updated at the same time.
The museum holds temporary exhibitions, and has shown works by Monet, Raphael, Turner, Sisley, Gallé, William Morris, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
The BBC announced in 2013 that a Portrait of Olivia Porter was a previously unknown Anthony van Dyck painting. It had been found in the Bowes Museum storeroom by art historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor who had observed it on-line at the Your Paintings web site. The painting itself was covered in layers of varnish and dirt, and had not been renovated. It was originally thought to be a copy, and valued at between £3,000 to £5,000. Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean Museum, confirmed it was a van Dyck after it had been restored.
Barnard Castle is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum's has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit and paintings by Goya and El Greco.
It sits on the opposite bank to Startforth and is 21 miles (34 km) south-west of the county town of Durham. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland to the north-east, Darlington to the east and Richmond in North Yorkshire to the south-east. The largest employer is GlaxoSmithKline, with a manufacturing facility on the town's outskirts.
Before the Norman conquest the upper half of Teesdale had been combined into an Anglo-Norse estate which was centred upon the ancient village of Gainford and mortgaged to the Earls of Northumberland. The first Norman Bishop of Durham, Bishop Walcher, was murdered in 1080. This led to the surrounding country being attacked and laid waste by the Norman overlords. Further rebellion in 1095 caused the king William II to break up the Earldom of Northumberland into smaller baronies. The Lordship of Gainford was given to Guy de Balliol.
The earthwork fortifications of the castle were rebuilt in stone by his successor, Bernard de Balliol I during the latter half of the 12th century, giving rise to the town's name. The castle passed down through the Balliol family (of which the Scottish king, John Balliol, was the most important member) and then into the possession of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. King Richard III inherited it through his wife, Anne Neville, but it fell into ruins in the century after his death.
The remains of the castle are Grade I listed, whilst the chapel in the outer ward is Grade II listed. Both sets of remains are now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.
John Bowes lived at nearby Streatlam Castle (now demolished). His Streatlam stud never had more than ten breeding mares at one time, but produced no fewer than four Derby winners in twenty years. The last of these, "West Australian", was the first racehorse to win the Triple Crown, in 1853.
Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier founded the Bowes Museum, which is of national status. Housed in its own ornate building, the museum contains an El Greco, paintings by Goya, Canaletto, Boucher, Fragonard and a collection of decorative art. A great attraction is the 18th century silver swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
Although never a major manufacturing centre, in the 18th century industry centred on hand loom wool weaving, and in the early 19th century the principal industry was spinning and the manufacture of shoe thread.
Walter Scott frequently visited his friend John Sawrey Morritt at Rokeby Hall and was fond of exploring Teesdale. He begins his epic poem Rokeby (1813) with a man standing on guard on the round tower of the Barnard Castle fortress.
Charles Dickens (Boz) and his illustrator Hablot Browne (Phiz) stayed at the King's Head in Barnard Castle while researching his novel Nicholas Nickleby in the winter of 1837–38. He is said to have entered William Humphrey's clock-maker's shop, then opposite the hotel, and enquired who had made a certain remarkable clock. William replied that his boy Humphrey had done it. This seems to have prompted Dickens to choose the title "Master Humphrey's Clock" for his new weekly, in which The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge appeared.
William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hilaire Belloc, Bill Bryson and the artist J. M. W. Turner have also visited the town.
In May 2020 Barnard Castle came to national attention when Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was discovered to have driven to the town with his family during the COVID-19 pandemic, while at a significant risk of having the disease himself owing to contact with the infected Prime Minister. (Cummings developed symptoms the next day.) Following media allegations that he had broken lockdown regulations by driving to the town, he told how he drove there to test his eyesight to reassure his wife that he was able to drive them back to London the next day.
Barnard Castle is for all purposes (historic, ceremonial and unitary authority) located in County Durham. Barnard Castle has a Town Council governing a civil parish. The Town Council elects a ceremonial Town Mayor annually.
It is part of the Bishop Auckland parliamentary constituency, which as of 2019 is represented in parliament by Dehenna Davison of The Conservative Party. All four Durham County Councillors whose wards (Barnard Castle East and Barnard Castle West) include part of Barnard Castle are Conservative.
The local police force is Durham Constabulary. The town is the base for the Barnard Castle division, which covers 300 square miles (780 km2). This division is within the force's south area.
Between 1894 and 1974 the town was administratively part of Barnard Castle Urban District. The administrative and ceremonial county boundary was adjusted in 1974. Barnard Castle became administrative centre of the Teesdale district of County Durham non-metropolitan county until its abolition on 1 April 2009 and the county council became the unitary authority of County Durham.
