The Clockwork Princess

11 The automata museum

'Look' said the Princess pointing at a sign near the grand entrance to the train station. There in a jumble of signs was one with 'the blind watchmakers museum this way' written on it. 

It wasn't far before they saw a very strange looking building.

'That must be the most swirliest building I have ever seen in my entire life' said the Princess, which was true. It was the most swirly woorly building you could imagine. Even the rat could't think how a building that big could stand up. 

 They got closer and saw the large sign 'Visit the museum of automata. Largest museum of automata in the world and the most successful shop of automata in Manchester and a nice cafe too'

There was quite a crowd of people walking into and out of huge stone doors of the museum. They went into a massive entrance hall. They were surrounded by a grand of archways leading off in all directions, but which to take?

'Hello' said a happy voice behind them. The Princess turned to see two beautiful young women in long matching purple dresses. The talkative one  smiled and had yellow hair with a black hair band.

'My name is Coppélia this is Olympia' said the young woman.

The Princess looked around and noticed that other girls had matching dresses like these two. There were young men also in similar colours. The Princess realised they must all work here.

'Would you like a tour of the museum of automata' they offered together.

'Yes' said the Princess not sure were to go.

The two beautiful young women took the friends off and began to talk about the exhibits. The friends walked through what seemed like the largest sea of glass cabinets they had ever imagined.

'All the exhibits work' said Coppélia

'You can stop and play with any of them when ever you like. Just turn the handle' she said.

Flying boy had already stopped to turn the handle on one a case. While he did a mechanical duck inside walked and quacked. Flying boy smiled.

As they moved through the museum things became bigger. The museum was full of all kinds of strange clockwork. A clock work doll that could play a tiny piano. An angel that turned to the sun. A tiny clock work coach complete with four horses, a driver and a lady inside all who moved perfectly. Another was a flute player who played flawlessly. Later they passed other machines, a wooden wardrobe for clothes that could walk and dance. A tiny mechanical man who could make sketches of people.

They walked onto a huge glass floor.

'Down there ' began Coppélia pointing beneath there feet 'you can see the automata being made'

They all looked down to their feet like their toes were growing. Below them huge machines made from hundreds of arms moving very quickly worked below. Massive vats of cogs feed the hands with parts needed to build things. In front of each machine was a bench. On each bench was full of slowly growing clockwork machines.

'How do the arm-machines know what to build?' said the rat amazed by everything.

'Each machine has a template recoded as holes on paper tape. Each dot tells one arm to move or grab or let go' said Coppélia.

'We call the tape direction and assembly tape or D and A tape. This is fed into the arm machine. Look here is a sample' said Olympia as she stopped to pick up some long thing white paper tape filled with holes.

'Over here is this the famed replicate and assemble machine?' said rat excitedly.

'Yes, before going into each building machine each tape is copied. The copy D and A machines do make mistakes sometimes. Each clock work has a copy of its D and A tape within in it' Coppélia said.

While she continued the quantum cat had run off. He wanted talk to all the King's horses and all the King's men. The cat thought he might explain what happened but was in two minds about it. While he did one version of himself had found a clockwork rat under a glass case and began to chase it. In the end twenty different versions of him self chased the mechanical rat. Finally the cat jumped onto the mechanical rat like a miniature flock of tigers landing on a single very surprised looking miniature grey sheep.

'there you go Mr Rodent Scholar rat!' said the quantum mechanical cat as he dug his claws into the clockwork rat. There was a small explosion of cogs and springs as the cat pulled the grey mechanical rat apart. Suddenly the cat who had both been looking up stairs and down while also killing the rat froze as he solidified at one point. He knew this feeling well. It meant that someone was looking at him. Quickly the cat looked around only to see his triumph was being carefully watched by a large clockwork dog.

'Can we see the Blind watchmaker?' the princess asked later on.

'Certainly, this way' said Olympia.

The two girls came together and walked off. The Princess and the flying boy started follow the two girls. As the girls walked their long black dresses made a swishing sound. It was like the happy swishing of the waves at the seaside. Flying boy pointed at the backs of the girls.

'Look' he signed to the Princess.

The Princess noticed a box at the girl's backs at waist level.

'What is it?' said signed the Princess to flying boy.

'Clockwork key hole' signed the Flying boy.

'No' the Princess signed in surprise

'Are you made of clockwork? Are you mechanicals?' the Princess asked out aloud. They walked so naturally and while perfect seemed very real.

'Of cause we are' said the girls with a giggle.

The girls led them to a cast iron cage and pulled a door open. They all walked inside and then Olympia pulled a shiny brass handle. A strong chain began to pull the cage up. The rat was shocked and let out a tiny screech of horror. Olympia smiled.

'Don't worry this is a moving room. With it we can go from one floor to another all by a twist of a dial. The age of the stair case is over!'

The friends looked out as floor after floor passed them by. Each floor was filled with the another army of glass cabinets like the ones they had left.

The finally reached the highest gallery.

Olympia got out and began to talk

' The blind watchmaker was blind from birth. He was the son of one of the greatest watchmakers in Manchester. As a boy he found him self unable to work like other watchmakers. So he invented a new method.He would put parts of watches together randomly until they worked. When he made something that someone liked repeated his actions exactly again to make another. Sometimes he would make a mistake. Generally they failed but sometimes they would work better and he would repeat the mistake until he made something better. Then he had built a duplication machine also made of clockwork and his success began.

'When we going to meet the blind watchmaker himself?' the princess asked.

Olympia and Coppélia smiled.

'Oh I am terribly sorry, no one meets the maker with out his express invitation. We are going to the gallery about him'

'I think he will want to see me' said the princess.

'Why?' Olympia and Coppélia asked together

The princess turned round and undid the back of her riding shirt to reveal the clockwork keyhole in the small of her back.

'Ohh' Olympia and Coppélia said together again. 'They looked at each other and smiled.

'The maker will certainly want to talk to her' they said.