Nik's Pixels

“The passion for automatic exhibitions which characterised the eighteenth century gave rise to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and introduced among the higher order of artists habits of nice and neat execution in the formation of the most delicate pieces of machinery. Those wheels and pinions, which almost eluded our senses by their minuteness, reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our spinning-machines and our steam-engines. Those mechanical wonders which in one century enriched only the conjuror who used them, contributed in another to augment the wealth of the nation; and those automatic toys which once amused the vulgar, are now employed in extending the power and promoting the civilization of our species.” — David Brewster