The most important employer in Barnard Castle is GSK, which has a large pharmaceutical manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the town which employs around 1,000 people. GSK has invested £80 million into the plant since 2007. Barnard Castle School follows GSK in second place, employing 183 people.
Barnard Castle has road connections to Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and central County Durham via the A688 and Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, and Middlesbrough by the A67. Barnard Castle is also four miles (6.4 km) from the A66, with access to the M6 to the west and the A1(M) to the east. The B6278 also connects Barnard Castle with Middleton-in-Teesdale. The old road bridge over the River Tees was built in 1569 and is Grade I listed.
Barnard Castle railway station was closed for passenger trains in 1964. A Bill was approved in 1854 for a line from a junction with the Stockton & Darlington Railway at Darlington to Barnard Castle and opened on 9 July 1856, with intermediate stations at Broomielaw, Winston, Gainford and Piercebridge. The terminus at Darlington only lasted five years. In 1856 the South Durham & Lancashire Railway proposed a line from Bishop Auckland to Tebay via Barnard Castle and Kirkby Stephen but only the western section was built with the Company receiving its Bill in 1857.
The line opened on 8 August 1861 from a second terminus at Barnard Castle to a junction with the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway at Tebay with intermediate stations at Lartington, Bowes, Barras, Kirkby Stephen, Ravenstondale & Gaisgill. The two stations at Barnard Castle were some distance apart; the earliest station became a through station and closed to passengers on 1 May 1862, but remained in use as a goods depot. The second station was closed for passenger trains under the Beeching cuts in 1964 and completely on 5 April 1965 and the site was eventually built on by GlaxoSmithKline.[30] Today rail access is via Bishop Auckland, or Darlington. There are two bus routes provided by Arriva North East which connect Barnard Castle to Darlington, the X75 (Via Staindrop) and X76 (Via Winston) and there is also the 79, provided by Hodgsons Coaches, which travels from Barnard Castle to Richmond.
Barnard Castle School is an independent co-educational boarding school located on the eastern edge of the town. Teesdale School is an 11–18 comprehensive school on the outskirts of the town, just off the A688.
There are three primary schools serving the town. Green Lane school is a primary school for 4–11 year olds. St Mary's is a Roman Catholic school situated on Birch Road near the church of the same name. Montalbo Primary School and Nursery is for 3-11year olds.
The Bowes Museum was purpose-built to house the collection of John and Josephine Bowes. The museum is built in the style of a French chateau, in extensive grounds, and is by far the largest building in the town. It contains paintings by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, together with a sizable collection of decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes, as well as older items from local history. It is famous for the Silver Swan automaton, which played every day at 2pm until it seized up in 2020, it is currently undergoing repairs.
The Witham Arts Centre on the Horse Market, presents a variety of events, including drama, cinema, music, spoken word and children's events as well as being the town's visitor information centre.
The Barnard Castle Meet is an annual carnival festival held on the second bank holiday weekend in May, the schools' summer half-term week. The Meet, as it is known locally, has grown from the North East Cyclists' Meet dating back to 1885, and since the early 1900s the town has staged a carnival and grand procession through the town centre on the bank holiday Monday. The weekend is now probably the largest event in the Barnard Castle and Teesdale calendar. There are around twenty separate events that the Meet Committee asserts 'reach every corner of the community'. In recent years the committee has staged its own music event showcasing local and national talent on the Sunday and Monday, with all technical and musical support from Teesdale Community Resources (TCR).
The TCR Hub is a community centre on the edge of the town with a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities.
The Barnard Castle Band, founded in 1860, is a brass band based in the town, well known outside the area as a result of the march Barnard Castle by Goff Richards.
Notable people
Anne Fine – children's writer. Twice Whitbread Prize winner
Arthur Henderson – Winner of Nobel Peace prize (1934). Former MP for Barnard Castle and first Labour cabinet minister
David Harper - BBC TV Antiques Presenter
Glenn Hugill – television presenter and producer
David Jennings – composer
Ian Usher – traveller, adventurer, writer and speaker. Sold "entire life" on eBay in 2008
Former residents
Joshua Harold Burn, 1942, Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University
Bob Chatt, footballer for Aston Villa
Siobhan Fahey, singer/songwriter from Bananarama/Shakespears Sister lived here for a short time as a child
Hannah Hauxwell, English farmer who was the subject of several television documentaries
William Hutchinson, 18th-century historian
Roderick Murchison, President of both the Royal Geological and the Royal Geographical Societies
Cyril Northcote Parkinson, writer and inventor
Henry Witham, geologist and philanthropist
What if... America declared independence in 1876?
