SH Archive 1851 machine: what is it?

[KD Archive]

Ok, I'm not sure whether we have an allegorical description of a body, or the description belongs to some unknown type of machinery. Please take a look and provide your opinion.

• What "organ" and what "looking-glass" are they talking about?
• 1851 source

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P.S. The book was published in 1851. Essentially whatever year this machine was made in is unknown.

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[Archive]

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Username: Banta
Date: 2019-10-07 21:57:17
Reaction Score: 1

Most of it reads like a real, if not fantastical, description of an actual machine. The odd capitalization of the greatest Machinist is interesting though. Could be making a comparison to God/the Creator, but the rest of the passage doesn't agree with that, as it makes it clear this was the Inventor's greatest creation. To me, I'm thinking the Machinist was a member of a now extinct race, which is why we will never see anything like this again, as the author claims.

Really though, it sounds a bit like nonsense, or maybe rather a fictionalized account of something that the author had heard about.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2019-10-07 22:11:45
Reaction Score: 2

Sounds like a Dr Seuss contraption. An instrument you also ride around.
Now all it needs is a monkey!

 

[JWW427]

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Username: JWW427
Date: 2019-10-07 22:26:44
Reaction Score: 3

It mentions the Croton Aqueduct, a mystery construction we have covered here on SH.
Very unusual description. Combine some tech we know, then some we don't.
Hmm...

 

[Archive]

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Username: Ghostwave
Date: 2019-10-08 02:55:05
Reaction Score: 9

It sounds like, to me, a fanciful description of the human "machine":

1) "it is the machine which iron is dug out of the earth": we mine iron to build things
2) "is the father of the steam engine": humans invented the steam engine
3) "all were made by the machine I speak of": all those things constructed by humans
4) "greatest Machinist": God, particularly with the capital "M"
5) "can move in any direction": we can move in any direction on a plane
6) "cords, hinges, and levers": muscles, joints, and ligaments
7) "it can be made to float on the surface and even cross a stream": we can swim....
8) "cross rivers without wetting a particle": ....or build a boat
9) "looking glass": eyes
10) "drum": eardrum
11) "I do myself": the biggest clue, the author is saying they enjoy listening to things as well
12) "organ by which the owner sometimes makes known his wants": the mouth (and language)

There may be other little details I missed, but that's how it reads to me. A Victorian era uber-robot does sound really cool though.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-08 02:58:12
Reaction Score: 1

It sounds like, to me, a fanciful description of the human "machine"

Yup, that is the official version mentioned in the OP. It's just it's... too fanciful.

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-08 06:52:44
Reaction Score: 2

Go to page 173 at that google books link and you get this.

 

[Timeshifter]

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Username: Timeshifter
Date: 2019-10-08 07:10:06
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Perhaps it is describing a Human, and the looking glass is the mid/ eyes. However, it could also be the AI human, the Robot. And made by a God of some sort.

 

[KD Archive]

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Username: KorbenDallas
Date: 2019-10-08 07:18:37
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Perhaps it is describing a Human, and the looking glass is the mid/ eyes. However, it could also be the AI human, the Robot. And made by a God of some sort.

For me it’s the chosen way to relay the info... The double meaning and the perceived knowledge possessed by whoever came up with the description.

 

[Timeshifter]

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Username: Timeshifter
Date: 2019-10-08 07:25:34
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It does seem a bit 'easy' and obvious for it to be describing a human, maybe that is what they want us to think, whilst it is actually describing something else entirely?

 

[Archive]

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Username: jd755
Date: 2019-10-08 07:41:16
Reaction Score: 2

It's only a shot in the dark as it's all contemporary work with the article page quoted in the op but I'd lay odds GL Demarest, the author of that spelling lesson, was 'a Christian' or what is often termed 'bible basher' in these parts in the lesson he is preaching by the back door. He is referring not to the works of man but to the glory of Lord God in that spelling lesson aka subversive preaching to me always to me.
From here;
UniversalistChurch.net » Universalist hymnals - About Christian hope in the final restoration of all souls, and those that believe it

* A Year of Worship for Sunday School and Homes, by G. L. Demarest. 53 orders of service with other materiel and 167 hymns with tunes. Boston: Universalist Publishing House, 1899.

From here;
https://www.merrycoz.org/bib/1860.xhtml
The Young Christian ; Jan 1851-1859 edited by: Jan 1851-1855, G. L. Demarest
• 1856, Rev. H. R. Nye
• 1857-1859, H. R. Nye & G. L. Demerast

published: New York, New York: B. B. Hallock, Jan 1851-1859.
• Cincinnati, Ohio: N.p., Jan 1851-1859.