Rural ladies’ lesson in automatons
An exciting extravaganza of automatons was the subject of a display and demonstration at the February meeting of Bellochantuy Scottish Women’s Institute (SWI).
Andrew Hemmings explained to the ladies that an automaton is basically a mechanical device operating under its own hidden power.
Today’s generation may recognise the relationship with robots which are programmed to perform certain tasks but, as the Bellochantuy group learned, these early examples do not rely on modern day technology but with the finely balanced unseen power of yesteryear. ‘Andrew has an amazing collection of many types of
automatons, all of which he has built himself,’ said a group spokesperson. ‘And despite today’s sophisticated examples, the sheer pleasure of seeing these characters in operation, together with Andrew’s description of how they work, was obvious from the fun that we all had watching their antics.’ After the presentation, a vote of thanks was given by Jill Lines and this was followed by SWI business.
There will be no meeting in March as all West Kintyre SWI groups are holding a combined bulb show, which will include crafts, baking, literature, photography and design. This joint show is being hosted by Whitehouse SWI and the ladies of Bellochantuy are looking forward to meeting friends from the other groups.