Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams (2013)

　　Excellent one hour documentary narrated by Professor Simon Schaffer which explores the fascinating and rarely told story of automata, those intricate clockwork devices built hundreds of years ago with the intent to mimic and recreate life. Of particular interest are Jaquet-Droz's 'The Writer' (1774) and Merlin's 'The Silver Swan' (1773) which beautifully illustrate the degree of technical mechanical sophistication achieved by artisans over 240 years ago. There is also a funny aside: the record Prof. Schaffer places on the turntable at the end (columbia LX466, 1935 impression) is the Beethoven String Sonata Opus 132 and not the Symphony 7 so BBC used any old record and overlaid the sound track.<br /> 　　译文(3): 西蒙·谢弗教授讲述了一个小时的精彩纪录片，探讨了自动机的迷人而鲜为人知的故事，自动机是数百年前建造的复杂的钟表装置，旨在模仿和重现生命。特别令人感兴趣的是Jaquet Droz的《作家》（1774年）和Merlin的《银天鹅》（1773年），它们完美地展示了240多年前工匠们所达到的技术机械复杂程度。还有一个有趣的旁白：谢弗教授最后放在转盘上的唱片（columbia LX466，1935印象）是贝多芬弦乐奏鸣曲Opus 132，而不是第七交响曲，所以英国广播公司使用了任何旧唱片并覆盖了音轨。