From left to right:
British automaton
Colonial soldier
Sentient Combat Automaton specializing in close quarters brawling. Diceros Bolide is the most aggressive and savage member of the Vanguard. It uses the seismic resonators on arms and legs to cause small earthquakes, staggering targets. It's morning star fists can read and return the resonant frequency of anything they contact, enabling Bolide to rend even the toughest armor. Bolide is also equipped with a small jump jet on its back to compensate for its less agile frame. To calm it's aggressive nature, Bolide is often paired with calmer automatons such as Omen.
Build notes: Got another one of these guys. Believe it or not, this guy is nothing like the original concept that I was planning on using. He was originally going to be a ninja, then a sniper (a concept that became Omen). I came up with the idea of the resonator fists, and here we are. The resonator fist concept is something I've been wanting to do since 2016, back when I was making MRL mechs.
The actual build of this guy is just a taller variation of the frame I used on Salvo and Phantasm, though obviously the lower sections of the limbs are pretty different.
Like the other members of Vanguard, Diceros Bolide is named after an animal genus (a rhino).
I'm not sure what the significance is of the face on the sole of the shoe.
Musical Instrument Museum, more than 6,500 instruments collected from around 200 of the world’s countries and territories, March 2 2017
RAW file processed with RAW Therapee.
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The official trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has been released! Bilbo and I are so excited! You can see the trailer here!
Grade I listed historic building.
"The Bowes Museum has a nationally renowned art collection and is situated in the town of Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England.
The museum contains paintings by El Greco, Francisco Goya, Canaletto, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and François Boucher, together with a sizable collection of decorative art, ceramics, textiles, tapestries, clocks and costumes, as well as older items from local history. The early works of French glassmaker Émile Gallé were commissioned by Joséphine, wife of the founder John Bowes. A great attraction is the 18th-century Silver Swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
The Bowes Museum was purpose-built as a public art gallery for John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, Countess of Montalbo, who both died before it opened in 1892. Bowes was the son of John Bowes, the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, although he did not inherit the title as he was deemed illegitimate under Scottish law.
It was designed with the collaboration of two architects, the French architect Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson of Newcastle. The building is richly modelled, with large windows, engaged columns, projecting bays, and mansard roofs typical of the French Second Empire, set within landscaped gardens. An account in 1901 described it as "... some 500 feet in length by 50 feet high, and is designed in the French style of the First Empire. Its contents are priceless, consisting of unique Napoleon relics, splendid picture galleries, a collection of old china, not to be matched anywhere else in the world, jewels of incredible beauty and value; and, indeed, a wonderful and rare collection of art objects of every kind."
Among those with less favourable opinions was Nikolaus Pevsner, who considered it to be "... big, bold and incongruous, looking exactly like the town hall of a major provincial town in France. In scale it is just as gloriously inappropriate for the town to which it belongs (and to which it gives some international fame) as in style".
The building was begun in 1869 and was reputed to have cost £100,000 (equivalent to £9.3 million in 2019). Bowes and his wife left an endowment of £125,000 (£11.6 million in 2019) and a total of 800 paintings. Their collection of European fine and decorative arts amounted to 15,000 pieces.
A major redevelopment of the Bowes Museum began in 2005. To date, improvements have been made to visitor facilities (shop, cafe and toilets); galleries (new Fashion & Textile gallery, Silver gallery and English Interiors gallery); and study/learning facilities. The three art galleries, on the second floor of the museum, were updated at the same time.
The museum hosts an internationally significant programme of exhibitions, recently featuring works by Monet, Raphael, Turner, Sisley, Gallé, William Morris, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
The BBC announced in 2013 that a Portrait of Olivia Boteler Porter was a previously unknown Anthony van Dyck painting. It had been found in the Bowes Museum storeroom by art historian Dr. Bendor Grosvenor who had observed it on-line at the Your Paintings web site. The painting itself was covered in layers of varnish and dirt, and had not been renovated. It was originally thought to be a copy, and valued at between £3,000 to £5,000. Christopher Brown, director of the Ashmolean Museum, confirmed it was a van Dyck after it had been restored.
Barnard Castle (locally [ˈbɑːnəd ˈkæsəl], BAH-nəd KASS-əl) is a market town in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it was built. It is the main settlement in the Teesdale area, and a popular tourist destination. The Bowes Museum has the best collection of European fine and decorative arts in the North of England, housed in a magnificent 19th-century French-style chateau. Its most famous exhibit is the 18th-century Silver Swan automaton, and its artworks include paintings by Goya and El Greco.
