The Silver Swan

While we do have swans in the Irondequoit Bay, it would be a dramatic stretch to connect an 18th century automatonic swan to Webster in any way….but as its really cool, so we thought we’d share it here.

Created in 1773 by John Joseph Merlin (1735–1803) and James Cox (1723–1800), the silver swan has been located at the Bowes Museum in Teesdale, England since 1892. When an internal clockwork mechanism is wound, a music box plays, glass rods rotate giving the illusion of flowing water, and the silver swan turns its head from side to side.

The Silver Swan | John Merlin

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