Barnard Castle sits on the north bank of the River Tees, opposite Startforth and 21 miles (34 km) south-west of the county town of Durham. Nearby towns include Bishop Auckland to the north-east, Darlington to the east and Richmond in North Yorkshire to the south-east.
Barnard Castle's largest single employer is GlaxoSmithKline, which has a manufacturing facility on the town outskirts.
Before the Norman conquest the upper half of Teesdale had been combined into an Anglo-Norse estate which was centred upon the ancient village of Gainford and mortgaged to the Earls of Northumberland. The first Norman Bishop of Durham, Bishop Walcher, was murdered in 1080. This led to the surrounding country being attacked and laid waste by the Norman overlords. Further rebellion in 1095 caused the king William II to break up the Earldom of Northumberland into smaller baronies. The Lordship of Gainford was given to Guy de Balliol.
The earthwork fortifications of the castle were rebuilt in stone by his successor, Bernard de Balliol I during the latter half of the 12th century, giving rise to the town's name. The castle passed down through the Balliol family (of which the Scottish king, John Balliol, was the most important member) and then into the possession of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. King Richard III inherited it through his wife, Anne Neville, but it fell into ruins in the century after his death.
The remains of the castle are a Grade I listed building, whilst the chapel in the outer ward is Grade II* listed. Both sets of remains are now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.
John Bowes lived at nearby Streatlam Castle (now demolished). His Streatlam stud never had more than ten breeding mares at one time, but produced no fewer than four Derby winners in twenty years. The last of these, "West Australian", was the first racehorse to win the Triple Crown, in 1853.
Bowes and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier founded the Bowes Museum, which is of national status. Housed in its own ornate building, the museum contains an El Greco, paintings by Goya, Canaletto, Boucher, Fragonard and a collection of decorative art. A great attraction is the 18th century silver swan automaton, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.
Although never a major manufacturing centre, in the 18th century industry centred on hand loom wool weaving, and in the early 19th century the principal industry was spinning and the manufacture of shoe thread." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.
Vintage Paper automation. „Les Forgerons“ (The blacksmiths)
This over 100-year-old model was made in France, Nancy, after 1919. Size 29.5 x 40 7cm² (11.6 x 16.0 in²). For the assembly, a second template was printed mirrored for the back.
taken by my daughter
"A mechanical automaton, made in about 1773 in the workshop of James Cox of London, a silversmith and dealer. The automaton was recorded as being displayed in Cox’s Mechanical Museum in 1774. In a performance accompanied by music, lasting about 30 seconds, the Swan appears to preen itself, then bend its neck to take a fish out of the water. The automaton comprises three clockwork mechanisms, all working simultaneously to produce the remarkable movement. So lifelike is the result produced by the head and neck mechanism, that it is thought that the celebrated eighteenth century inventor, John Joseph Merlin, was responsible for this part, while apprentices and ordinary craftsmen worked on the rest of the automaton. The Swan was exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867 and bought by John Bowes in 1872 for his Museum." museum website.
A 1928 demonstration in London of a crude robot. The initials R.U.R refer to Karl Čapek's 1920 play, "Rossum's Universal Robots"
The term 'robot' was first used to denote fictional automata in a 1921 play R.U.R. by the Czech writer, Karel Čapek. Word 'robot' is of a Czech origin. Karel Čapek himself did not coin the word. He named his brother, the painter and writer Josef Čapek, as its actual originator.
He explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures laboři ("workers", from Latin labor). However, he did not like the word, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested "roboti". The word robota means literally "corvée", "serf labor", and figuratively "drudgery" or "hard work" in Czech. Traditionally the robota (Hungarian robot) was the work period a serf (corvée) had to give for his lord, typically 6 months of the year. The origin of the word is the Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) rabota "servitude" ("work" in contemporary Bulgarian and Russian), which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *orbh-. Robot is cognate with the German root Arbeit (work).
In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London. Invented by W. H. Richards, the robot Eric's frame consisted of an aluminium body of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a twelve-volt power source. The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled through remote control or voice control.
On a website by Flickr with photos of antique drawings by sharonstudiof, I found the templates (2 sheets) for this simple antique paper model. Unfortunately, one side with the design of the box was missing. I tried to reconstruct it to get a working model. It consists of the box with a background picture, a middle section with the seesaw and ropes and the facade with two bell ringers. The bell ringer is moved by pushing and pulling the seesaw.